Ben-DutkaWell, the man clearly wasn't happy. Throughout this year, Capcom designer and head of research and development, Keiji Inafune, has been vocal about the Japanese game industry's failings: from saying Japan was "5 years behind" to saying flat out, "I hate my job," the writing has been on the wall for some time.
Now, the 23-year veteran who presided over franchises like Onimusha and Dead Rising is calling it quits . Inafune has announced his departure from Capcom; he will be resigning soon. He started at the company as a graphic designer and worked on the very first Street Fighter , then moved on to character design for Mega Man , and then grabbed the role of producer for the titles listed above, as well as Lost Planet . Unfortunately, it's his comments concerning the perceived downfall of Japanese gaming that has him in the spotlight in 2010; he has also said he doesn't think Capcom "takes globalization seriously." His resignation announcement comes the day after Capcom released their latest financial numbers, which consisted of highs and lows. Dead Rising 2 sold 1.8 million copies, which helped, but Lost Planet 2 's weak sales caused the net profit to slide significantly. Capcom will replace Inafune with Katsuhiko Ichii, who will be helped along by a new development team, which Capcom hopes will take a "broader stroke approach to the development process."
Anyway, Inafune will be moving on and although he leaves quite the legacy behind, it seems obvious he was bitter and discontented. That's no way to be in a job…any job.
Wada should do the same.
Last edited by Pandacastro on 10/29/2010 10:50:02 AM
…and Nomura should take over
agree fully, Wada is the worst.
Cool avatar isn't that Ichigo in his final form.
@Guyver
SPOILER (for those who only watch bleach anime) yeah too bad he cant become that no more.
Yea i saw that coming… I mean, who says they hate their job in an interview… Kinda sucks, I was kinda hoping he started work on the next onimusha
"I hate my job. I quit." – Inafune
"Oh thank Christ. Now maybe morale will be higher and we can get back to making good games" – The Japanese Game Industry
"Oh no, wait! There´s still Wada" – The Japanese Game Industry
Haha! I concede to that good sir. Now if I could just sort out a decent sniper perch in front of Square-Enix…
What a coincidence. I've resigned from buying Capcom games!
I didn't. I'd still buy Okamiden, if i had a DS.
Last edited by hellish_devil on 10/29/2010 11:10:16 AM
Finally, a sensible move. I mean I don't like to hear of someone hating their work, but if you get to that point, the best thing you can do for yourself, and everyone else, is move on.
Indeed.
Well, I won't say that Inafune didn't have a major impact upon the industry during his time at the helm of Capcom, it's really unfortunate that he became so loathsome of his job and I think we can all agree that it was well past his time to step down.
Good luck to Mr. Ichii, I hope you can pick up where Mr. Infane left off (likely years ago).
I bet he was forced out. What company would want an increasingly bitter manchild in the spot light representing their company. He obviously had no respect for his employer. I've never seen a grown man whine so much about his job. He had a good job and was too busy wallowing in self pity to see how lucky he was. Don't let the door hit you on the ass.
Now, Wada…it's your turn.
Last edited by Jawknee on 10/29/2010 11:45:35 AM
Whoa there Jawknee, this is a Japanese business. Considering his apparent state of mind, the recent and disappointing financial results may have been enough for him to resign out of his own honor.
It's not like US business where executives that literally drive their companies, customers and country into the ground get paid bonuses and feel no shame or responsibility. Japanese executives (at least the more traditionally minded ones) feel a keen sense of responsibility to their company, employees, customers and country. They will bear the shame and responsibility for errors and bad performance, and even resign if it is the honorable (aka right) thing to do.
Imagine if some of those SOBs on Wall Street had taken personal responsibility for their terrible performance, awful (and sometimes downright criminal) decisions and mis-management. There ought to have been hundreds of senior executives in the Financial sectors that resigned out of the shame of what they presided over. How many actually resigned? How many were fired?
Japan is a very different culture, and resignations like this are not always the result of corporate maneuvers. Often times they are the result of a person's personal sense of honor, duty and responsibility. If I had a choice, I'd personally love to live in a culture where responsibility was taken that seriously.
Err, not sure what Wall Street a has to do with Capcom. This guys was embarrasment and I can see people wanting an embarrassment to leave for the sake of their company. I think your reaching a bit here. Again not sure what the crooks in Wall Street(and our government..Frank, Dodd) have to do with this. Not quite getting the analogy here.
Last edited by Jawknee on 10/29/2010 12:16:02 PM
Wall Street has nothing to do with Capcom. I was drawing a parallel with regard to executives feeling personal responsibility for the fates of their corporations, and I could think of no better modern example of a group of executives who should feel shame enough to resign because of their terrible performance and misdeed, and yet have not.
I just don't see the parallel. The current recession and mortgage melt down is far different than this. There are many people responsible, not just Wall Street. I agree with you, those people are shameless and should resign.
In this case, this guy was out constantly whining about his company, his job and his culture when it comes to the games he and his countryman create. If this was about honor than he would have kept his mouth shut and not gone out and disrespected his company and his co-workers with his pity parties. I think Capcom said enough is enough and told him to quietly resign since he hates his job anyway. I think Capcom's performance is a direct result of his attitude towards his job and the direction they wanted to take their company. He's been wanting to quite but didn't say when. i think maybe these financial numbers were the final nail in the coffin. Capcom probably said, "k, nows the time. Now quietly go away."
It's a win, win. Maybe now Capcom can get their heads out of their rears with new leadership and start making good games again and we don't have to hear the whining anymore. 🙂
Amen, Jawk!
I'm tired of people blaming this whole economy on Wall Street's failure. I'm also tired of pols like Frank and Dodd and B. Clinton forgetting their roles in this mess.
Yeah, if Inafune was honorable about it, he wouldn't have whined and pissed on his own culture for the industries failures. He seems more like an operative whose gone rogue and bitter and seems somewhat retaliatory judging by the nature of his comments as of late.
Jawknee & Orvisman.
I made no political reference, there was no political intent behind my use of the disgraceful behavior of a specific sector of the corporate world in the US as an example of people that perhaps should have resigned in disgrace, but did not. It was as a contrast to Japanese business where people do still resign for reasons of principle. It was not a political statement. Frankly, I can't see how holding business people accountable for their terrible performance and mismanagement is in any way political.
The fact that you can't look past your own internal political agenda to see that is bad enough. But to take it further and bring politics into the discussion, where it was not warranted, is just annoying in the extreme.
I try very hard to steer clear of actual politics online because it's always incendiary. I would appreciate it if you and anyone else inclined to make a political discussion out of this, could take it to the forum, or email. This isn't the place.
I have to agree with Jawknee on this one.
These problems with Wall Street are political. They always have been.(ahem, community reinvestment act)We could say the same thing about your "agenda" to constantly blame the private sector and praise the state. But i didn't take it that far nor did i even think that. Wall Street is despicable but so are these politicians who took part in this collapse but you omitted them when decided to use Wall Street in your analogy. There is plenty of blame to go around, only blaming Wall Street to me seems unfair. That's the only reason i brought up Frank and Dodd.
I really wish you would stop accusing me being blinded by my so called "agenda". You're better than that. We should be able to debate and have a converstaion without dismissing each other views as political propaganda. Why am I "blinded" and you are not? are you trying to tell me your more enlightened than I?
All I am saying is we should be able to share our views on things without condescending to one another about who's more enlightened. Even though i think your wrong about the roll the state should have in peoples private lives, i try to respect you and your opinions. I think its only fair you do the same.
Last edited by Jawknee on 10/29/2010 3:27:20 PM
Jawknee,
There is nothing political about wanting those responsible for corporate failure to act in a principled manner.
I have no agenda here, don't put words in my mouth. I'll be polite this last time. There is no political context here. If you can't see that, that's not my problem.
What ever Highlander, you are willingly omitting the other people who are just as equally responsible for this mess that we are in and your accusing me of having an agenda? I guess it's only corporations that should act in a principled manner?
I see how this works now. Good day sir.
Last edited by Jawknee on 10/29/2010 3:52:20 PM
I'm pretty sure highlanders point is that the decision to leave was purely out of his own interest. It wasn't someone else pushing him out the door. Capcom is at a greater loss than he is, imo.
Wall street didn't do any justice by driving stocks out of institutions that weren't failing but did face stock value decrease. The point isn't to freak out and bail because of short term loss. Otherwise, you end up where we're now at. Obviously, this is only one piece of the puzzle but forget that.
I hope this guy brings on a genuine japanese gaming front that'll resurrect all that is great about japanese games.
You two should be ashamed fighting like this on PSXE
Upon further review, I have to agree with Alienange on this one.
Jawknee,
My point was clear for those that wish to see it. You are seeing things in my words that are not there. I have tried to keep this from becoming an argument, but three times now I have replied saying that there is no political aspect to using Wall Street as an example of unprincipled executives who don't do the right thing when they screw up. Whether those individuals are principled in their actions or not has nothing, zero, nada, nil, naught to do with politics. I have not and will not make politics an issue here, you have, and I wish you'd stop.
I'm honestly really ticked off because you have utterly derailed the discussion with this crap. I will not respond to another of your posts.
Good day sir.
Lol okay Highlander. You brought up Wall street and how terrible those people are without awknowledging the other wrong doers. Your point doesn't apply to this. If you don't like my response then just don't engage me in the future. I tried to be civil and grown up about this but what ever. 🙂
I'm going to assume that Dead Rising 2 sold well because it was about zombies, and not so much because it was a good game.
Seriously, when that's the best Capcom has to offer at this point, you know their in trouble. I really like Super Street Fighter IV but this company is completely out of touch with it's fans and what people want.
I picked up Bionic Commando new from Best Buy for $9.99 about 6 months ago, or so. To this day, they still have copies of the game at $9.99 on their store shelf. Pretty sad.The game was sort of cool. It was one of the "better than 360 multi-plats."
But in general, it would seem all Capcom has that's a top tier product is SF4.
I'm not much into RE so I can't speak for that series anymore. Though, I did play through RE (PSX), RE:CV(DC), RE:Remake(GC), and I played both versions of RE4 (GC and PS2). I just lost interest in the series over the years so I never took the time to play anything more than a demo of RE5.
For me it was always about Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Megaman and their Vs games. So far this gen, they have two good games one of which is a Wii exclusive. Kinda sad considering Capcom was a powerhouse last gen.
Don't make fun of me but I liked Dark Void.
::points finger::
LOL!
j/k World. 😉
Well that's lame! I know he was being negative lately but he was finally making megaman legends 3! Hopefully someone good picks it up. MML 3 was his dream.
@Jawknee
Agreed. RE5 was only decent game I've seen from capcom on PS3 (I'll admit it was a pretty darn good game…even if they did ruin the franchise with it.). It seems asif they're lacking in some departments…I can't quite put my finger on it.
They just haven't done much in general. Their whole strategy this gen was to cater to the Xbox crowd. People forget that Capcom started off this generation thinking making Xbox exclusives was going to be good for business. Considering the Xbox doesn't sell well in Japan and that Capcom fans expected Capcom games and not some Western/Japanese hybrid games, that route was completely wrong. I don't think Capcom has learned much either, they still continue to provide exclusive content to the 360 and they still continue to make crap games like Dead Rising and Lost Planet.
I won't say RE5 was a bad game but it was a terrible Resident Evil. Here's hoping this event is the start of greener pastures for Capcom.
@Jawknee
Yeah, I think they are pretty much a western games developer now, atleast in terms of the games they produce. Shame really, back in the PS1/PS2 era Capcom was right up there, I remember playing resident evil 1 at night with the lights off…damn I actually used to be trembling with fear on that game, looking back at it now, you couldn't seperate chris from the zombies; the details were that small lol! I miss the Jap's lame humour aswell…(You were almost a jill sandwich…arghhhh still makes me cringe XD)
100% agreed. Capcom, SquareSoft and Konami were my favorite devs of the PS1 and PS2 days. Now…not so much. Konami is still going ok, they just aren't releasing enough games. I do like Squares handhelds this gen but they ruined their best franchise on consoles.
I predicted this……..
Umm…how can you predict something when the man himself told the world he wanted to quit?
Perhaps Capcom can begin to get back on its feet now. I bet he was forced out due to the poor financial performance.
Last edited by WorldEndsWithMe on 10/29/2010 1:25:30 PM
Won't be long until Capcom itself resigns from making games. This generation will have its casualties. I just know it.
Sucks too because it didn't have to be this way. I don't know what Capcom was thinking focusing on the Xbox and a Western audience. They only alienated their original fan base and haven't generated enough new fans to continue doing business in a profitable fashion.
I know. It's absolutely unbelievable. Having a guy like this working for you certainly doesn't help either.
Despite this guy quiting I'm still looking forward to the new Devil May Cry regardless.
Last edited by GuyverLT on 10/29/2010 3:16:50 PM
you can't go around saying all japs are making bad games and expect to keep your job, looks bad on capcom altogether anyway