Inafune launches new company - Report

Earlier this year, Keiji Inafune was openly critical of his then-employer Capcom, saying the publisher "hasn't taken globalization seriously." Now the Mega Man creator has a chance to show exactly what he meant. After retiring from his position as Capcom's head of research and development in October, Inafune has reportedly launched his own new company.

As reported by Siliconera, a Japanese securities analyst posted on his Twitter account yesterday that Inafune has launched a new company called Comcept. Although Twitter's 140-character limit goes a lot further in Japanese, the post included no more details about Comcept, other than to say Inafune already has business cards bearing the company's name. To date, Inafune has made no mention of the company or specified his plans on his personal blog.

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.