Last night, Keiji Inafune blew the gaming world’s collective mind when he announced Mighty No. 9, a game that closely resembles the iconic Mega Man franchise that he was associated with for more than a decade. Today, he said that he hasn’t heard anything from former employer Capcom, the company that owns Mega Man.
In an interview conducted at PAX this morning, Inafune said that the Japanese publisher hasn’t been in touch with regard to Mighty No. 9. The close resemblance between Mega Man and Mighty No. 9 is the kind of thing that companies go to court over. I asked him what he thought about a possible legal showdown and his answer — which came through a translator — follows:
“We haven’t heard anything from Capcom at this point. If it turns into a legal battle, then obviously it’ll be lawyers that hash out what the solutions are. However, from my perspectiv, Mega Man is something that I created. It would be like having a child, then having somebody adopt that child and then saying that child isn’t really yours. That child has your DNA in it, no matter what anybody says. So, since my style, my spirit isn’t something that I can’t change as a human being, if I create anything and it’s something that looks like [Mega Man], well, it was created by the same person, me. To say that Mighty No. 9 looks like Mega Man is to say that my work looks like my work.
But we have been careful. The base gameplay is not the same as Mega Man. The naming, the character, all that is not the same. The details are very different. Personally, I’ve gone out of my way to make sure that this is something original. And if Capcom does come back and say something, I would be surprised.”
The game’s Kickstarter campaign is at $US563,488 as of this writing, more than halfway to its $US900,000 goal less than a day after launching. Kotaku will have more from our interview with Inafune later this week.
Comments
5 responses to “Mega Man Designer Says Capcom Hasn’t Reacted To New Mega Man-Like Game”
Not like Capcom actually cares about Megaman though 😛
They’re probably just going to sit back and see how this does. If it’s successful then we may (purely by coincidence) see a sudden announcement of a new official Megaman.
I’m fairly certain at this moment the heads at Capcom is looking at this Kickstarter thinking, “Man that game looks a lot like Mega Man, I hope whoever owns the rights to Mega Man sues those guys into oblivion”
In a few months time they’ll remember they own the rights. . .
With the speed at which this game is having money thrown at it, I’d be surprised if Inafune doesn’t have enough to buy Capcom when it’s all said and done.
The rate at which this is being backed is basically Inafune and and the fans giving Capcom a big “F U” that’s totally warranted imo. Wishing the best of luck to this project because it looks awesome.