Inafune: Capcom forced sequel output

By Tom Phillips Published 9 May, 2011

Defied bosses to develop Dead Rising.

Capcom management abandoned interest in new IP to force development of sequels, former Capcom head of development Keiji Inafune has alleged.

Studio bosses keen to cut costs opted for a policy of systemic sequelisation, Inafune claimed in an address at a Kyoto university (translated by Andriasang).

New titles - including Inafune's Dead Rising and Lost Planet - were initially rejected.

Within Capcom, the official line was an output consisting of 70 to 80 per cent sequels. But Inafune said the promised 20 per cent of budget to work on new franchises never materialised.

In practice any new idea pitched would be denied.

How did Inafune get around this? The Mega Man co-creator continued work on Lost Planet and Dead Rising despite management rejecting prototypes.

By spending over budget by as much as 400 per cent, Inafune hoped bosses would be forced to greenlight projects to recoup losses. The gamble paid off - Dead Rising and its sequel have sold millions of units.

If he had failed, Inafune suspected he would have been "fired for war crimes".

Inafune quit Capcom suddenly last October after seeing Dead Rising 2 launch. He had devoted more than 23 years to the company.

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About Tom Phillips

Tom joined Eurogamer in 2010 and has quickly made his mark writing news and columns and coming up with puntastic straplines. Questionable beard. @TomPhillips151 on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Phillips archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 1 year ago

Comments for this article are now closed, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • spazmo #1 1 year ago

    Ghost Trick got made thank god. I hope they force a 3DS sequel.

  • FuzzyDuck #2 1 year ago

    A bold move to get his work green lit for sure.

    I'm not a fan of either franchise but i know plenty who are, and taking such a personal risk to get these fresh ideas out the door is certainly welcome and acknowledged.

  • midnight_walker #3 1 year ago

    That explains Super Street Fighter 4 Arcade Edition then.

  • JeroenZM #4 1 year ago

    Glad to see that Inafune still likes to think 'out of the box'. I wonder how his departure will influence Mega Man Legends 3? The 8-bit Mega Man series is currently being developed by Inticreates.

  • RobotRocker #5 1 year ago

    I wonder how his departure will influence Mega Man Legends 3?

    Inafune hand picked the producer for his work on Okamiden so it's safe to say its in good hands (If it doesn't get canned like MM Universe did)

  • President_Weasel #6 1 year ago

    and I bet nearly one hundred people across Europe eventually buy it.

  • brod #7 1 year ago

    "Studio bosses keen to cut costs opted for a policy of systemic sequelisation"

    When has Capcom not had a policy of systemic sequelisation?

  • Gojiratron #8 1 year ago

    Nothing new here really.


    Wasn't Treasure formed by ex-Konami employees fed up of making sequels?

  • silversun #9 1 year ago

    I heard a bit about this eairlier, i think it was a brave choice to make and go through with a game , my view is game publishers should have at least one game a year they take a risk on while falling back on what they do well.

    I know squareenix for example was going do gun loco , ok probley not going sell so well and the quality issue probley stoped that project but its good if they take a risk on one title and say ok this is a bit different from ever other game we have done
    mindjack i enjoyed btw but it did not get good press reviews.

    hopefully the capcoms, squareenix and konami will keep try some titles that are different from what they normally do but at same time keep the game series we love and expand on them that would be the best outcome it think.

  • evnewell #10 1 year ago

    well we all like the SF sequels, and how doesn't want an HD, classically animated mega man X sequel? Can you imagine if they did a megaman (or proper metroid - not capcom, I know) in the spirit of Hard Corps: Uprising?

    Bring on some beautiful HD sequels to old side scrollers.

  • Silent-Hal #11 1 year ago

    I'm still mad at Capcom for their apparent refusal to localise any upcoming Ace Attorney games. Unless Resident Evil can get its act back together that's the only Capcom franchise I still care about. I need more Wright and Edgeworth damn it!

  • Phishfood #12 1 year ago

    HOLY SHIT, this guy has balls! 400%

    Board of executives: Exactly how much did you spend over budget?
    Inafune: Over 9000