Tried to play MegamanX2, but instead had to play Rogue Legacy 2!

What is it about retro games that they can't handle running while newer games run amazing! Why do I need more power to run a retro game than a new game?

East vs. West

Keiji Inafune, the creator of Megaman, recently quit Capcom in a high risk attempt to change it. His thoughts (link to Gamasutra verified interview that had been translated and posted to a message board) are that with the life-time employment that Japanese companies offer, the employees have less reason to try to be competitive. Producers get no credit if the game does well, but take all the blame if the game fails. Designers like him have less reason to risk failure with a new idea. Instead they have stagnated, while in the West, games are thriving.

But, all I keep reading about in the west is how companies lay-off employees at the end of game cycles, resulting in 1/3 of all game designers being unemployed. Inafune though, points out that these designers are instead making their own studios and following the Indie route. This path apparently, is almost non-existent in Japan.

In the West, Indie developers can make downloadable games for X-box360, Playstation 3, Wii, DSi, iPhone, Andriod, Steam and other platforms (upcoming Ubuntu Download Center, and the Mac App store for the MacOSX).

So, will Capcom fail, or will their structure remain intact for the duration of the downturn? Will they be forced to restructure, resulting in up to 300 employee layoffs (estimates by Inafune)?

Update: They are taking a third route, restructuring while trying to keep all employees. Looks like his voice just took time to take effect? Or perhaps the very public interview he did, got to them.

Megaman Universe

Capcom talked about Mega Man Universe at San Diego Comic-Con 2010. What we could get from the brief talk, is that Mega Man Universe is about the player experiencing Mega Man through what they perceive Mega Man to be.

The trailer, which is supposed to give the feeling of what the game will be about, had Mega Man, 8-bit Mega Man, Arther from Ghosts and Goblins, Ryu from Street Fighter, and even a Mega Man stylized after the American Box-art.

So I was thinking, it would be about playing Mega Man levels, but with different characters, as if Capcom got sucked into the Mega Man Universe. Other things of note, was an off-hand comment about characters from franchises outside of Capcom, and even User-generated characters. Overall a very vague concept, since we still don't know details, such as online, downloadable content, etc etc etc.

Also during the panel, since he was so vague he hinted that more Mega Man games would be coming out this following year (so up until Summer 2011 is what I think he meant), and he said that it was a Mega Man game that MANY people have been requesting.  The #1 requested Mega Man game is Mega Man Legends 3, and when he asked the crowd, what they thought the game would be, the crowd shouted back, MML3, and he smiled and said, "Thank you."

This is a very exciting time for Mega Man!