Keiji Inafune Resurfaces

   After being a career Capcom employee for over 23 years, Keiji Inafune left the company in late October 2010. Keiji has resurfaced with a personal blog where he espouses his future plans and goals. According to his posting, Keiji is looking forward to producing new types of games in the social networking and online areas. Keiji added, "I'd like to challenge things that I couldn't do during my salaryman era and greatly exceed my former self," in a reference to his former position at Capcom. Keiji's blog link: http://inafking.exblog.jp/

Keiji Inafune deserts Capcom

   The man responsible for designing Rockman and giving him that natty blue suit is leaving Capcom, effective immediately. Keiji's been at Capcom for 23 years where he oversaw the production of the Rockman series of games and most recently, Dead Rising 2.

   Keiji was promoted to the title of "Global Head of Production" in April 2010 where he managed underlings and gave them direction. He was living the life of a corporate manager but apparently, that's not the kind of job that a designer necessarily desires. Based on some of his comments, it's my opinion that working in a huge corporation like Capcom is rife with politics and internal strife that can wear a manager down. His comments about the lack of innovation in Japanese game design may have also played a part in Keiji's departure.

   That's why I want to work in small and nimble firms where the hours are flexible and the workers have independence and autonomy (for the most part). A large corporation moves slowly and deliberately since there are multiple layers between upper management and the working stiffs. When there are that many layers, elements of mediocrity like politics, backstabbing, ass kissing, nepotism, and all that other crap gets shoveled into the mix.