Balan Wonderworld Director Yuji Naka Filed Lawsuit Against Square Enix, Reveals He Was Removed Before Its Release

gameinformer.com:

Balan Wonderworld was a disappointing game for most, especially for a game from Yuji Naka, the creator of Sonic the Hedgehog. 

Now, Naka has taken to Twitter to reveal that not only was he removed as the director of Balan Wonderworld about half a year before its release in March of 2021, but that he has also filed a lawsuit against the game’s publisher, Square Enix, for doing so. He says now that proceedings are over and he’s no longer bound by company rules, he’s speaking out about what happened to him, as translated by Twitter user Cheesemeister3K. 

“I was removed as the director of Balan Wonderworld about half a year before release, so I filed a lawsuit against Square Enix. Now that the proceedings are over and I’m no longer bound by company rules, I’d like to speak out.” <a href=«https://twitter.com/hashtag/BalanWonderworld?src=hash&ref_src=» https: www.gameinformer.com>#BalanWonderworld

https://t.co/Ht0Zc9soBa

“I think it’s wrong of Square Enix not to value games and game fans,” Naka writes on Twitter, according to Cheesemeister’s translation. “According to court documents, I was removed as the director of Balan Wonderworld for two reasons. It was done by the producer, head of marketing, head of sound, managing director, and HR. First, when a YouTuber’s arranged piano performance of the game music was released in a promotion instead of the original game track, turning the composer into a ghostwriter, I insisted that the original track be released and this caused trouble.

“Second, according to court documents, [Naoto] Ohshima told producer [Noriyoshi] Fujimoto that the relationship with Arzest was ruined due to comments I made wanting to improve the game in the face of Arzest submitting the game without fixing bugs.