As seen here.

Legends 3 might not be affected that much, since it seems from the heroine contest descriptions that the scenario details have already been worked out in advance, and the previous director is still on hand. But what happens from this point is anybody's guess (though this is probably the truly last, definitive nail in Powered Up 2's coffin. Damn it).

If Capcom is smart, they'll turn MM over to Shirahama (of X8) or to Ito and company at Inti Creates. They've made the best MM games Inafune wasn't involved in. I certainly don't want to hear about what Ninja Theory would do with MM.

You know, I should care a lot more than I do, but I don't. Still, ironic timing considering DASH 3 was the only thing that got this disillusioned fan interested in Mega Man (and an upcoming console) again.

As for Inti handling future Mega Man games, they can do what they want but beyond MM9 & 10 (which I've never played) they've given me very little hope that Mega Man will see any kind of grand revival.

This makes me sad because I know that Inafune had been complaining about the state of the game industry, and this likely means that he's giving up.  Selfishly, I just want to see the ZX series continue.  The original ZX has become one of my favorite games of all time, and Advent was a complete let down.  Time will tell, I suppose.

Man after my own heart

To be frank, complaining is all he's been doing lately, and his own "attempts" at fixing the problem were worthless as far as I'm concerned.

I don't think the Japanese games industry needs nearly as much help as he keeps insisting, but his attempts at bringing Japanese games to a larger Western audience sucked pretty hard IMHO.

That said, I hope Mega Man falls into good hands...

More from Inafune on all this:  http://www.themmnetwork.com/2010/11/02/ … interview/

I even don't know what games this guy has ever made so far. Is he kind of a big name like, say, Mikami?

Mega Man games will continue to sell on the IP alone. Inafune overestimates his importance.

Sounds like the guy's having a midlife crisis. Let him get his Ferrari and his 20 yr old trophy wife and he'll be right as rain

I think the point that he's missing here is that it is extremely rare for a game to sell because of the person behind it, rather than the IP.

Perhaps Miyamoto and Kojima can get away with it to some extent, maybe even Mikami, but let's face it, outside of a small "hardcore" audience, the vast majority of (mainstream) gamers aren't really aware of producer names, so selling something as the "new Inafune game" is never going to help boost sales much.

I wish the guy the best of luck, but I think he's barking up the wrong tree.

I'm not seeing where Inafune is saying that his name is critically important to Capcom's future?

There's this bit from the end of the last article linked in this thread:

At first he says he wants to prove himself, but then says his "proof" would be Capcom failing without him. There's more ridiculousness if you read the entire translated interview:

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

Good grief. Not only have there already been some MM and RE games that sold poorly while he was there, RE wasn't even his. I don't know where his head is.

Eh, I'm sorry Kenji, I like(d) you and like(d) Mega Man but I don't see Capcom falling to it's knees without you despite the fact I don't care for most of their output anymore.

If anything is going to do Capcom and other companies in, it's the astronomical cost that comes with developing today's games.

The current Devil May Cry situation will also hurt their cred immensely. I'm actually one of the many against the Ninja Theory production of the newest game because everything feels so wrong from the trailer. I need to see more before I can truly bang the gravel down Phoenix Wright-style, but considering how badly Capcom's driven most of their top IPs, I'm not holding any hope. I'm no longer that much interested in Mega Man, but I loved the earlier versions when growing up and Street Fighter's gotten really stale. I heard Resident Evil's going down but I like RE4. It's like Square-Enix churning out mostly Final Fantasy and nothing new and when Square/Squaresoft was in force during the NES/SNES/PS1 days with a ton of new IPs and innovations (Einhander! Vagrant Story! Front Mission!).

Nanashi no Game! Sigma Harmonics! Infinite Undiscovery! The Last Remnant! NieR! Lost Winds! Lord of Vermillion! Blood of Bahamut! Gyromancer!

And that's only a handful of names since 2008!

Seriously, though, am I the only person aware of Squenix's plethora of new IPs!?!?!?

It's another thing to talk of quality, obviously, but the far-too-widespread idea that Squenix has brought NO new IPs or innovation to the table is ignorant, and that's putting it nicely.

I was reading one of the Iwata-Asks segments today, and to see that the internal cultural struggle of things being "only Japan" versus "overseas" is still being perceived as a threat of it becoming "non-japanese" is still confounding.

Ono:
I think you have to experience many things for yourself by going overseas. The things you see as a working adult, you'll perceive differently from a traveling student. In order to understand all that, I think Japanese people have to go overseas more.

One thing that I find really mortifying is how the words "look overseas" by Keiji Inafune-san were misinterpreted as "abandon Japan." We're Japanese, so we have to look at our Japanese consumers. There's no way we can't.

Iwata:
The results are really different, depending on whether the work is to be accepted within Japan only or throughout the world. "

Personally, when companies like Capcom and even CAVE are just now finally broadcasting their change of stance into "Embrace Overseas!!" it's like it's already too late for me to be excited about it, when I've already stopped wondering why they couldn't have this outlook Years and Years ago...

On some level it's just never going to go away, the words "Overseas" will continue to forever have a negative "Un-Japanese" connotation with it.