Yuji Naka, the co-creator of Sonic the Hedgehog, has made his return to game development by updating his near decade-old mobile game “Pirates of Coin.” This marks his first public project since receiving a suspended prison sentence for insider trading.
The veteran developer announced his return on X offering an update on his coin-pushing mobile game, which was originally released in 2016 through his company PROPE. Naka mentioned that the game was initially built using Unity 5, and he has now updated it to a newer version, transitioning from JavaScript to C# and addressing various obsolete elements.
Pirates of Coin, despite Naka’s claims of it being “the definitive version of the pusher-type coin game,” has struggled to find a significant audience, with download numbers hovering around 10,000. The game puts a unique spin on the coin-pusher genre by transforming coins into pirates that players can use to battle enemies.
This return to game development follows a turbulent period in Naka’s career. The Sonic co-creator faced legal consequences two years ago, receiving a four-year suspended prison sentence and a fine exceeding $1 million for insider trading. His only public appearance since then involved a controversy where he accused Dragon Quest lead Yu Miyake of providing false testimony in court.
Prior to his legal troubles, Naka’s last major project was the troubled development of Balan Wonderworld at Square Enix. After joining the company in 2018 and forming Balan Company, he was removed from the project six months before its release and subsequently left Square Enix in 2021. Throughout this period, he maintained his position as the sole employee of his original studio, PROPE.
Between major projects, Naka released Shot2048 in 2021, a dice-rolling puzzle game that received positive reviews but limited attention. PROPE’s last significant release before that was Kizumon in 2017.
