Yuji Naka has had a long career working at some of the biggest companies within the industry. Most recently, the man known for his work on Sonic the Hedgehog and Nights into Dreams was tasked with developing a new series for Square Enix.
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
In a series of tweets from Naka, the man behind Balan Wonderworld, one of the worst-reviewed games in recent memory, revealed his side of what happened when Naka left Square Enix.
First, the game Square Enix and co-developer Arzest released was unfinished, Naka says. “About six months before the launch of Balan Wonderworld, a work order was issued removing me as director of Balan Wonderworld, so I filed a court action against Square Enix. I would like to tell you that the court case is over and the work order is no longer in force at the moment.”
Naka continues, “Square Enix is no good and doesn’t care about games and game fans.
According to court documents, I was removed as director of Balan Wonderworld for two reasons. This was carried out by the producer, the publicist, the sound director, the director of the board and the human resources department.”
“The first was that a YouTuber was going to play the piano and publish the score for the game’s promotion. I thought it was strange that only an arrangement would be released and now the game’s music, leading to a ghostwriting credit for the arrangement. I got into trouble for arguing that we release the original score.”
“The other thing is that the court documents say that Oshima spoke to producer Fujimoto about what I said about Arzest submitting the game without fixing it despite the fact that there were glitches during development, and that my relationship with Arzest was breaking down because of my comments to make the game better.”
Close to Balan Wonderworld’s launch, Naka was let go and was forbidden from interacting with fans on Twitter, liking or retweeting fan art and Naka took the time to apologize that Square Enix wouldn’t let him interact with fans during this time.
“For my part, I would like to offer my sincere apologies to those customers who bought the unfinished Balan Wonderworld.”
