At an event Friday, Inafune asked attendees what they thought of the show, asking them to be candid with their opinions. Then he proffered this:

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."

Inafune backtracked a bit, saying Capcom's upcoming releases exemplify "kick ass" Japanese product. Well, yes, except for those, Mr. Inafune.

Keiji Inafune Dumps on Tokyo Game Show 2009 [Destructoid, via VG247]

Today, Capcom's Keiji Inafune gave us another piece of the puzzle, explaining how a game show enters into the multiplayer portion of the game.

During a press conference at Zest Cantina in Tokyo, Inafune explained that Greene is part of a game show that pits people against zombies. What he didn't explain was how or if that concept was also played out in the single player campaign. Fortunately, we got a chance to play a bit of it that same night.

Bungie, Inafune says, is an "amazing studio", and he was curious how Bungie made its titles to see if Capcom could ever add some of that je-ne-sais-pas to Capcom games. "I wanted to come down to Bungie in order to see just how well our philosophies on game design matched up," Inafune adds. "If things clicked, I know it would be interesting to collaborate together on a title in the future."

Interesting, indeed.

Bungie Weekly Update: 09/11/09 : 9/11/2009 2:37 PM PDT [Bungie via VG247]

Beware: This clip has clinking noises. If you are sensitive to clinking noise, might want to turn the volume off.

Keiji Inafune Signing 500 Servbot Mugs by Hand [Capcom Unity]

They're some kind of Korea-only promo item, and aside from the highly-coveted Servbot livery (and Inafune autograph), there's an adorable Mega Man sketch at the base of the mug, with which you can impress colleagues as you chug down your morning cup of joe/english breakfast.

サイン [Daletto, via Capcom]

Mega Man creator and all-round Capcom pin-up boy Keiji Inafune was due to appear at the Nordic Game Conference in Malmö, Sweden this week. Was. Instead, his ticket has been pulled by Capcom HQ, who issued a statement that reads:

I'm sorry to announce that Keiji Inafune has cancelled his appearance at Nordic Game 2009, due to corporate policy restricting foreign travel during the current influenza outbreak.

Fun facts: Capcom is based in Osaka, Japan. The Keihanshin area (which includes the major cities of Osaka, Kobe and Kyoto) in Japan currently has 130 confirmed cases of swine flu. The entire country of Sweden? Three.

I know where I'd rather be.

We've contacted Capcom to see how this will affect Capcom's plans for Japanese personnel to attend E3.

Inafune cancels Nordic appearance over swine flu restrictions [GI.biz]

We've known that the game would contain multiplayer since Mental Mill's Laura Scholl announced at the Game Developers Conference last month that Dead Rising 2 would support 6,000 zombies on screen at one time during multiplayer. Soon after, however, Scholl cleverly threw everyone off scent by ingeniously telling the gaming world that she meant to say "multiplatform" instead of "multiplayer".

So up until now we just assumed that the game would have 6,000 zombies on screen during multiplatform, which makes perfect sense. Now that we know for sure that there is multiplayer in the game, we can all get really pissed off when it comes out and doesn't contain a multiplatform mode.

As for why Dead Rising 2 contains multiplayer when the previous title sold fine without it? Inafune explains.

"We're at a point in game history that you need to have some form of multiplayer component in a game"

Because they have to. Excellent.

Dead Rising 2 does have multiplayer [Eurogamer]

Instead, as Capcom's Keiji Inafune explains, they looked outside of the games industry altogether:

I'd have to say, in a symbolic way, [our inspiration was] the movie industry. In the movie industry, investment decision-making is extremely severe. It involves production committees and numerous investors. But with the game industry, that hadn't been the case. I noticed these differences like these, observing what was happening with movies and anime. The same is true of other industries too. The more people I talk to, the more I find things that ought to be "givens", that we in the game industry didn't even see.

Sounds like somebody learned a lesson from a bunch of former employees burning through millions of dollars on a creatively-driven product that didn't make good business sense.

Keiji Inafune [Capcom]

Capcom talisman Keiji Inafune - the creator of Mega Man, Onimusha and Dead Rising - explains that, despite a lot of internal pressure to avoid doing so, he felt that releasing games on the 360 was the best way the company could go about achieving healthy sales outside of Japan:

I think I can only get away with saying this now, but I really thought that the using the Xbox was only way to break into overseas markets, and I took that hypothesis all the way. In the end, I am very happy that I did so.

Considering both Dead Rising and Lost Planet sold over a million units early on in the 360's ifetime sales, and both were Capcom's first truly successful games aimed specifically at a non-Japanese audience, we're inclined to agree. And anyway, it's not like it matters these days. Capcom would port Lost Planet to the 3DO if they could.

Developer Interview [Capcom] [Image: palermo philip]

Inafune stated Capcom was working on a new Monster Hunter. While Monster Hunter 3 (tri-) is coming to the Wii this summer in Japan, this upcoming PSP game could very well be Monster Hunter 3rd. "But the title isn't decided," says Inafune.

The action role-playing-series has sold 8.5 million copies to date and Monster Hunter Freedom 2G has shipped 3 million units, so you can bet Capcom is working on another MH and another one after that and so on.

According to Inafune, his son is now in a rebellious phase. "So, he should really dislike me, but thanks to games," Inafune said, "we communicate quite well. Halo 3, Monster Hunter 2nd G, they all help bring my son and I closer."

Inafune's kid is very, very good. Inafune? Not as good. The game designer explains in the recent Bionic Commando podcast:

Sometimes when playing Death Match on Halo, my son would say, 'Dad, I'll give you a handicap. I won't use any weapons. See if you can take me.' The next thing I know, he's running me down in a Ghost over and over... So my son ended up beating me without using any weapons.

The real world and the game world, Inafune points out, are different, of course. "In the real world, I tell my son what to do, but in the game world, he tells me what to do," he said. "This kind of role-reversal is really fun for us, and I think it's a great way for parents to communicate with their children."

Elsewhere in the podcast, Inafune drops hints about the upcoming zombies-in-a-casino-game Dead Rising 2. Whether the game is set in Las Vegas or Reno is "a bit of a secret," Inafune said. The new main character has a "more interesting story," and the American developer making DR2 is "building up the weak parts" of Dead Rising.

Top Secret [Bionic Commando via Capcom] [Pic]

According to Inafune, "We're finally putting out new Dead Rising and Lost Planet games! As a main principle we're thinking about multi-platform and about slightly expanding upon the Xbox 360 version."

He goes on to talk about the business of gaming and gaming promotion. Don't take this as confirmation that the next Dead Rising will be multi-platform — Lost Planet already was. Just don't be surprised when Dead Rising 2, like pretty much all Capcom games, is.

In fact, if Capcom's statements to its shareholders are anything to go on, you can guarantee all future games will be multi-plat.

One of the biggest reasons seems to be the game's ad hoc network play. For Monster Hunter, this type of play is so popular that friends often meet up just to play MH. Capcom's Keiji Inafune explains to Game Informer:

It’s important to bear in mind that the game wasn’t initially a success in Japan. When it first came out, it still had people playing together cooperatively, but it was based online in a much more limited way compared to PSP. When it moved to the PSP and you could have four people sitting around together to play on an ad hoc network, that’s when it really took off in Japan. So you’d get friends playing together and get people of different skill levels and experience levels helping each other out and interacting that way. This plays a big part in why it was so successful in Japan—it’s a game that takes a long time to find interesting. There’s quite a long ramp to get to the point where you’re actually into the game. If you’re playing with four other people in that way, you’re much more likely to hit that point than if you’re by yourself. For the U.S., really, we need to convey how fun it is to play to people and to get to the point where you find the game interesting. Probably playing on infrastructure mode isn’t really the way to do that, that’s my feeling. It’s about getting people together and having them go through this experience together.

Monster Hunter is obviously fun to play — however, we think the hard sell is going to be convincing Western gamers they need to play with a bunch of friends together in the same room to truly enjoy the experience. Though, it's possible. Anything is possible.

Well, not anything.

East Meets West—Capcom's Inafune Talks Dark Void, More [Game Informer via Go Nintendo]

Capcom's Keiji Inafune was one of the Japanese game developers to support the Xbox 360 platform with titles like Dead Rising and Lost Planet. He's optimistic about the console's chances:

They've been having a hard time of it since the launch in Japan, but lately it seems to have found its feet and the Xbox is selling a lot better now. Between this year and next year I think we'll see a lot more 360 games shipped in Japan.

Words of encouragement for wealthy corporations everywhere. Just goes to show if you're willing to pour buckets of money into a region, maybe one day it just might buy your products. Heart warming stuff.

Cultural hurdles to cross in gaming [The Seattle Times via Capcom-Unity]

Keiji Inafune, head of research and development at Capcom, was recently asked in an interview with 1up.com about the possibility of a new Breath of Fire game being released in the future. It turns out that not only is entire series being shelved, but it may never see the light again.

"There are currently no plans on making a new Breath of Fire game. Apart from that, regarding RPG titles, they are very popular in Japan, but only certain RPG titles sell so Capcom doesn't really need to even consider making these titles as an option."

Inafune would continue on to say that while the opportunity to revive the series later on might be possible, he says the trouble has to do with the size of the team compared to the other heavy hitters, like Square-Enix and Namco Bandai.

"There's a low possibility that we'll be making one in the near future. But, I realize that there are fans of the series, and we have staff who are interested so it's not out of the question. We actually have a lot of titles in a similar situation, where there's an interest by users and our staff, but where we just don't have the resources. Square Enix and Namco Bandai have 1,200 development staff but we only have 600. There's a lot more that we want to do, titles that would probably sell well if we made them, but we just don't have enough staff."

I think Breath of Fire is an extremely underrated series, particularly in the RPG scene. BOF3 was, and still is, one of my favorite games, so I hope Capcom takes the lid off at some point. I don't care if it's for DS or PSP, either, just gimme!

Keiji Inafune Talks Mega Man Revivals, Strider Possibilities (1up)

Well, I really do love Super Smash Brothers. It's a great series...but, Nintendo hasn't asked me yet if they can use Mega Man in their game. I'm still waiting...we have a little bit of time left, it's not coming out for another few months. They might get around to asking us if we'd like to put Mega Man in Super Smash Brothers. Maybe if somebody from Nintendo is listening to this podcast, they'll give me a call.

I know this is going to come as quite a blow to all of you out there had been keeping your fingers crossed for Megaman's appearance, but it looks like you're out of luck this time. Or are you? As he says "we still have a little bit of time left." But will it be enough time for some last minute coding?

[via GoNintendo]

Ashcraft: So Dead Rising 2 won't be announced next year?
Inafune: Yeah. The original team has been split up and is working on different projects.
Ashcraft: And you are probably busy with your executive role at Capcom?
Inafune: I do really want to do Dead Rising 2. It's just still hard to get games for the Western market approved.
Ashcraft: But Dead Rising was a big hit abroad.
Inafune: It wasn't a big hit here in Japan.
Ashcraft: Why is it hard to still get Western geared games approved in Japan?
Inafune: You live here. You know how it is. That's why getting games for the Western market is still a challenge. So we need people like [Osaka-based Capcom producer] Ben Judd to bridge the gap between Japan and abroad. It's really hard for people like Ben, I'm sure.

Microsoft Japan boss Takahashi Sensui walks by, says a brief "hello." Sensui notices me, smiles and tells Inafune, "Watch out for this guy." Inafune laughs.

Ashcraft: Capcom has been cranking about a lot new IPs like Dead Rising, though — not just relying on sequels.
Inafune: And there are a lot more new titles coming. A lot more.