Keiji Inafune quits Capcom

Keiji Inafune has decided to quit Capcom at the end of the month. He's been with the company for 23 years.

The head of R&D management group, consumer games R&D division and contents management division rued having "nowhere higher to go" on his blog (translated by Kotaku).

Inafune added: "I'm leaving Capcom with the intention of starting my life over." He's not taking a break but pursuing new challenges from the off. What they are, and who they'll be for, is unknown.

As of 1st November, Jun Takeuchi will take on the added responsibility of corporate officer as well as his existing deputy head of consumer games and R&D Division, and general manager of R&D production.

According to GamesIndustry.biz, Capcom's taking Inafune's depature as an opportunity to shuffle a few key staff around. Katsuhiko Ichii will become head of development organisation, and a new development management team will be headed by Nobuyuki Matsushima, Jun Takeuchi, Taichiro Genbun, Hiroyuki Kobayashi and hutaro Kobayashi.

Keiji Inafune's career at Capcom was long and illustrious. He's best known for establishing Mega Man, but has also helped bring Resident Evil, Onimusha, Lost Planet, Dead Rising, Street Fighter IV and many more games to fruition.

Inafune was charged by Capcom an April to oversee all Western-developed games to ensure they adhered to the publisher's style. His swansong will be Dead Rising 2, which was released at the end of September.

Inafune has also been known to speak his mind. Most recently, he's been a strong naysayer of Japanese game development which, he believes, is "five years behind" the West.

Eurogamer's last interview with Keiji Inafune at Capcom was at the start of September on the topic of Dead Rising 2. We soon veered off that, though.