Mega Man's World Loses Its Creator

[Mister Zero]

News from Kotaku: http://kotaku.com/5676574/mega-man-legends-3-loses-legendary-producer

Late last month, Capcom revealed Mega Man Legends 3 for the Nintendo 3DS. The game's executive producer Keiji Inafune said, "I want it to be good, really good." Inafune, however, is leaving the project.

At the end of this month, Inafune is resigning from his position at Capcom.

"I really don't want to quit now," Inafune tells 4Gamer.net, noting that it has taken time to get the project off the ground. "But, I can't do it anymore. I don't have the willpower. That's why I'm leaving Capcom and recharging..."

Mega Man Legends is apparently Inafune's favorite series in the Mega Man franchise. "We have wanted to create a new installment in this series for a number of years," Inafune said in a video letter last month. "And it is great that we now have the opportunity to bring this title to the Nintendo 3DS."

Gamers will have the opportunity to play Mega Man Legends 3 when it is released next year, but Inafune unfortunately won't have the opportunity to see it to completion.

So not only did I not know about MML3, I didn't know the designer of Mega Man was calling it quits!

Another article, embellishing a bit more on the details of his departure: http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/82611/inafune-calls-japanese-game-development-a-communist-state/

Keiji Inafune, the designer of Mega Man and Capcom's former head of Research & Development and Online Business and Global head of Production announced his departure from Capcom a few days ago. Now he's explained his reasoning in a new interview with 4Gamer, and it doesn't like it was on friendly terms.

Describing Japanese game development in general, Inafune said, “In short, it’s like a communist state. Working as hard as you can is your own loss. Not working hard becomes more advantageous. But doesn’t that get in the way of making games? You can’t make good games by just taking it easy.”

Inafune does take responsibility, though, saying that he's just as guilty as anyone else.

“I was in the position of being a naysayer, and yet was assured a paycheck the next month. No matter how much one is late or skips work, or even no matter how lousy a game is made, the next month’s paycheck was always guaranteed,” he explained.

“There are a lot of people who take their company’s commitment for granted and don’t work as hard as they should. This could be said of the entire industry, and of course Capcom is no exception.”

He also added that if he tried to do anything "brashly" within Capcom but was met with commercial failure, he would've been demoted. Like before, though, Inafune lavishes praise unto western developers.

“There are of course publishers who keep developers ‘like pets’ but overseas there are more independent developers. 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.”

Sounds like Inafune has a really bad case of "the grass is green on the other side"-itis. Or maybe he's right. Either way, we're looking forward to seeing where the future takes him.

Seems like many things in Japan are run this way these days(the anime industry being another). Maybe it has to do with rampant overpopulation?