Reason why I am posting this is I see a lot of people talking about Aruze Gaming when talking about Shadow Hearts. From what I see/understand Aruze Gaming does not own the ip and has 0 control over Shadow Hearts.
So I decided to post some information about Aruze Gaming, Universal Entertainment and Okada.
Rather than going into full blown details I want to just highlight the key points.
Mainly demonstrating that Aruze Gaming does not have anything to do with Shadow Hearts and that the working relationship with Universal may not be so good anymore.
Following important parts are highlighted in black.
Aruze gaming was a subsidiary of Universal Entertainment.
Universal Entertainment was formerly known as Aruze Corporation (renamed in 2009)
Also in 2009 Aruze Gaming was sold to Kazuo Okada (at the time was ceo/chairman of Universal Entertainment).
Then to more recently, in 2017 Okada was dismissed from Universal Entertainment.
Okada is/was messy situations with the likes of Wynn resorts (whom he half funded / co-founder) from 2008 onwards up till 2018. Mainly due to the allegations against Okada then being ousted from them. After that it was all pretty much due to control etc... Which was messy also because Universal owned a part of Wynn Resorts. Wynn dropped all claims against Okada.
And even in Universal Entertainment parent company Okada Holdings in Hong Kong.
His own family voted him out of that company as well but later Kazuo Okada managed to get support back from his daughter which was enough to get him back in as director.
And she is on the board of directors for Aruze Gaming.
Okada holdings own two thirds of Universal Entertainment.
In 2018 Universal Entertainment sued Aruze Gaming over patents apparently due to all the drama with Okada. Which indicates it may not be all it seems. They seemed to had a working relationship with Universal Entertainment but with the whole situation with Okada it puts Aruze Gaming at risk with the licenses.
In 2019
Kazuo has sued his own estranged wife and son over the removal of him from Tiger Resort.
Interestingly enough there is still an arrest warrant active for Kazuo in the Philippines.
He was earlier cleared of fraud in Hong Kong but not yet elsewhere (where Okada Holdings is situated).
In 2020, Kazuo Okada was ordered by Japanese Court to pay Universal Entertainment money.
From my understanding it is still ongoing with Okada fighting back for control of Universal Entertainment.
But more importantly for us fans of the Shadow Hearts series is that Aruze Gaming do not own the rights nor have control. Universal Entertainment does.
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