[Music] in the spring of 2010 japanese video game company capcom had grim news annual profits had dropped an astonishing 73 executives put most of the blame on two disappointing releases dark void and bionic commando critics panned both games and sales numbers fell way below expectations dark void and bionic commando were unique in that they were both made outside of japan it was part of capcom's initiative on globalization the company wanted to develop games for an international audience not ju
st japan but development didn't always go smoothly capcom's relationship with swedish developer grin studios makers of bionic commando got so bad that producers said whatever do what you want i don't care to right the ship capcom announced that long-time producer keg inafune was now capcom's global head of production inafune had been with the company since 1987 and was somewhat of a celebrity in the video game industry he produced some of capcom's biggest hits including onimusha dead rising and
lost planet it was actually inafune himself who pushed for capcom's globalization effort in the early 2000s inafune noticed a shift in the industry where the biggest blockbuster games were not coming from japan but from the west he believed capcom was at the very bottom of the video game industry and the only way to get back to the top was to make games that appealed to a global audience inafune had a good point in 2002 japan bought half of all video games sold but by 2010 that number had droppe
d to just 10 percent as the new global head of production inafune would oversee all projects to ensure games had a capcom flavor that fans know and love the company also planned to cut down development time create new franchises and finally revitalize current brands and what better brand than inafune's golden child mega man the mega man series known as rock man in japan was inafune's biggest claim to fame inafune had worked on the series since its inception and beginning with mega man 3 became t
he de facto father of the franchise but fans felt that capcom had forgotten about the series the 90s were a heyday for mega man games but going into the 2000s releases slowed down considerably by 2010 fans could only hope and pray for a new mega man title but on april 21st 2010 capcom filed a trademark for a new game mega man universe unfortunately there were no other details fans could only speculate on what the game could be was it a new game in the mega man legends series a fighting game an m
mo no one was sure but at least there was a new mega man game coming fans got more information on july 16 2010 when capcom officially announced mega man universe it was a new downloadable title for playstation network and xbox live capcom also released a teaser trailer for the game which featured other capcom characters including ryu from street fighter and sir arthur from ghosts and goblins there was even an appearance from bad box art mega man it was an exciting trailer but somewhat mysterious
in a q a with game spot inafune didn't provide any further explanations he said i can't say what it is exactly at this point but the people who i want to play are the fans who played mega man games growing up what exactly was mega man universe players theorized it had something to do with customization based on mega man's ability to change arm cannons in the trailer and from the press release claiming fans will envision their most far-out mega man dreams coming true but even behind the scenes c
apcom themselves weren't really sure what mega man universe was going to be capcom was developing the game internally in japan and inafune served as the director several developers from the first two mega man games were also on the development staff although inafune knew the game should appeal to a western audience he wasn't exactly sure what direction to go in one source claimed there wasn't a solid plan about what the game was going to be one day it was a mega man 2 remake the next he would ta
lk about it as if it would be a platform in itself it went back and forth for a little while but the vision for mega man universe slowly came to fruition a week after the teaser trailer dropped inafune and mega man universe producer akiko ito held a panel at san diego comic-con and discussed the upcoming game inafune stated he wanted the game to encourage creativity in players and unite mega man fans from around the planet to play together in one place it matched up with inafune's vision of capc
om making games for a global audience the game was also going to be titled mega man universe everywhere even in japan where the series was known as rockman still this new information didn't make it clear what the game was going to be about finally on september 2nd 2010 the day before the pax west convention the first gameplay trailers for mega man universe were released exclusively on ign gamespot and 1up the trailer featured an introduction from inafune himself each website had a different vari
ation of the trailer showcasing gameplay with three different characters rockman mega man and bad box art mega man the gameplay trailers didn't exactly cause a buzz it looked like a basic remake of mega man 2 but the biggest criticism was the art style the game had a flat look to it with little to no dimension internally capcom looked at what cartoons were popular in the west such as the powerpuff girls on cartoon network and based the art style off of these shows it was a considerable departure
from the traditional mega man art style which looked more like a conventional japanese anime but a week later capcom announced two new core features of the game the first was character customization players could make custom characters with different heads arms torsos and legs from various other characters there were also chip slots that could give extra abilities like jumping higher or dealing more damage but the second feature and the most exciting was stage creation using assets from mega ma
n 2 players could create levels and share them online the idea of making levels in mega man wasn't new in 2006 capcom released mega man powered up a remake of the first game with a level editor but capcom felt it was a little bit complicated it also had no fail checks which resulted in many insta-death stages being uploaded capcom wanted to change all of that with mega man universe designing levels would be intuitive and straightforward players would have to beat the level before uploading it an
d the game would have a central server where anyone could browse and download levels users could even follow level creators to get updates whenever they made a new map players could even earn in-game currency with good stage design and use it to unlock items and abilities in the game inafune's vision for mega man universe was finally taking shape mega man universe would contain a remake of mega man 2 but the core of the game was built around creating your own characters and levels inafune felt t
here was a growing disconnect between capcom and its players mega man universe would bring the two together a centralized hub of mega man content sustained by fans and supported by capcom with mega man universe there would no longer be a need for traditional mega man games it could last for years keep fans happy and make capcom a lot of money on september 16 2010 capcom brought the game to the tokyo game show and for the first time allowed the press to demo the game unfortunately it did not go w
ell ign.com called the level editor the biggest feature but criticized the art style and the gameplay the game ran at only 30 frames per second character movement was stiff it didn't feel like a mega man game oddly inafune wanted the movement to feel more realistic and less like a traditional mega man game destructoid commented it simply doesn't seem promising inafune shrugged off the criticisms mega man universe wasn't for the press it was for the players the following month capcom showcased th
e game again at new york comic-con for the first time the general public was allowed to play the game but the same criticisms reared their ugly head inafune was taken aback at the negative reception but hoped he could fix the issues the development team focused on polishing up textures and adding some dimension to the art style they also hoped to get the game up to a smooth 60 frames per second but inafune threw a wrench into everything when he decided the game should have a new feature two-play
er online co-op capcom simply didn't have the manpower to implement such a feature so inafune decided to hand the game over to an outside developer the problem was the developer he chose had no experience with home consoles or online gaming the reason he chose them they were the cheapest needless to say the online co-op feature was a mess and didn't work mega man universe's development was slowly becoming unhinged but everything came crashing down when on october 29th 2010 just a few weeks after
new york comic-con keg inafune announced on his blog that he was leaving capcom he claimed he had reached his highest point within the company and that settling down means death for a creator as long as you are a creator you could not settle down but it was more complicated than that for the past few years inafune had been openly criticizing the japanese video game industry at the 2009 tokyo game show he declared japan is over we're done our game industry is finished he believed japanese develo
pers were trapped in a time warp and were way behind western developers inafune even called out capcom saying the company was barely keeping up internally capcom wasn't thrilled with inafune's push for globalization capcom producer jun takeuchi claimed cultural differences didn't allow for a smooth collaboration with western studios capcom president haruhiro tsujimoto even stated he would drop western studios entirely if he could after his departure inafune blasted capcom calling the company bur
eaucratic bloated and behind the times he accused higher-ups of becoming salary men creating a system where not working hard becomes advantageous and that executives routinely shrugged off his suggestions and weren't willing to take risks inafune's sudden departure forced capcom to restructure its development teams leadership and priorities unfortunately it didn't bode well for mega man universe the game now had no director and was being worked on by an underqualified outsourced development team
and even when the team dropped the online co-op idea development struggled one source called it a disorganized scramble producer akiko ito tried to help fill the director role but nothing could save the game finally on march 31st 2011 capcom announced they had discontinued the project and with that inafune's dream of a unified global mega ban game crumbled in an interview with ign capcom usa's senior vice president christian spencer said that mega man universe didn't live up to the quality capc
om expected he said we opted to say you know what it's probably better that this not come out as opposed to it coming out and not necessarily giving the experience we want people to have capcom did consider taking assets from the game and releasing a remake of mega man 2 for ios but it never happened sadly capcom also canceled every other mega man project there was mega man online a massively multiplayer online game for the korean market mega man legends 3 a highly anticipated sequel in the fan
favorite mega man legends series mega man star force 4 and finally maverick hunter a first person shooter based in the mega man x universe for fans it was a huge blow what seemed like a new golden age for mega man was suddenly gone inafune commented that he was disappointed in the cancellation of mega man universe he thought the game could have reached a lot of players as a downloadable title of course he couldn't resist taking a shot at capcom stating the company was right back where they start
ed a few years ago in not understanding digital content inafune would go on to form a new studio com sep in december of 2010. in 2013 he announced mighty number nine a sort of spiritual successor to mega man comcept launched a kickstarter for funding and to get the fans involved in development inafune's affinity for the west was still strong noted by the game's art style and his desire to create a mighty number 9 media empire but the development of mighty number nine was a mess and a whole other
story mega man universe was a lost opportunity that became even more apparent when nintendo released the highly successful super mario maker in 2015 and super mario maker 2 in 2019 luckily loyal mega man fans have picked up capcom slack mega man maker is an unlicensed free pc program that lets users create their own retro-style mega man levels still it's fair to wonder what could have been with mega man universe that's all for this episode of the gaming historian thanks for watching funding for
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Comments
I was really looking forward to this game, despite the criticisms. Anyone else?
"Inafune felt that there was a growing disconnect between Capcom and it's players" Indeed there was, and at the very heart of the disconnect was Inafune himself. He was so out of touch on what made Capcom great to the western audience to begin with, and that was its high quality gameplay and production of the very Japanese centric games that Capcom was known for.
If there is any positive to this story, it’s that we got the magnificent PC fan-created Mega Man Maker game out of the ashes of Mega Man Universe. Great episode, Norman!
"But the development of Mighty No. 9 was a mess, and a whole other story." Me: So... future episode? Yes please!
I'd often thought that Capcom would eventually make an offer to the people behind Mega Man Maker that would legitimize it as an official product (like what happened with SF X Mega Man on PC). I've used the program for years and it is AWESOME, easy to use, has full controller support, and sharing levels/playing other's levels works beautifully. It's so easy to use that my son's been making some hilarious Mega Man levels for me to play since he was 5.
I feel like Inafune was too arrogant to blame himself here. He was openly critical of Capcom after he quit, then Mighty No.9 happened and that blew up in his face. Finally, Capcom was like screw it, let's make Mega Man 11, just to add insult to injury.
I think Inafune fell into a trap when he began developing his western inspired mindset. Japan wasn't losing shares in the gaming market because they were behind the times, it was because non-Japanese studios had finally built themselves up after almost two decades of Japanese dominance in the gaming world, there was just more competition now. People still LOVE Japanese games, and it's mainly because they are at their core: Japanese , not American, or French, or British. You can have Western Inspired, but keep them just that- Inspired
"Go with this studio who has no experience in what we need them to do, they're cheap" Brilliant, always works.
It's crazy how much of a 180 Capcom has pulled in the past 3 years after the dark era that was 2010. Now they're incredibly celebrated for their RE remakes, Devil May Cry 5 and Monster Hunter series being some of the greatest games they've ever made.
What really stands out here is Inafune's ego getting the better of him during the title's development, instead of giving due consideration to what had previously proven successful, then storming off in a huff once it was abundantly clear that his approach wasn't the right one. And therein lies hubris.
If I recall correctly, Maverick Hunter was an FPS developed by some of the devs that made Metroid Prime. The game was supposed to be a trilogy with X going Maverick at the end of the second game and you had to play as Zero in the last game to go and kill him. It would've been such a sick sub series.
Funny how Inafune was so critical of Capcom being stuck in the past while desperately clinging to Mega Man 2. That mentality was present during 9 and 10's development cycle as well, 9 especially. Inti Creates had big ideas to move the series forward but Inafune told them to make it more like 2 when development began.
Funnily enough, Keiji Inafune also tried to shoehorn online multiplayer into Mighty Number 9 as well.
"He's a business man, not a creator." - Hideki Kamiya
Dude of all the games I could play on NES, Gameboy or SNES it was usually Mega Man games that I put the most time into. Getting any game in the 2010s was like getting a visit from a lifelong childhood friend. Sad that we didn’t get to see the Universe come into fruition!
That was a great video. It's interesting how he criticized the higher-ups for being salarymen, and then he outsourced the game to the cheapest company he could find.
Besides being cancelled, I was also disappointed because The Megas had their music featured in the trailers (and maybe game) and they lost out on it. I would’ve liked to see that work out for them. Maybe they would’ve wrote new/original music for it too, who knows.
I find it really amusing how Inafune's incompetence reared its head pretty early on with MM Universe. Really sad that his leaving led to so many Megaman games getting canned so hard...
Megaman and Gaming Historian? You bet I'm watching this multiple times.
Inafune's obsession with westernization of their Japanese market can be marked as a heavy contributing factor behind Capcom's Dark Age. Seriously, just look at how many bad decisions he pushed (including DmC DMC getting greenlit) and you will come to the conclusion that Capcom really is better off without him. It's been mentioned before in comments here on why Japan was falling behind on game sales compared to the west, but it's key to note that the other reason behind it all was that a LOT of Japanese devs were shutting down or getting merged/bought out by other companies during the mid-late oughts. HD game development is hella expensive, and many smaller devs either couldn't keep up with the costs or were forced to stick to handheld games. The HD growing pains period saw the closure of many a studio.