The Tokyo police arrested a man a few days ago who sent an email with death threats to the employees of Square Enix. The reason was bad luck in gaming.
What happened at Square Enix? At the beginning of February, an email with disturbing content was received by the Japanese gaming company.
It stated: “Employees of Square Enix! Tomorrow I will kill you! Wash your necks and wait!” With this, he indicated that he would behead the employees.
To protect the employees, Square subsequently took new security measures in the company building and alerted the Tokyo police.
The sender of the email was finally arrested on March 29.
Why was the threat email sent? After his arrest, the man appeared remorseful. He told the police:
I spent 200,000 yen (almost €1,600) on their game and couldn’t get the item I wanted.
Which game exactly he played is unclear, but it is likely a free-to-play game with gacha elements. Gacha games are essentially the Asian version of loot boxes.
Since September last year, more than 30 such threat emails have been received by Square Enix. The senders of these emails are still being sought.
The man is said to be a 25-year-old employee of a nursing home.
Death threats are common in the industry: Unfortunately, it is now not unusual for gaming developers to receive death threats about their games.
- The announcement of FFXIII on the Xbox 360 in Japan resulted in insults and death threats against then-president of SE, Yoichi Wada, on Twitter.
- For former Infinity Ward employee Robert Bowling, the threats escalated to the point where he received suspicious packages delivered to his home.
- Jennifer Hepler, Narrative Designer for Dragon Age 1 and 2, received not only death threats against herself but also against her children and other family members.
The list of such cases goes on endlessly. But at least one of these individuals can cool his head at the police for now.
