Yuji Naka, best known as the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, says he was removed as director of Balan Wonderworld six months before its launch by Square Enix.
The revelation comes from a Twitter thread posted by Yuji where states he filed a lawsuit against Square Enix following his dismissal, which has now been settled.
Last year, Yuji left Square Enix following the disastrous launch of Balan Wonderworld, which sold less than 2100 copies in its opening week in Japan.
BALAN WONDERWORLD | A Hero Or Two | Available Now Watch on YouTube
At the time, Yuji said he could not explain the reason behind his departure, which we know now was due to the ongoing lawsuit.
The most damning accusation made in the thread is that Square Enix and Arzest (the game’s co-developer) both knew the game was unfinished before deciding to launch anyway.
From a rough translation from Japanese, Yuji said “Square Enix is no good if they don’t care about games and game fans.”
バランワンダーワールド発売の約半年前にバランワンダーワールドのディレクターから外される業務命令が出されましたので、スクウェアエニックスに対して裁判所で訴訟を提起していました。裁判が終わり業務命令が現時点で効力は失われていると言う事ですので、お話したいと思います。#BalanWonderworld pic.twitter.com/9KE7hLqfor
— Yuji Naka / 中 裕司 (@nakayuji) April 28, 2022
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“The other thing is that the court documents say that Oshima talked to producer Fujimoto about what I said about Arzest submitting the game without fixing it even though there were glitches during development, and that my relationship with Arzest was breaking down because of my comments to improve the game.”