Inafune on defeating Capcom's sequel-heavy budgeting

by JC Fletcher on May 9th 2011 7:05PM

In one anecdote, former Capcom exec Keiji Inafune illustrates how he got so high up in the company and the kind of behavior that likely led to his hasty exit. During a presentation at Kyoto's Ritsumeikan University, the Neptunia Mk-II weapon dished on the corporate culture at Capcom, and how he gamed it to get Lost Planet and Dead Rising made.

Before those games, he said, Capcom had a rule requiring 70-80 percent of the games produced at the company to be sequels, and the management rejected pitches for new titles even beyond that proportion. Inafune started up two new projects, Lost Planet and Dead Rising, and just kept them going even after the prototypes were rejected.

Eventually, he exceeded the budget for Lost Planet's prototype by 400%, figuring that Capcom wouldn't cancel it if the game was half done. The strategy worked: both titles made it to retail, and started franchises that have sold over four million units each.

Inafune was already well known for a successful act of guerrilla game-making. After Mega Man, his team was famously only allowed to develop Mega Man 2 if they did so on their own time, without affecting the schedules of other projects.

Source: Andriasang

Tags: capcom, dead-rising, ds, keiji-inafune, lost-planet, Lost-Planet-Extreme-Condition, microsoft, mobile, nintendo, pc, playstation, ps3, xbox

Reader Comments (47)

Great anecdote

So, he's the gaming world equivalent of a cowboy cop?

"You're a loose cannon, Inafune!"
"Maybe, but I get RESULTS!"

@The Blank Mage Returns ... i would up vote your post twice if i could

@The Blank Mage Returns hilarious

Thank god he pushed Dead Rising, I love that game.

Also shame on capcom for still doing nothing with the Dino Crisis Franchise. You'd think they'd make up for 3 by now, or at least issue a apology letter.

@Jawmuncher

3? What 3? I'd love to play 3, I bet it would involve fighting dinosaurs on Earth.... but I don't recall them making anything along those lines. It really is too bad.

@Acosta02

Oh yeah I forgot they never did make a 3 what was I thinking.
How did I make that mistake. I to would love a Dino Crisis 3

However
I remember that one game capcom made where you were in space. Man was that horrible, it's not even worth acknowledging it exists.

@Jawmuncher
wait i though they did make a dino crisis 3, big space ship, mutated dioaurs. jet packs.

@dargondarkfire
That was a rumor started by politicians to scare small children.
They did make a game called Dino stalker that involved a guy going to the time period of dino crisis 2 and interacting with paula.

@afreaknperson

Think everyone should downvote dargondarkfire for spreading damaging rumours.
Need a HD Dino Crisis :-(
Actually to be fair we need HD survival horror games in general... lol

This guy is boss at all costs.

i dont mind sequels at all but, i wonder what its the current capcom doing, they outsource all its sequel, nothing seems to be developed in house other than fighting games and monster hunter.

sequel or new franchise it doesnt matter, what it matters its improved gameplay, graphics and good mechanics, something that capcom its lacking

I feel like I'm reading a Dilbert comic.

@Zertoss. Thank god it turned out you weren't! ,L

@(Unverified)

Indeed sir.

The Inafune Business model:

1) Spend all your company's money on a dream project
2) Completely ignore them when they ask what the hell you're doing
3) ????
4) Profit!
Secret 5th badass maneuver) Tell Capcom to eat it and move on to bigger and better things

Not to be a debbie downer but bigger and better things have yet to be seen... Although if anyone can do it mega mans papa sure as hell can. This man has my full support.

"... Capcom had a rule requiring 70-80 percent of the games produced at the company to be sequels, and the management rejected pitches for new titles even beyond that proportion."

Wow.

@Ballistic H

To be fair, most of the most successful companies are doing this. Nintendo, Acti-Blizzard, Sony, EA... even Valve, almost. Who isn't? Sega, I guess, with Platinum Games... 2K? They kinda let Gearbox and Rockstar do their thing. It's not that surprising, IMO.

@Ballistic H. Rule # 34 featuring capcom budgeting.... O_o

Over time though you would develop a huge number of games to give sequels to. So it's really not that bad of a system if you already have a couple dozen series and release a lot of games per year.

Jesus, Inafune did good in leaving Capcom. Just to make a quick buck and short term solution by making sequels of sequels, they PUSH ASIDE their most famous and revered game designer with new, original IPs that had the potential to make a killing (and did so) for them?

No wonder he left Capcom. Those dingbats were dragging him down.

"Before those games, he said, Capcom had a rule requiring 70-80 percent of the games produced at the company to be sequels, and the management rejected pitches for new titles even beyond that proportion"

*Looks at the game catalog for recently released Capcom Games*

So.........What has changed if anything?

This guy took a **** on Debra's desk.

I salute his passion and skill.

Thank you Kenji Inafune for giving me Dead rising, because of that it let to the making and release of Dead rising 2. GREATEST ZOMBIE GAME(S) EVER! In my opinion.

i guess this explains why capcom was producing nothing but remakes of street fighter for years.

@dfidysifyu

Your english is as broken as your marketing campaign.

All hail Keiji

I haven't read all of this but isn't he the guy who made Mega Man 1-a thousand? And also spin offs. And also lots and lots of similar games.

@Banksyliveraa: No, he's the guy who's regarded as the creator of the character Mega Man's design even though he isn't, and who decided that it'd be a great idea to outsource projects to mediocre Western developers.

@Icemael In his defense in 2007 at TGS he outright admitted he didn't create Mega Man, but that he was incorrectly known as the "father of Mega Man". So we have to give him some credit for telling the truth.

@Milf Biggenson: Oh, I know he said so. But a lot of people seem to think he either designed the character or just outright created the series, and admire him because of it.

Man, he was playing with fire, in a shack of dynamite, with a lose puppy on fire, and a bear outside, also on fire.

And thats why we love him.

@FreakSheet I'm sensing a pattern here... does it have to do with fire? :)

On topic: Awesome anecdote. We need more people like that in companies like EA, Activision and Ubisoft. 'Cause honestly, I don't want to find myself in 5 years reading on joystiq about "Call of Duty 20: Twilight Dawn" and "Assassin's Creed 12: The Hand That Kills".

@2late2die

Honestly, I wouldn't want to find myself in five years still reading Joystiq . . .

. . . nothing against The Stiq, I love this place. Just that I like to re-invent myself every few years or so, and change all my habits. It keeps my enemies on their toes, plus my friends love the spontaneousness of it all.

I'm sure somewhere along the line, Inafune was feeling something similar, which gifted the world of gaming with Dead Rising and Lost Planet . . . and Inafune leaving Capcom to truly unleash his power upon the world of gaming.

Noting wrong with a little re-invention. After all, what's the point of living in a free society, if all you are going to do with it, is waste the freedom by tying yourself down to a same-old, same-old routine for the rest of your life?

@Tachyonic Cargo
If you're capable of making enemies on videogame blogs, I'd stay the heck away from 4chan if I were you.

Just a friendly advice.

@lookuu

Very good website www.joystiq.com barraged crappy bots.

Hate loathe happy loathe hate death.

This sure explains all the Mega Man sequels.

But really, how is this a practical and profitable way to run a business, when consumers joke about how often you're dishing out sequels? MEDIOCRE sequels, at that.

Thank god he did what he did. Dead Rising was a break through in the zombie market, and Lost Planet was good for it's time. Not great, but good. I love Lost Planet 2 though.

We need more guys like Inafune and less guys like Kotick in the gaming industry.

Damn i dont know what too say but i want too keep it sivil.
Dead Rising was an awesome game im really glad you made it ,
Lost Planet was cool too i love the art direction and atmosphere.
I hope too see awesomeness from your new studio in the future !!!

I hope this is the last thing i hear you crying yether of capcom or the japanesse gameindustry as a whole .
You must know we all share your vision we as gamers we are not stupid
Maybe the big corporations think we are stupid but in the end the word of the people will have the last voice atleast for now ................
I wish you godspeed and follow the road your fellow ex capcom designers have taken .

Surely the irony of both his "new" games getting sequels is not lost on anyone.

Inafking... where's my Megaman Universe?
*sigh

(I said I'd do it)

I wish I could go back.

Capcom is responsible for a few of my favorites games/series/characters of all time. I'll never fall out of love for these things, but as of recent years my joy has been tainted by the knowledge of what has happened behind the scenes. Knowing what I do now about Capcom's business practices makes me very wary about continuing to support them as a consumer, no matter how much I love Resident Evil or Mega Man.

Ignorance is bliss.

It's Capcom's attitude of creating constant sequels that created one of the best companies out there... the late Clover studios shoved the idea of sequelitis out the window, and Platinum Games lives through it.

Capcom may have been king at some point when it came to great originals, but they converted themselves into a sequel machine just to keep the money flow coming in. Less risks, same (if not more) flow of cash.

So... more power to the ones who want to break the trend! And Capcom? Keep making your sequels... we'll enjoy them as a great selection of games to keep us busy until the real original games come out. Everyone wins, except maybe you in the long run.

I love all the bitching about sequels in here despite the fact that every single god-damn-one-of-you have that one game you'd suck a thousand aid-ridden dicks to get a sequel to.

I played Lost Planet Colonies together with a couple of friends yesterday and before we knew it it was past midnight.

Lost Planet is a very underestimated game.

But don't confuse Lost planet colonies with lost planet 2.

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition

Inafune on defeating Capcom's sequel-heavy budgeting

Reader Comments (47)

Posted: May 9th 2011 7:14PM PatientJ said

Posted: May 9th 2011 7:14PM The Blank Mage Returns said

Posted: May 9th 2011 7:28PM stevo13344 said

Posted: May 9th 2011 9:53PM (Unverified) said

Posted: May 9th 2011 7:16PM Jawmuncher said

Posted: May 9th 2011 7:20PM Acosta02 said

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Posted: May 9th 2011 7:28PM NaeemTHM said

Posted: May 9th 2011 7:52PM FunkMasterRitter said

Posted: May 9th 2011 7:29PM Ballistic H said

Posted: May 9th 2011 7:53PM Acosta02 said

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Posted: May 9th 2011 11:40PM KaBob799 said

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Posted: May 9th 2011 8:00PM Riley Freeman said

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Posted: May 9th 2011 8:09PM YoungCardinals said

Posted: May 9th 2011 8:30PM Banksyliveraa said

Posted: May 10th 2011 10:57AM Icemael said

Posted: May 10th 2011 1:55PM Milf Biggenson said

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Posted: May 9th 2011 8:56PM FreakSheet said

Posted: May 9th 2011 9:14PM 2late2die said

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Posted: May 10th 2011 8:03AM TheShaper said

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