Keiji Inafune, the legendary creator behind Mega Man, Onimusha, and Dead Rising, just delivered some harsh words for today’s game developers. Speaking at South Korea’s Console Game Developer Conference 2025 on November 6, Inafune criticized the industry’s growing obsession with safe bets, endless sequels, and copying whatever’s trending. His message was clear: creativity is taking a backseat to predictable profit, and that’s bad for everyone.
Inafune clarified he’s not against franchises or genre games entirely. I’m not saying it’s bad to continue existing franchises or make games that riff on popular genres, he explained. What I mean is that these shouldn’t be the only games being made. For the game ecosystem to remain healthy, the industry needs developers with a clear message and fresh ideas.
When Creativity Was the Norm
Inafune painted a picture of an industry that used to operate very differently. When he started making games in the 1980s and 90s, there weren’t established templates to follow. Nobody was making Monster Hunter-style or Final Fantasy-style games because those genres hadn’t been defined yet. Creating new concepts with each project was simply the norm, as he put it.
Even while working on the Mega Man series across multiple entries, Inafune constantly jumped between vastly different projects. He attributes his successful portfolio to this approach, saying it was possible because I didn’t dwell on my past hits. He worked on everything from Street Fighter to Resident Evil to Onimusha to Dead Rising, never staying in one creative lane for too long.
The Defensive Stance Problem
Now that the game industry has matured and grown into a massive business, Inafune believes many developers have adopted an overly defensive stance. Instead of taking creative risks, studios lean on what’s proven to work. The 11th game in a series, the 13th in a franchise. While such choices may be necessary for fans and business, when considering the essence of game development and the passion for creation, it should not become the entirety of the gaming scene.
He’s not entirely wrong. Look around at what major publishers are releasing. We’re getting our annual Call of Duty, our biennial Assassin’s Creed, Horizon games spinning out into multiple entries, and countless studios chasing whatever trend is currently hot. Battle royales dominated for years. Now everyone wants a piece of the extraction shooter market or live service pie.
While relying on past success isn’t inherently wrong from a business perspective, Inafune is doubtful whether this attitude will be beneficial for the industry in the long run. When creativity becomes secondary to financial safety, the medium stagnates.
The Irony of Inafune’s Message
There’s a certain irony to Inafune delivering this message. His post-Capcom career has been rocky at best. After leaving Capcom in 2010, he launched a Kickstarter for Mighty No. 9, a game heavily inspired by Mega Man that raised over four million dollars from eager fans. The game turned out to be a critical and commercial flop when it finally launched in 2016 after multiple delays.
In 2022, Inafune announced Beastroids, an NFT project once again inspired by Mega Man, which went nowhere. More recently, he departed from Level-5 in mid-2024 under circumstances that were described as turbulent. He’s now an executive at Rocket Studio, a company led by former Hudson Soft developer Takashi Takebe, but news on future projects has been scarce.
So we have a developer who’s struggled to find success outside the established franchises he built at Capcom, now criticizing the industry for relying too heavily on established franchises. It’s a complicated position, but that doesn’t necessarily make his points invalid.
Is He Right About the Industry
Looking at the data, Inafune has a point. The most successful games of recent years are largely sequels, remakes, or entries in long-running franchises. Elden Ring was the breakout hit of 2022, but it came from FromSoftware after years of building their Souls formula. God of War Ragnarok, Hogwarts Legacy, Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur’s Gate 3 (technically a sequel to a decades-old franchise), Spider-Man 2, and so on.
Original IPs do occasionally break through. Hi-Fi Rush surprised everyone in 2023. Palworld became a phenomenon in 2024 despite being sued by Nintendo. But these are exceptions rather than the rule, especially at the AAA budget level where development costs have ballooned to hundreds of millions of dollars.
Publishers are understandably risk-averse when a single failed game can cost more than some movies and potentially sink an entire studio. But Inafune’s concern is that if this becomes the only model, the industry loses its creative soul.
The Trend-Chasing Problem
Beyond endless sequels, Inafune also called out the industry’s habit of chasing whatever’s hot at the moment. When Fortnite exploded, suddenly every publisher wanted their own battle royale. Most failed. When Destiny proved live service games could work, everyone tried to replicate that success. Most crashed and burned.
We’ve seen this with extraction shooters recently. After Escape From Tarkov built a dedicated audience, suddenly we had The Cycle Frontier (shut down), Marauders (struggling), and countless others trying to capture that same magic. Even major franchises like Call of Duty are adding extraction modes.
The problem is that by the time a trend becomes obvious enough for big publishers to chase, the market is often already saturated. Development cycles mean these games arrive years after the trend peaked, launching into an indifferent or hostile market.
What Needs to Change
Inafune’s solution is for the industry to support developers with a clear message and original vision. That’s easier said than done when development budgets require massive sales to break even. The middle tier of gaming, where studios could take moderate risks on new IPs with mid-sized budgets, has largely disappeared. You’re either indie with a shoestring budget or AAA spending nine figures.
Some publishers are trying. Xbox Game Studios has been funding smaller experimental titles alongside their blockbusters. Sony has PlayStation Indies. Nintendo regularly tries new concepts, even if they also rely heavily on Mario and Zelda. But these efforts are drops in a bucket compared to the overwhelming number of sequels and remakes dominating release calendars.
What’s Next for Inafune
Based on his conference talk, Inafune hinted that his next project at Rocket Studio might prioritize creativity over commercial safety. Whether he can deliver on that promise after his recent struggles remains to be seen. He’s proven throughout his career that he can create beloved franchises when given the resources and support. The question is whether he can recapture that magic outside the structure of a major publisher.
FAQs
What did Keiji Inafune criticize at the developer conference?
At South Korea’s Console Game Developer Conference 2025, Inafune criticized the gaming industry for relying too heavily on established IPs and trendy genres for guaranteed profits. He argued that while sequels and genre games aren’t inherently bad, they shouldn’t be the only games being made.
Who is Keiji Inafune?
Keiji Inafune is a legendary game developer who created the Mega Man series and worked as producer on numerous Capcom hits including Onimusha, Dead Rising, and Resident Evil. He’s known for his varied career spanning nearly four decades in the gaming industry.
Why did Inafune say he was successful?
Inafune attributed his successful portfolio to constantly jumping between different projects and not dwelling on past hits. Even while working on Mega Man across multiple entries, he maintained creative diversity by working on vastly different games like Street Fighter, Resident Evil, and Onimusha.
What happened to Mighty No. 9?
Mighty No. 9 was Inafune’s Kickstarter-funded spiritual successor to Mega Man that raised over four million dollars in 2013. Despite the massive fan support, the game turned out to be a critical and commercial flop when it finally released in 2016 after multiple delays.
Is Inafune still making games?
Yes, Inafune is currently an executive at Rocket Studio, a game company led by former Hudson Soft developer Takashi Takebe. He joined after departing from Level-5 in mid-2024, though no specific projects have been announced yet.
Has Inafune criticized the gaming industry before?
Yes, Inafune has a long history of criticizing the gaming industry, particularly Japanese developers. At the 2009 Tokyo Game Show, he famously said Japan is over and that the country’s game industry was at least five years behind Western developers in innovation.
What examples did Inafune give of trend-following?
Inafune specifically mentioned Monster Hunter-style and Final Fantasy-style games as examples of developers copying successful formulas rather than creating original concepts. He noted that these templates didn’t exist when he started making games in the 1980s and 90s.
What does Inafune think the industry needs?
Inafune believes the gaming industry needs developers with a clear message who prioritize creativity and originality. He thinks the current defensive stance of relying on safe sequels and established franchises, while understandable from a business perspective, won’t be beneficial for the industry long-term.
Conclusion
Keiji Inafune’s criticism hits on a tension that’s defined modern gaming for years. Publishers need reliable revenue streams to justify massive budgets, but players are increasingly bored with endless sequels and copycat games. The industry needs creative risk-takers, but it also needs financially viable business models. Finding that balance is the challenge facing developers today. Whether Inafune himself can demonstrate the path forward with his next project remains to be seen. But his message that creativity shouldn’t be sacrificed entirely for commercial safety is one that resonates with anyone who remembers when every major release felt like something genuinely new rather than a slight variation on what came before.