Yuji Naka had his first day in court today, but he may not have to appear many more times. Yuji Naka, creator of Sonic and Balan Wonderworld, appears to have pleaded guilty in an insider trading case (opens in new tab) filed last year involving his ownership of $1 million and $20,000 worth of stock in Ateam and Aiming Inc, respectively. The two companies were mobile developers, working with Square Enix to develop iOS and Android games based on its properties: Ateam developed "Final Fantasy 7: First Soldier" and Aiming developed "Dragon Quest Tact"

Zhong is accused of using his insider knowledge of Square Enix to put himself in a very lucrative position: he purchased shares before the alliance was announced and took advantage of the inevitable price increase when the alliance was finally announced, allegedly making a profit of approximately $146,000. In a typical insider trading transaction, the company purchased the stock before the tie-up was announced. Typical insider trading, and he does not appear to deny it.

As reported by NHK (opens in new tab) (via TimeExtension (opens in new tab)), Zhong told the court, "There is no doubt that I knew the facts about the game before they were made public and bought shares." Given that the conviction rate in Japanese criminal trials (opens in new tab) is 99.9%, Naka's best bet would be to cooperate and receive more lenient treatment.

For Zhong, the past few years have not been good. Not only was he arrested twice last year for his shares in Aiming Inc. and ATeam, but the whimsical 3D platformer Balan Wonderworld (which received negative reviews (open in new tab) when it was released), for which he was project director before being dismissed by Square Enix ), the drama surrounding the project has continued unabated.

Naka accused Square Enix of being a "no-good (open in new tab)" company that "doesn't care (open in new tab) about games and game fans" and edited his former partner at Sonic, Naoto Oshima, out of publicly shared photos in a move as petty as it was bizarre. Mr. Naka appears to be a difficult person to work with.