Keiji Inafune

Man, Japan is over. We're done. Our game industry is finished.

I look around Tokyo Games Show, and everyone’s making awful games; Japan is at least five years behind.

Keiji Inafune(稲船 敬二, born 8 May 1965) is a Japanese video game producer, illustrator and businessman.

Quotes

• I'm often called the father of Mega Man, but actually, his design was already created when I joined Capcom.My mentor [Capcom senior member Akira Kitamura], who was the designer of the original Mega Man, had a basic concept of what Mega Man was supposed to look like. So I only did half of the job in creating him.
  • Source:Hirohiko Niizumi (23 September 2007). "TGS '07: Mega Man celebrates 20th anniversary". GameSpot. CBS Interactive Inc. Retrieved 1 February 2011.

• You know, I want to word this in a way to explain some of the issues that come with trying to make a game of this size on multiple platforms.
  • Source:Patrick Klepek.Mighty No. 9’s Designer Says ‘I Own All The Problems That Came With This Game'.Kotaku. Retrieved 2016-06-21.

• Personally when I looked around [at] all the different games at the TGS floor, I said "Man, Japan is over. We're done. Our game industry is finished."
  • Source:"TGS 09: Keiji Inafune dumps on Tokyo Game Show 2009". Destructoid. Retrieved 2017-08-11.

• I look around Tokyo Games Show, and everyone’s making awful games; Japan is at least five years behind.
  • Source:Tabuchi, Hiroko."To Regain Video Game Lead, Japan Looks to West". Retrieved 2018-07-15.

• It's very severe, but very honest. Unless Japanese people feel embarrassed from the experience of getting harsh comments, saying [new games] could have been better is not an opinion they would take seriously. When they're embarrassed and they feel obliged to change, it would make a difference.
  • Source:"Q&A: Mega Man Creator Wants Japan to Admit Failure". WIRED. Retrieved 2018-07-15.

• Back in the day Japanese games were used to winning and were used to success. We celebrated all sorts of victories. However at some point these winners became losers. Not accepting that fact has led to the tragic state of Japanese games today.
  • Source:"Mega Man creator laments". Eurogamer.net. Retrieved 2018-07-15.

• I want to end comments that Capcom games made in Europe aren't really Capcom games ... basically saying that whether games are created in America or Japan or anywhere in the world, I will be the one overlooking it and so it will have that Capcom flavor that fans know and love.
  • Source:"Interview with Keiji Inafune of Capcom". Prima Games. Retrieved 2018-07-15.