Capcom lost one of its major designers when the departure of Keiji Inafune was announced. from Capcom. He had been with the company for 23 years. Still though, progress must be made, and Capcom producer Ryota Niitsuma believes that the company is more than capable to bounce back. Ironically, Niitsuma thinks Capcom is now a tighter group without Inafune.
“Inafune was a charismatic leader,” Niitsuma told Edge, “but by him leaving the company I think it has made the company a lot closer – we’re a lot tighter in terms of relationships.
“I think we’ll be able to fill the gap together with better teamwork; in terms of pure talent we have a lot of talented creators and programmers in the company, so I don’t see that as a problem at all.”
While Inafune has been critical of the Japanese developer community, he was particularly critical of Capcom and their perceived inability to think forward. Speaking to the New York Times, he commented “Everyone’s making awful games. Japan is at least five years behind. Capcom is barely keeping up. The ideas, gameplay, design – there’s no diversity, no originality.”
Regardless of the rather unflattering comments, Niitsuma offered only praise of the venerated developer. “He’s a first-class, charismatic game creator and he has seen a different direction to what he wanted to make. There’s no point him staying in the company if he thinks what he’s doing isn’t right and doesn’t fit his creative aspirations.
“I respect him as a game creator and he’s moved on to do what he truly wants, and good luck to him.”
Inafune's new venture may be called Comcept, but there's been little word about it as of yet.
