A former employee of Final Fantasy publisher Square Enix has been arrested and accused of insider trading.
38-year-old Taisuke Sazaki, whose video game credits include work on numerous Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts titles, allegedly bought shares in Japanese development company Aiming shortly before Square Enix publicly announced the studio was working on a new Dragon Quest mobile title.
Nippon reports that Sazaki acquired shares worth 20.8m yen (around £125k) between December 2019 and February 2020, after allegedly hearing details of Aimings project.
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A friend of Sazaki, 40-year-old Fumiaki Suzuki, reportedly acquired 26.4m yens worth of shares (£159k) around the same time.
Square Enix formally announced Dragon Quest Tact, a free-to-play tactical role-playing game for iPhone and Android devices in February 2020. The game then launched in Japan that July.
Both men were arrested today by the Tokyo District Public Prosecutors Offices special investigation squad. Well keep you updated as the case unfolds.
Earlier today, Square Enix announced more details of its upcoming Crisis Core Final Fantasy 7 Remaster, which it is developing itself.