Keiji Inafune quit Capcom last week, but, in an interview he gave right before his resignation was announced, he spouts some pretty awesome quotes about the Japanese game industry..
I guess that we’ve known for a while that Keiji Inafune was unhappy with his job, even though he’s been at it for a while and has made some awesome games including Mega Man and Resident Evil 4. He’s gone on record as saying that he “hates his job” and that his Japanese colleagues were “barely keeping up with the West.” But in an interview that he conducted with Japanese outlet 4gamer right after he resigned, Inafune doesn’t hold anything back. He compares the Japanese videogame industry to a “Communist state” and throws out a crazy sexual metaphor that we all understand. Sorta.
“The reason why I’m quitting is basically because I think that the game industry itself must change the way it goes about making games. You might think I’m being hypocritical, but the really big wall that the Japanese game industry is hitting is the changing of its creators into salarymen,” Inafune said. “There are a lot of people who take their company’s commitment for granted and don’t work as hard as they should. This could be said of the entire industry, and of course Capcom is no exception.
“In short, it’s like a communist state. Working as hard as you can is your own loss. Not working hard becomes more advantageous. But doesn’t that get in the way of making games? You can’t make good games by just taking it easy.”
Inafune doesn’t just blame the game creators, he also sees the rising expectations of consumers as a problem. But, in true Inafune style, he is not content to express that point without a sexual metaphor.
“In the game industry 20 years ago, no matter what kind of game you made, you could sell 200 or 300 thousand copies. If you even made a decent game, it’d sell 500 thousand or a million copies. But those days are over,” Inafune said. “Competition has intensified, and furthermore, players have gotten ‘used to’ games. To use a simple analogy, any kind of erotic picture will turn on a middle school student, right?”
And I guess, now that we’re older, we gamers need hardcore pr0n to get it up, is that it, Inafune?
While it’s certainly been a great ride reading Inafune’s quotes when discussing Capcom games these past few years, it seems like his departure is the best thing for him. Here’s hoping that he ends up making games in a company and situation that will suit his talents.
Source: 4gamer, translated by Cheesemeister via Wired
