Inafune Trying To Build A Company That Rewards Developers For Good Games

After Keiji Inafune stepped down from his position at Capcom in 2010, he formed three new companies of his own, the most notable being a development studio named Comcept, which comes up with a game concept, and collaborates with external studios to execute on it.

Now that Inafune has struck out on his own, he says he’s starting to learn things that he couldn’t before—one of them being a developer’s viewpoint, as opposed to a publisher’s.

“That was part of the motivation behind me leaving Capcom,” Inafune says in an interview with Gamasutra. “I learned everything about the publisher’s viewpoint of the business from Capcom; now I’m learning everything about the developer’s side of it.”

Inafune says that he feels Japan is home to many talented developers, but the problem is that none of these developers have the power to put that talent to use, or that the companies they work for have failed to notice their talent entirely, which limits the kind of work they can do.

Inafune says he hopes to help change this, and that he’s starting by “digging up a lot of talent” from his collaboration with Marvelous AQL on Soul Sacrifice for the PlayStation Vita. Marvelous AQL and Inafune are also collaborating on KAIO: King of Pirates for the Nintendo 3DS.

Speaking with regard to Comcept, Inafune says: “I’m trying to make a company where the developers feel more of a reward for making great products. I’d like to succeed at that, and I hope that inspires other outfits to see if they can duplicate that success.”