In a tweet thread today, programmer of Sonic the Hedgehog, Yuji Naka, shared that a court case recently concluded where he sued Square Enix, publisher of Balan Wonderworld, after they removed him as director just six months before the launch of the game.
In a Twitter thread, written entirely in Japanese, Naka shares multiple issues he had while working with Square Enix and developing Balan Wonderworld. These include conflict over publishing the original music compositions, bugs present during development, and the final state of the game, which Naka describes as being in an “unfinished state.” Thanks to Twitter user Cheesemeister3k for a translation of Yuji Naka’s thread.
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Balan Wonderworld launched in March 2021 to a mix of average-to-negative reviews, with Metacritic scores ranged from as low as 36 for the Nintendo Switch version of the game, and as high as 51 for the PS5 version. Balan Wonderworld was criticised for a variety of issues, and was not even mentioned in Square Enix’s financial report from May 2021 following confirmation that the game sold fewer than 2,100 copies in Japan during its opening week.
“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.” #BalanWonderworld https://t.co/Ht0Zc9soBa
— Cheesemeister 😷💉💉💉 (@Cheesemeister3k) April 28, 2022
Yuji Naka’s court case saw Square Enix’s work order nullified and he is no longer bound by Square Enix’s rules placed on employees and partners, but it’s too late to save Balan Wonderworld‘s main game. Naka also states that Square Enix doesn’t “value games and game fans.”
Another interesting fact from the thread is that the relationship with Arzest, the game’s developer, was “ruined” after Yuji Naka commented on bugs that required fixing before releasing.
One of Naka’s tweets reads: “Retweeting, liking, etc. on SNS and such was banned, so I don’t think Square Enix values game fans. There were many comments and wonderful illustrations about Balan Wonderworld, and I’m really sorry that I couldn’t react to them.
“Myself, I’m truly sorry to the customers who bought Balan Wonderworld in an unfinished state. From this point onward, I will be able to react to posts tagging me or directed only toward me on SNS and such.”
Naka solely programmed and published a smartphone game in late 2021 called Shot2048 after Naka’s studio, Prope, was downsized to a single-person company in 2017. What Yuji Naka might do next is uncertain, but he’s now free to speak out on the development of Balan Wonderworld and the fan reception.
Written by Dave Aubrey on behalf of GLHF.
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