September 17th, 2011

Keiji Inafune wanted to finish Mega Man Legends 3, but Capcom didn’t let him

54 Comments

Keiji Inafune, who left Capcom a few months back has revealed that, even though he was leaving, he still wanted to finish Mega Man Legends 3, but Capcom wouldn’t let him. Here’s what he said on the subject:

So, I told them that I was going to found my own independent company and leave Capcom. However, I stated that I was ready to make a contract with them so that I could keep working on those projects that I started. I couldn’t start making contracts with other publishers for sure if Capcom agreed to the proposition, but I wanted to see those projects that I started to completion. But it couldn’t be done. They answered, ‘We have no need to do that.

…and also:

[I went to the trouble of]…Finding the right time, gathering the team members, planning strategies, all so we could barely start on Mega Man Legends 3. I really don’t want to quit at this crucial moment…but I can’t keep going at Capcom. I am too tired to keep going. I wanted to leave Capcom to recharge my energy, and support Capcom from there, but it seems they don’t allow it. I want to make all my effort to keep Legends 3 alive, but I’m really not sure I can do it.

That’s some solid dedication from Inafune. It’s a shame it didn’t matter in the end.

  • Symbol de Au

    Capcom seems sort of upset about him leaving. Not like angry just upset.

    Wish they’d let him finish.

  • ENOCH

    That is so sad. And now capcom doesnt give a shit about megaman or their fans.

  • http://3dsblog cows say quack

    crapcom is just jelous cuz all they can do is a guy spamming the name haduken and the sure you can

  • Truth BeTold….

    Here come the whiners that say ” fock yew crapcom i no buy your MH3 or RE: Revealshit”

    just saying……………..

  • David

    In before blind Capcom hate.

    What he want’s is ridiculous “Hey, let me work at another company but publish one of your largest IPS under it!”

    That’s retarded, it’d be like if when Shinji Mikamin stopped working with Capcom he wanted to go and Develop Resident evil under another company.

    • Symbol de Au

      No he didn’t want to be developing it under another company’s name. The logo would still say Capcom. Basically it would be like hiring an outside team to work on your game.

    • munther555

      yea, this is sorta like when “project M” made metroid other M and retro made donkey kong country returns, both awesome games and made under Nintendo’s supervision from another company,they trusted them with the worlds most prized franchises, both games sold millions and could have worked out in the end for capcom if they weren’t so stubborn and they would have still had most of there fans……im still buying there games but not mega man, unless they let inafune make one..just one so they can get there respect back..

    • Omegaplib

      Retro Studios is a first-party developer for Nintendo, meaning that it is a subsidiary of Nintendo, that’s not the same case, but the Project M thing is the same case.

  • Nesyaj0

    Can any1 else physically see Capcom’s popularity dropping.

    I bet if Keiji wanted to make a Super Street Fighter 4: Gold Edition Capcom would be shoving money down his pants…
    I dunno why they seem to rely on their freakin remakes so much…

    • Nesyaj0

      David’s got a point though, but still Capcom probably won’t bring MML3 alive again. It would almost be like that branch of Bungie making Halo 4. I’m pretty sure Keiji would gvie Capcom credit but no one wants to see this game die it just seems Capcom cares the least to all of their fans

  • Alvaster

    Anything related to MML3 seems pointless now. It’s dead. The only time anyone should care is really if/when they start it up.

  • Mark

    I have a feeling some kind of stupid shareholder crap is probably the root cause alongside a team of lawyers scared that the community will all want their piece of the pie if the series continues to thrive.

    It’s a shame this is the mindset of gaming companies out there and not more like the oldheads, like ralph baer, who contributed significantly to making handheld systems (the gp series of handhelds) people could code and maintain themselves past the official shelf-life. It’s just a shame the majors can’t find some middle ground and allow more community active games on handhelds and consoles.

    Not touting pc fanboyism but there are active PC game devs out there who recognize and even buy mods of games to adopt officially. THIS is gaming.

    Maybe this gaming generation can be different and go back to how it used to be, mass producing awesome games with awesome teams behind them without all this hubbub, politics and fear.

    Ah well, here’s to what could have been something great but a bunch of confused people in charge chose wrong.

    Feel better Keiji, get some rest and peace of mind.

  • viet5557

    no wonder he left capcom

  • Some random guy

    *Prays for MML3 to come back from the dead*

  • Jmaster720

    Excuses Excuses Excuses …………..You Failed me Capcom

  • airdrifter

    If we could set up some sort of fund to help with development which I highly doubt would happen then I would happly donate 30 – 50 pounds. :(

  • Dan

    With the Mega Man Legends 3 news keep coming up, i’d like to someday see the logo, and see the headliner say “Mega Man Legends 3: Uncancelled”

  • rmsaun

    Capcom’s investors and shareholders across the globe should be very, very afraid for their investments, and these statements only reinforce that face a hundredfold.

    It is abundantly clear that Capcom’s upper management has absolutely no concept of brand loyalty, investment strategies, or even common sense regarding development teams and treating their employees right. For as long as Mr. Inafune has been with the company, how bad must his situation have become working with them to prompt him to completely leave and strike out on his own elsewhere? At the very least, he had the kindness and generosity to continue to offer his services to Capcom even after his departure. What a shame Capcom decided to deny the man the ability to continue to produce good games for them.

    What’s more, these statements seem to confirm that Capcom is in fact doing away with any and all future Megaman games or properties. Which is in fact, a tremendously sad fate to befall one of the grandfathers of video games. He was one of the big names back when the console wars were beginning.

    Nintendo had Mario, Sega had Sonic, and Capcom had Megaman. They helped to define the platforming genre, and make it a successful and profitable industry. To see both Mario and Sonic continue to thrive (some better than others, *cough* *cough*) in the modern age of video games, yet to see Megaman fall from grace like a flaming sack of crap breaks my heart.

    But what truly rubs salt in the wound is the fact that Capcom is taking such a bizarre release strategy for the upcoming years. The only console games Capcom is looking at right now is the umpteen billionth Street Figher III remastering, a Street Fighter game that adds Tekken Characters to it’s roster, A Street Fighter game with Marvel characters in it’s lineup, a ‘reboot’ of Devil May Cry, Asura’s Wrath, Dragon’s Dogma, and two more new Resident Evil games, mixed with HD remakes of previous Resident Evil titles.

    Granted, that may sound awesome, but when you look at the critical analyses of all of those games, only a few really stand out In fact, it almost feels as though they’re trying to desperately change their trademark series from Megaman to Street Fighter, but I believe that it will ultimately backfire on them.

    Here’s hoping that a new company will step in and take advantage of the gap in the industry left by Capcom’s decision to murder one of the oldest characters in video games.

    *Sigh* Okay, I feel better now.

    • Mallow for SSB4

      idk bout u but capcom to me has always been about SF and fighting games MvC, CvS, Darkstalkers, and upcoming SFxT i thing SF was crowned years ago

  • nintendo_fan

    That’s sad. If there was a way for Inafune to get his project back on under another company like his own, hopefully he can finish it.

    …too bad MegaMan is a Capcom character. So I don’t know if there’s gonna be a possibility to bring it back. :(

  • SuperSherbet

    Well, I was hoping Inafune’s new company would buy Mega Man from Capcom, but Capcom probably wouldn’t let anyone take it off their hands even though Capcom refuses to do anything with Mega Man themselves.

    The death of Mega Man has been confirmed 100%

  • AdmanAbou

    I will probably never buy another Capcom game. Scratch that, I will never buy another Capcom game.

  • mmol3

    man i dont see why if capcom didnt have to do anything why they didnt let the man work well at leat megaman revenge of dr wily game out yesterday at least i can say i have something of megaman on there

  • bob

    This is starting to become FLAMEBAIT.

    • bob

      However, it’s not as bad as previous articles and it’s to bad it didn’t work out.

    • bob

      I mean too bad.

  • Dystus

    Pfffft. Why would I care when I’ve got some monster hunting to do soon?

    • omg

      I love Megaman since I had 7 years, now I’m 23, everyone’s sad about the Megaman legends 3 being cancelled and all, but I think Capcom cancelled the game because they were not sure about the future of the 3DS. On top of that, they were working with the community of gamers..who knows what kind of problems they may have been found while developing this way and having to worry about the sales at the same time.

      In my opinion, the meaning of Capcom’s comment on twitter was misunderstood. I think they couldn’t express themselves as they wanted with the character limit. Damn, even I had problems with comments on twitter this way, and I know a bunch of ppl had too. xD

      The news were sad, but the rage against Capcom was even worse. Japanese ppl are very polite and careful with their actions, specially with others. I’m not saying that you guys are wrong or anything, I’m sad and angy myself, but they had other game projects for Nintendo and their fans.

    • Glasswhite

      monster hunter 3g or 4 might not be localized… remember that

    • Ginny

      Too bad Capcom has no officials plans on releasing Monster Hunter outside of Japan.

  • Alexandre

    Why!!!!!
    Capcom!! Why didn’t you let Keiji work on it????
    That must be the stupidest thing I heard for a while.
    Yeah! No wonder he left….

  • SAMMASTER9

    I KNOW INAFUNE CAN DO IT! I will keep going with the revival efforts, but he can make the biggest impact. We need to save MML3!

  • AEM

    It’s official then.

    Capcom is slowly killing Megaman.

    • SuperSherbet

      Slowly?

      More like killing Mega Man off as fast as possible, it hasn’t even been a year since Inafune left yet.

  • DarkK

    see? Crapcom wants megaman to die.

  • kenneth

    sometimes i think big companies can sometimes get a little stupid. I dont see why they didnt just finish Legends 3 or whatever……bad Capcom!

  • darkgamer001

    Mega Man can no longer survive as a crapcom franchise. Best thing for the series (although it’s not gonna happen) would be if the series is sold off to Inafune’s new company or to Nintendo. Nintendo have trusted some of their best franchises (such as Metroid and Zelda) to 3rd parties before and would undoubtedly be more than willing to let Inafune work on Mega Man titles.

  • http://nintendo3dsblog.com/photos-of-a-kid-icarus-uprising-float-in-japan Kaizar

    Don’t worry as soon as Capcom sees 10 million to 40 million people own a 3DS, they will make it by themselves.

    But we might not have to wait that long, because one of the CEO’s of CyberConnect2 has said that they are very interested in doing MML3.

    So chances are we will see a Other M kind of thing happen with this game, thanks to CyberConnect 2.

    So this game should come out before October 2012.

    That’s as good as it’s gonna get, but it should happen.

    So why don’t we all send messages of support to Cyber Connect 2 to Co-Develop Mega Man Legends 3.

    SHABLAGOO!

  • First

    it’s all just a trap. capcom is making a fuzz about the game first, than releasing a prototype to see how people will receive it,
    mark my words guys

    • http://nintendo3dsblog.com/photos-of-a-kid-icarus-uprising-float-in-japan Kaizar

      IT’S A TRAP!

  • The Video Gamer

    This makes me feel sad. I actually think I hate Capcom. This combined with everything else they’ve done. But I’ll keep coming back for Monster Hunter and Resident Evil, urgh.

  • 3DyeS

    I can’t understand what all the fuss is about; Capcom canceled a (not very promising) game in order to focus on more interesting projects. What’s the problem? Game companies are doing this sort of thing all the time.

    All these Megaman Legends stories are really clogging up the blog… It’s time to move on David!

    • darkgamer001

      Calling a game which would, as the only reporter who played it said, have probably gotten at least an 8, not to mention a MM game (an icon in the gaming industry), as “not very promising” is quite disrespectful imo. You may not like it, but MM has thousands of fans who are willing to stand up and make themselves heard.

    • Infernite

      Any game that you don’t like clogs up the blog. I love MML3, but I barely have an intrest in Kingdom Hearts. To me, they clog up the blog as I wait for more Kid Icarus Uprising news.

      All you do is suck it up, and deal with it.

    • 3DyeS

      @ Infernite – Actually it clogs up the blog because it’s a canceled game and is no longer relevant, after having been covered non-stop since Capcom dropped it.

      Me not liking the game has nothing to do with that fact. It is simply yesterdays news and no longer worth reporting on.

      @ darkgamer001 – When I said ‘not very promising’ I meant more in terms of Capcom’s view of how well the game would perform once released.

  • Cheese

    tl;dr

    Crapcom got butthurt about Inafune leaving so they killed off Megaman.

  • Marcos Luis

    We have no need to do that? Capcom, are you serious? Megaman is dying and you don’t need to do that!? Seriously, if this gtoes on, FPS and stupid sport games will spam all over the consoles.

  • FalconPuncher

    Oh man…All the hate’s coming back…ohh…DAMN YOU CAPCOM!!! >_<

  • Neoxon

    Eh, all these MML3 stories are like kicking a dead horse. It’s dead, we just have to move on. I was sad too, but there will be other games.

    • http://nintendo3dsblog.com/photos-of-a-kid-icarus-uprising-float-in-japan Kaizar

      And there’s CyberConnect 2 to Co-develop it.

      Which adds even more to the game.

      Like what happened to Other M.

      SHABLAGOO!

    • http://nintendo3dsblog.com/photos-of-a-kid-icarus-uprising-float-in-japan Kaizar

      So we can look atnthis as a blessing in disguise if it gets Co-Developed by one or so Developers.

      MINT BERRY CRUNCH!

    • http://nintendo3dsblog.com/photos-of-a-kid-icarus-uprising-float-in-japan Kaizar

      ^ look at this (Correction for “look atnthis”)

  • Michael M

    Not trying to be rude or anything. But I was upset when the game first got canned. I’m now over it really. I’m looking more foward to Kid Icarus: Uprising then anything.

    But with that being said. What the fuck Capcom. He offers you help and you just spit on him. If a company offered me help with a game that was canned I would totally let them help you money whoring thiefs. I hope you go bankrupt. By god let Inafune finish the God Damn game instead of making Marvel VS Capcom 3 and Street fighter Remakes. We don’t want that. We want god damn new games. I will admit you’ve lost all of my respect. But i’ve got to move on.

    I wish all you mega man legends 3 fans good luck. I will continue to support all of you. If this game does see the light of day it will be a day 1 buy for me. good luck.

  • newroostewr

    Capcom used to stand for high quality and fun oh well