Inafune unveils new companies

Late last year, it was revealed by a Japanese game industry analyst that former Capcom R&D head Keiji Inafune was starting up his own company, Comcept. Today, it was revealed that Inafune has been founding not one, but two companies, as the official websites for Comcept and Intercept gave the first details on the developer's newest endeavors.

Intercept looks to be a tightly focused game development company. The company's site laments the current state of the Japanese game industry (a topic Inafune has brought up before) and insists on three central tenets that will guide development of Intercept games. First, the company's titles must be original, not simple imitations of existing work. Beyond that, the games must be able to draw people in and should transcend eras.

As for Comcept, it appears to be a more broadly defined entertainment company. In addition to dealing with the development and sales of games (including online and mobile titles), the company will handle production, manufacturing, and sales of books, music, and video programming. Inafune will serve as the president and CEO of both companies.

Until stepping down, Inafune oversaw Capcom's move to outsourcing its franchises to Western developers, including Swedish studio GRIN for Bionic Commando and Canada-based Blue Castle, (now Capcom Game Studio Vancouver), for Dead Rising 2. He originally joined Capcom as a graphic designer in the 1980s, working on the first Street Fighter. He went on to create the character design for Mega Man and then worked on the game's many sequels before graduating to the role of producer on subsequent entries in the series.