Keiji Inafune departs Capcom.

[Specineff]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2010- ... its-capcom

Doubt his personal life is the actual reason. Will he go the way of Yuji Naka, Sakaguchi and Tomonobu Itagaki? Or just quietly ride into the sunset?

[Tylerxuppercut]

I kinda saw it coming but it still saddens me deeply to see him go

[dcharlie]

absolutely thrilled to see him leave - seems there's a lot of noise coming out of this and -just maybe- the Japanese industry is going to shake itself up and wake up.

[Jockel]

Probably because his companion design for Megaman Legends 3 was voted last place by the fans.

[neorichieb1971]

I know nothing about this guy but it seems some are happy and some are sad.

[EPS21]

The games he worked with undeniably had great appeal to both sides of the world (some more than others) but glad to see his hard on for "superior western developers" leave Capcom.

[dcharlie]

but glad to see his hard on for "superior western developers" leave Capcom.

go on, i'm curious - why?
Capcom aren't going to get any better without him. This whole Weeaboo shit is painfully funny.

also did anyone actually bother to read what he had to say???

[Ruldra]

For those of us who can't read japanese, here's a "summed-up" version of Inafune's interview:

http://mmls.proboards.com/index.cgi?act ... ge=2#57252

[Jonathan Ingram]

Awesome news. It`s a little too late though; the damage`s been done already.

[UnscathedFlyingObject]

Capcom is just bleeding talent nowdays. They got rid of the Platinum guys, which basically did their best action games back then and now Inafune. I wish Capcom good luck trying to best the likes of El Shaddai, Vanquish, Bayonetta, Shadows of the Damned (with Mikami, Suda 51, and Akira Yamaoka at the helm) and others created by their former top talent.

[Jonathan Ingram]

^
It`s thanks to Inafune that they lost the Platinum guys in the first place.

[Obiwanshinobi]

I hope his real reason was that he didn't want to make 30 fps games anymore.

They got rid of the Platinum guys, which basically did their best action games back then and now Inafune.

I don't believe they actually fired Studio Clover people. Rather Studio Clover people wanted to leave after Capcom disbanded the team. If I'm right about that, "got rid" would be a stretch.
Possibly they didn't want to make 60 fps games anymore, as MadWorld and Vanquish indicate.

[Jonathan Ingram]

I hope his real reason was that he didn't want to make 30 fps games anymore.

Not sure if serious.

Possibly they didn't want to make 60 fps games anymore, as MadWorld and Vanquish indicate.

Okami was 30fps. And I`m sure Viewtiful Joe wasn`t 60fps either. Again, what does this have to do with anything? People don`t join or quit companies because of some stupid "fps" BS.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Okami was 30fps.

I'm pretty sure it was, at least in places, more than 30 fps. In other places I could very well be even less than 30, but seems to me that they at least tried to make it 60 fps.

Again, what does this have to do with anything? People don`t join or quit companies because of some stupid "fps" BS.

U-huh, people also don't burst into tears of rage because of things they don't give a damn about.

[louisg]

I hope his real reason was that he didn't want to make 30 fps games anymore.

Nah, I heard he quit because they wouldn't make the next Megaman in tate

[E. Randy Dupre]

I hope his real reason was that he didn't want to make 30 fps games anymore.

Seriously man, just let it go. Everybody's heard it already.

What gets me about the reaction to this is the people celebrating, claiming that he's somehow helped destroy Capcom and the company's franchises through the decisions he's made. Did it ever occur to anybody that the teams Capcom went to for Bionic Commando, the Devil May Cry reboot, Dark Void, etc, weren't Inafune's choices?

It's entirely possible that senior Capcom managers heard him going on about their games needing to appeal more to western audiences, so said, fine, okay, you want western devs working on these games? We'll let you use these people and hire them for this amount of money. The people selected *not* being decided by Inafune, but Inafune being the bloke who had to try and wrestle something good out of them.

I really doubt he had carte blanche over some of these decisions - compare how well Dead Rising 2 turned out compared to something like the BC reboot, for example.

[ShmupSamurai]

WHAT

Oh, that's just *too vulgur for this board censored* Capcom.
Well, I guess now I can't look foward to any new Megaman games.

Geez, how many people are you going to lose next time?

[Tylerxuppercut]

seriosuly! Im just worried about the blue bomber! What about Megaman!!!!

[Phellan Wolf]

Who will be the next??? I bet it'll be Ono, and the Street Fighter saga will finally die.

[EPS21]

Weeaboo shit

Hey guys am I cool yet?

I've got nothing against western games. They have their positive traits, and japanese ones have their good traits. I don't like seeing one side trying to develop games in another's vein in order to try to emulate their success, which I think Inafune is implying by bashing japanese devs being "5 years behind." And yes I've read the interviews.

[Ed Oscuro]

It's entirely possible that senior Capcom managers heard him going on about their games needing to appeal more to western audiences, so said, fine, okay, you want western devs working on these games? We'll let you use these people and hire them for this amount of money. The people selected *not* being decided by Inafune, but Inafune being the bloke who had to try and wrestle something good out of them.

First off, I don't know the first thing about Inafune or this shituation. (The translated interview wasn't very.) But it does strike me as the usual office politics that the guy championing one thing that the head office didn't want would be forced into a no-win situation in trying to prove it.

So, unfortunately, it looks like Capcom might become yet another clearinghouse for dead franchises. (As much loyalty as many of their franchises and charaters command, they don't seem to have control over many of the new and exciting projects out there. Compare the brand appeal of Bayoneta, maybe Killer7 or God Hand, to something like, I dunno, Onimusha or Resident Evil even, and it's clear where the energy is.

[E. Randy Dupre]

I've got to say, Bayonetta and Vanquish both feel intuitively like Capcom games to me - the Sega logo during start-up *always* catches me off guard. The fact of the matter is that, Street Fighter aside, Capcom already lost that Capcom magic to other publishers.

And I don't like Street Fighter.

[Cthulhu]

Doubt his personal life is the actual reason. Will he go the way of Yuji Naka, Sakaguchi and Tomonobu Itagaki? Or just quietly ride into the sunset?

I don't think Itagaki is gone quite yet, but it feels like Yuji Naka already quietly rode off into the sunset. Let's Tap and Ivy The Kiwi were not exactly bit blips on anyone's radar. Mistwalker... well, the only game from them that I feel was really 'something' was Lost Odyssey. Everything else had something going for it but held itself back. Not that Squeenix has done especially well as of late either...

I hope Inafune doesn't just fizzle out. He seems like he could still do a lot if he had the right team.

[Obiwanshinobi]

Seriously man, just let it go. Everybody's heard it already.

Still works, though.

[louisg]

Capcom was dead to me the instant they didn't make an Exed Exes sequel

[Taylor]

My assumptions are better than your assumptions.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

I'ld of thought he would of quit Capcom after legends 3. Maybe he couldnt put in as much input into the project as he'ld of liked or he knows the games a pile of crap so he got out now rather then after the game is finished to disband any rumours that its his fault and dooming any other future games he makes.

[dcharlie]

And yes I've read the interviews.

can you answer this part : "go on, i'm curious - why?"

Everything Inafune has said in his interviews have been decidedly less controversial than they first appear , especially in a short one of summary, and seem extremely on point. It's not even a case of Japanese games giving up their Japaneseness - it's about certain approaches and attitudes.

[Specineff]

I'ld of thought he would of quit Capcom after legends 3. Maybe he couldnt put in as much input into the project as he'ld of liked or he knows the games a pile of crap so he got out now rather then after the game is finished to disband any rumours that its his fault and dooming any other future games he makes.

That's a good way of putting it. Capcom probably cockblocked and forced him to make the game a specific way to cash in into the 3DS launch, regardless of how crappy it is.

[Drum]

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=411847

The Final Interview as translated by Cheesemeister of neogaf. Great read. I can definitely see where he's coming from, but the problem seems to be more a matter of implementation - he seems to have made the correct observation but followed it up with disastrous actions like a ton of C- attempts at blockbuster titles. But Capcom was always good at doing what he says Capcom ought to do - Street Fighter, Resident Evil, all those western licensed games ... Capcom always targeted the west. You could probably throw NES Megaman onto that list, as it had pretty broad appeal - before it went animu and saw its fortunes fall.