Keiji Inafune, producer of numerous Capcom hits like the Mega Man series, Onimusha, and Dead Rising, recently gave a talk at South Korea’s Console Game Developer Conference 2025 (CGDC), held on November 6 and 7. As reported by ThisIsGame, the long-time industry veteran dedicated his session to discussing the kind of mindset he considers developers should uphold in the changing game industry.
Inafune was critical of the growing tendency for game publishers to release titles that rely solely on IP fame or trendy genres, which are guaranteed to secure predictable profit margins. He clarifies that, (based on machine translation), “I’m not saying it’s bad to continue existing franchises or make games that riff on popular genres. What I mean is that these shouldn’t be the only games being made.” He considers that, for the game ecosystem to remain healthy, the industry needs developers “with a clear message.”
Back when Inafune started making games, in the 1980s and 90s, there weren’t many existing trends to follow, such as “Monster Hunter-style” or “Final Fantasy-style” games. Rather, creating new concepts with each project was “simply the norm,” he explained. While he did work on certain series throughout multiple entries (like Mega Man), he considers his constant hopping between vastly different projects to be a key factor behind his successful portfolio. “It was possible because I didn’t dwell on my past hits.”
By contrast, now that the game industry has grown mature, Inafune thinks many developers have taken an overly “defensive” stance. While relying on past success isn’t inherently wrong, particularly from a business perspective, he is doubtful whether this attitude will be beneficial for the industry in the long run.
“The 11th game in a series, the 13th in a franchise. While such choices may be necessary for fans and business, when considering the essence of game development and the passion for creation, it should not become the entirety of the gaming scene.”
Following his somewhat turbulent departure from Level-5 mid-2024, Inafune became an executive of Rocket Studio, a game company led by former Hudson Soft developer Takashi Takebe. However, news on ongoing or future projects by him has been scarce for now. Based on his session, perhaps fans can expect his next title to be a project prioritizing creativity.
Probably bringing back the “AA” would help this as a way to keep budgets low enough for companies to encourage creativity
True, like the rogue like massive explotation all based in a 80s computers rpg videogame concept, and they dont stop to make the same thing agaain and again
The issue is that these giant AAA studios dont make smaller games AT ALL anymore. Everything is a full-budget, blockbuster, blowout. They dont learn anything, or take any chances. They just pump out the same nonsense.
And yet he tried to do the same thing when he s̶t̶o̶l̶e̶ p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶’̶s̶ m̶o̶n̶e̶y̶ fundraised for Mighty No. 9 🙃🙃🙃
The Irony of the man behind the Mega Man franchise saying this. He’s not wrong though
Kitamura seeing how people still think Inafune created MegaMan: 👺
I’ve literally been saying this since I was 17. I’m 38 now. Lol
Keiji inafune did not creat megaman. Dont kno why people claim he did when he was just on the art team and his job was just to make more art for the game
Thats funny because megaman was created by Akira Kitamura and not Keiji Inafune. Inafune who almost sank capcom when he was one of the heads of capcom, who tried to make his own company and used megaman (a character he did not creat but stole the credit too) steal money from others with mighty number 9
He didn’t create mega man Akira did all he made was that crappy mighty number 9 game
“…relying on past success isn’t inherently wrong…”
Pokémon is literally burning and Nintendo won’t do a damn thing about it because they’re too busy trying to sue Palworld into oblivion.