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Keiji Inafune’s Comcept has become what he tried to escape

Keiji Inafune’s Comcept has become what he tried to escape

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Kenji Inafune launched his new business venture, Comcept, as a way of escaping the big bad publisher Capcom. His ideas seemed simple enough, launch a Mega Man clone and dovetail that into a successful entity. With the promise of Kickstarter, even if the publishers laughed at making a 2.5D side-scrolling adventure game in 2015, he would be able to launch the product if enough support was given.

The Kickstarter for Mighty No.9 was launched in August of 2013 and was an instant success. The promise of back exclusive sketches, new music from Mega Man series veterans, and seemingly the only way fans could get Mega Man ever again was right in front of our eyes. When the project was funded in October of 2013, the idea was to launch the game early 2015. Well, it seems Mighty No.9 has still not been completed and another release date has passed.

Missing launch dates is nothing new for the video game industry. Games slip all the time and Mighty No. 9 is no different. The problem lies with how the most recent delay was delivered to gamers. Not only has Concept signed a deal with Microsoft to release a console exclusive IP, but they also started another Kickstarter before Mighty No.9 even launched. With the promise of the game looming for the beginning of September, Comcept released two Kickstarter’s for Red Ash, a Mega Man Legends type of adventure game. One Kickstarter for an Anime project, and another for a new video game.

Empty promises, long delays, not communicating with fans; this sounds like exactly the type of business strategy that Kenji Inafune was trying to leave behind when he left Capcom. Capcom is actually releasing a Mega Man game at the end of August, a repackaged collection for Playstation 4 and Xbox One. As Mighty No.9 slips into Q1 2016, it will still be quite awhile until the promise of a new Mega Man title and with the delay fan support of Inafune and concept seems to be fading fast.

[wpchatai]