Brontoforumus Archive
Game Boards => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: Joxam on October 29, 2010, 04:16:47 AM
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Inafune (http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/10/29/inafune_leaving_capcom/) leaves capcom.
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FFFFFUUUUU (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufsf_-a_H9Q#)
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Well, I guess I've postponed this murder-spree long enough then.
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Almost as tragic are his given reasons for leaving, which basically translate to "The executives have been meddling too much with my current project and it's crap now."
His current project.
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I don't know who Inafune is. Why is that bad?
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Yes, it is really bad. You want to go to his birthday party. wikilink (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiji_Inafune) here! In short, he's one of the madmen standing behind the crown jewels of the Mega Man series, including Legends. He's been campaigning for MML3 for about a decade, whenever not doing awesome things like, making Dead Rising. Or condemning Japanese developers as sad, cowardly, uncreative hacks.
But clearly, I just wanna be butt buddies with the guy, so take my words with a grain of salt.
Keiji Inafune sez, Japanese game makers five years behind (http://tgs.gamespot.com/story/6276630/japanese-game-makers-five-years-behind-inafune)
Why is it that I want to give this guy the manliest totally-not-gay hug all of the time? Or, like, an earth-shattering fist pound.
Almost as tragic are his given reasons for leaving, which basically translate to "The executives have been meddling too much with my current project and it's crap now."
His current project.
I thought that was integral to this being a "tragedy".
Shiggy and Horii have been feeling like exceptions to the rule of name-brand designers striking out and forming their own companies, because their purse-strings are too busy attending wild annilingus orgies. Which is weird, because when I think of Nintendo CEOs, I imagine that their every word reeks of shit.
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Yes, it is really bad. You want to go to his birthday party. wikilink (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keiji_Inafune) here!
*reads*
Okay, story checks out. I'm mad.
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There's a silver lining here. I don't have to save for a 3DS anymore!
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Hey, what's wrong with buying magazines? They have some pretty good stuff in them! And it's a nice easy way to get a whole heap of gaming news in one go!
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They're also a convenient flyswatter.
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I never get magazines because they're poor kindling.
Maybe the future of periodical print is in newspaper-quality pulp?
... If we can call that a future.
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Goddammit. Now I'll never know if Trigger ever gets back to earth. (I actually can't remember whether he's stuck on the moon or a space station. I haven't played 2 in several years.)
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A space station. I don't think MML3 is canceled per se, just that something in its development has gone so fucking wrong that it made a Japanese man quit a position that he has held for more than 20 years. Inaf's always seemed a little uncomfortable in his native environment, though... I hope he follows through on all those comments he's made lately about wanting to come hang out with us over here for a while and see if he can pick up any ideas to bring back home with him. That would be nice.
Alternately he might have just been given the shitcan because nobody bought Dead Rising 2.
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Apparently Capcom is just coincidentally doing a company-wide restructuring right now which I'm sure is completely unrelated to the timing of this.
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Alternately he might have just been given the shitcan because nobody bought Dead Rising 2.
doesn't sound like it (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/31227/Dead_Rising_2_Ships_2_Million_But_Capcom_Profits_Down.php)
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The companion gamasutra article (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/31258/Mega_Man_Creator_Key_Exec_Inafune_Quits_Capcom.php) about his departure suggests that Lost Planet 2's failure might have been a catalyst, but I don't buy it.
People that really know me, can see where I'm coming from... I'm not a regular dude. It's probably because I'm strange.
Quote unrelated to my additional thoughts on the subject.
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Alternately he might have just been given the shitcan because nobody bought Dead Rising 2.
doesn't sound like it (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/31227/Dead_Rising_2_Ships_2_Million_But_Capcom_Profits_Down.php)
Oh, then it was because DR2 got delayed. One way or another they're on record for blaming that game for their shares taking a freefall.
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Inafune's been grumbling a lot about Japanese and/or Capcom corporate structure of late. Remember last month's pair of (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/technology/20game.html) NYT articles (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/one-on-one-keiji-inafune-game-designer/) about/with the man.
If it was something about MML3 that went wrong, there's a fairly good chance that the problem might be related to internal politics rather than to anything about the game itself. Though depending on who will be taking his place on the project, the game might suffer regardless.
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The second NYT article (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/one-on-one-keiji-inafune-game-designer/) was really interesting to read, if you've got the time to go through the whole thing. The first half is mostly the interviewer getting Inafune to repeat his previous public statements.
The second half sheds even more light on the circumstances surrounding this split.
Thanks for the link BB.
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It turns out that his favorite Legends 3 heroine wasn't winning.
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I knew I should've voted for her!!!
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It turns out that his favorite Legends 3 heroine wasn't winning.
His own design placed dead last.
I doubt he's so petty as to quit his job of 23 years over that, but ouch.
(Also, it's not the least bit surprising.)
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His heart didn't seem into it.
The thing to worry about with a self-recognized visionary, is that it's hard for anyone to tell where they're having legitimately cutting-edge ideas or have fallen off of the deep end. I've gotten the impression that the visionary archetype is often in need of an editor. If not to ward them from hubris, at least to keep the number of amazing ideas in a single package to a number palatable to the consumer.
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What's worse - a terrible, stifling editor, or no editor at all?
That's not a rhetorical question. I really don't know.
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You know how there's that maxim, "Better the devil you know?"
Horseshit.
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...surprised I'm the first to bring up that awful-looking Korean MMMMORPG as a possible contender for "current project" that has been horribly fucked up.
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Here (http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=411847) is a full translation of the 4Gamer interview with Inafune about his departure, future plans, Capcom corporate culture, natto, et cetera.
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I love the Japanese talent for understatement.
KI: I'm quitting. There'll be an official announcement, but that's all I can say for now.
4G: This interview has taken a sudden turn.
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KI: That's absolutely right. So told Capcom that I'm leaving to start my own company, while still contracting with them, continuing with titles already underway and follow through with their plans. If that was acceptable, I wouldn't be able to work with any other publishers, but I'd have been able to finish what I'd started.
(http://i133.photobucket.com/albums/q78/Catloaf/Reactions/124010113884.png)
However, that wasn't possible. I was told, "That won't be necessary."
(...)
Looking at the timing, the team members, and the planning done, Rockman Dash 3 is finally on its way. I really didn't want to quit right now... But I can't do it anymore. My will to continue has run out. That's why I had to leave Capcom and strengthen my resolve, as I wanted to help finish working on it from the outside but was unable to.
:oh:
On the tenure thing, I can't say I find it surprising. That's how Japanese companies tend to work; you get the job and never leave the company ever, slowly climbing the ranks until you reach a point where you are never going to go any higher (at this point, you are most likely in your late 30's or early 40's, and it will be rather clear that you've reached your individual glass ceiling) and then you spend the rest of your days working for the company in an overly cautious, almost lazy fashion for the rest of your life because while you'll never be fired at this point, you can still be demoted. Add in that the older you are (and coincidentally more cautious) the more authority you have over those on the same level as you, and it leads to companies that are like tortoises; large enough that they don't have much to worry about and possessing of a potentially long life-span but excruciatingly slow to respond to change in any way shape or form.
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That is a surprisingly insightful post on Japanese Corporate culture.
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KI: On the other hand, you can't borrow game ideas or concepts. No matter if it's a bank, venture capitalist, or fund, there's nowhere you can go to borrow them. What the game industry has money in is copyrights.
So if I had a great idea and after quitting, I went to Capcom and pitched a game idea like, "Why don't you have me make this product?" Then in negotiations, they say, "That's fine. How much will it be?" and I say, "2 billion yen," and they say, "Fine." But then when the game comes out, it's copyright Capcom. Isn't that odd?
4G: Yeah, that does seem rather strange, though it's always been that way.
KI: Manga, however, is different. Like Akira Toriyama. His Bird Studio and the publisher Shueisha share the copyrights. Why are manga and games different? This is another problem that the game industry currently has.
It's obviously not a matter of just demanding the copyright, but perhaps the time has come to consider the sharing of copyrights by publishers and developers. That's another thing I'd like to change. I don't know how many years it might take, of course.
Oh man, I can only imagine how he felt about Capcom shutting down Clover, and then proceeding to make Okamiden and put Amaterasu in MvC3. Dang!
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Japanese game sales for November 1st to November 7th:
1. God Eater Burst / Namco Bandai / PSP / 61,834
2. Super Mario All-Stars / Nintendo / Wii / 56,848
3. Pokemon Black and White / The Pokemon Company / DS / 56,719
4. World Soccer Winning Eleven 2011 / Konami / PS3 / 55,809
5. Fallout: New Vegas / Bethesda Softworks / PS3 / 37,249
6. Radiant Historia / Atlus / DS / 32,807
7. Fallout: New Vegas / Bethesda Softworks / X360 / 24,146
8. Kirby's Epic Yarn / Nintendo / Wii / 20,712
9. Wii Party / Nintendo / Wii / 17,788
10. Golden Sun: Dark Dawn / Nintendo / DS / 12,571
so, a western rpg slash first person shooter sold over 60,000 units in its first week in japan
doesn't exactly prove anything, but was someone right, or was someone right?