Yuji Naka, creator Sonic the Hedgehogshared Square Enix remove him from the directorship Balan Wonderland Six months before the game’s launch.
Naka shared the news on his own Twitter account, where he also detailed the fact that he filed a lawsuit against Square Enix, and with the lawsuit now over, he was able to share all of it (by Cheesemesiter3K). The well-known developer noted that he believes that “Square Enix is wrong to not take games and game fans seriously”.
Continuing on the topic, Naka wrote that, according to court documents, he was removed for two reasons. “First, turning the composer into a ghostwriter when a YouTuber’s arranged piano performance was released in a promotion instead of the original game track, and my insistence on releasing the original track caused trouble,” Naka wrote.
Following this, Naka explained that the second reason was because of his comment that he “wanted to improve the game without fixing bugs in Arzest’s submission”.
Naka also noted that the decision to remove him was made by the producer, head of marketing, head of sound, general manager, and human resources. In addition to that, he is apparently not allowed to retweet or like posts related to Balan Wonderworld and apologizes for not being able to do so.
“Myself, I’m really sorry for those customers who purchased Balan Wonderworld in an unfinished state,” Naka continued. “From now on, I’ll be able to react to posts that tag me on SNS etc. or just me.”
“About half a year before its release, I was relieved of my directorship of Baran Fantastic World, so I filed a lawsuit against Square Enix. Now that the proceedings are over and I am no longer bound by the company’s rules, I would like to say it out loud come out.” #BalanWonderworld
https://t.co/Ht0Zc9soBa— Cheesemeister 😷💉💉💉 (@Cheesemeister3k) April 28, 2022
Naka concluded the thread by stating that he believed the reception to Balan Wonderworld, in general, was poor, which had a lot to do with the events he described. “I’m really disappointed that a product I’ve been working on from the beginning has turned out to be this way.”
“Personally I regret that Baran Fantastic was released to the world in an unfinished state. I wanted to think about various things and release it as a proper action game. I don’t think Square Enix and Arzest Valuing games and their fans.”
Naka did not disclose the outcome of the lawsuit, other than to say that it has now been settled and he was allowed to talk about the situation.
While reports about how Western game development studios treat their employees have increased in recent years, that has not been the case for Japanese development studios, likely due in large part to language barriers. It’s a rare direct insight into working at a large Japanese studio, and it doesn’t paint a particularly good picture, though not surprisingly.