Keiji Inafune, creator of Mega Man, spoke to Japanese gaming site 4Gamer the day he announced his resignation from Capcom, a company where he’d spent 23 years developing games. It’s been a few days since it went live in Japanese, but thanks to the folks at NeoGAF, a full translation’s finally been released. While we do suggest reading the entire interview, there are some interesting bits we’d like to point out.
“The reason why I’m quitting is basically because I think that the game industry itself must change the way it goes about making games,” Inafune told 4Gamer. “You might think I’m being hypocritical, but the really big wall that the Japanese game industry is hitting is the changing of its creators into salarymen.”
On game development in Japan, Inafune told the site: “If you succeed, you don’t get credit, and if you fail, it’s your fault. Nothing can be done about it. The game industry isn’t at a level where it can value creators and raise them up. It’s the same at Capcom.”
He seems to have more of a liking towards western developers, saying that there are many more independent developers overseas. “For them, the goal is to make a hit, grow the company, sell it or do an IPO, and make lots of money. It’s the American Dream.
“What I did in order to succeed was show that Capcom games can be made externally [in the west]. I disproved the long-held belief that externally-developed games can’t be Capcom games. First with Dead Rising, then with Street Fighter IV. More titles need to be developed that way. This will result in good things for both the company and the players.”
He doesn’t go without saying western developers have their cons, as well: “First, you can’t just leave them alone. Even with technical skills, they often lack adequate ideas and concepts for utilizing those skills. That’s exactly why I’m such a good match for them. (laughs) They don’t have to be a top-notch development studio. I just want to work with a team that has good potential and a positive work attitude.”
Back to Capcom, Inafune says that when he sent the company his letter of resignation, they didn’t even contact him. Not only that, he says that nobody on the board of directors actually understands games.
“Even when I submitted my letter of resignation, nobody contacted me about it. (laughs) There should’ve been a, ‘Hey Inafune, do you have some time?’ or, ‘What do you mean by this? I want to hear it straight from you.’ Nothing. Zero.
“Not a single member of the board of directors understands games. I didn’t ask to be a board member, but if you don’t have someone who understands games in the position of making those final decisions, there winds up being a business-side that doesn’t understand games and development-side that wants to make games. I feel that’s the biggest problem Capcom will be facing.”
Where will Inafune go next? Wherever he must to give Japan a boost on the game industry.
“So if I can, I want to change the Japanese game industry. I don’t want to abandon it. After I leave Capcom, I don’t want to, for example, just work for EA, Activision, and Rockstar. That would be abandoning Japan.”
Read the whole interview at the link. It’s quite lengthy, but it’s well worth your time.
4Gamer Interview: Keiji Inafune [NeoGAF]