Stories from Game Producer Yoshiki Okamoto: The Talk with Keiji Inafune, the Creator of Megaman, about Street Fighter IV and Their Thoughts about Retirement
First, he explains that for many years after the launch of Street Fighter III, Capcom had not released any Street Fighter, and every time Inafune-san traveled to the United States, he was asked about the release date of the next Street Fighter. He reveals that the desire for this franchise was so great, even more than any other, that he went to Mr. Takashi Nishiyama of Dimps to convey this message.
Inafune-san points out that he didn't go to Mr. Akira Nishitani, because he wanted to go to Nishiyama-san himself, who worked on the first game. The challenge was that if Nishiyama-san were to create the next Street Fighter after the first one, like what Nishitani-san had done with Street Fighter II, what game would he create. The result of this is what we can now recognize as Street Fighter IV.
In the conversation this evening, Inafune-san reveals that he wanted to retire at 55 years old, but he's now 60, and is currently working at another studio that isn't his.
Last accessed: 20260202
ゲームクリエイターの引退は考えてる？【稲船敬二さん対談最終回】
He says that he's very grateful for this studio's support to allow him to launch his creations. He admits that he's thinking about not focusing too much on his own creations, but rather on training his younger colleagues to become leaders. Further, he expresses his desire to bring up the reputation of the studio in five years.
Meanwhile, Okamoto-san shares with him his desire to design a house for free as a hobby. He also clarifies that what he only wants to focus on is the design, not the rest that are also necessary to actually turn this house into a reality. He reveals that it's better to do this instead of later regretting that he didn't do it. And after doing everything that he wanted, Okamoto-san says that he could already die.
Inafune-san also shares that when he entered Capcom for the first time, he discovered that people could read Jump manga comics while receiving salary. Everything was very liberal. In addition, there was a gym. Okamoto-san adds that if they had moved to another location, the convenience store below their office's floor could go bankrupt.
Finally, Okamoto-san says that Capcom grew very quickly from a small studio. Inafune-san believes that it's really cool to create another studio that could grow so much. Of course, he says, being liberal with some restrictions is necessary.
Cuentos del Productor de los videojuegos Yoshiki Okamoto: La charla con Keiji Inafune, el creador de Mega Man, sobre Street Fighter IV y los pensamientos del retiro
Primero, explica que por muchos años después de lanzar Street Fighter III, Capcom no había lanzado ningún Street Fighter, y cada vez de viajar a los EE.UU. Sr. Inafune se le preguntaba sobre la fecha de lanzamiento del siguiente Street Fighter. Desvela que el deseo para esta franquicia fue tan enorme, incluso más que otra, que se fue a Sr. Takashi Nishiyama de Dimps para comunicarle este mensaje.
Sr. Inafune apunta que no se fue a Sr. Akira Nishitani, porque quiso ir a propio Sr. Nishiyama quien trabajó en la primera entrega. Así que el desafío fue que si Sr. Nishiyama crease el siguiente Street Fighter después del primero, como lo que había hecho Sr. Nishitani con el Street Fighter II, cuál juego que crearía. Entonces, el resultado de ello es lo que ahora reconocemos como Street Fighter IV.
En la charla de esta noche, Sr. Inafune desvela que quiso retirarse a 55 años, pero ya tiene 60 años, y actualmente trabaja en otro estudio no de él.
Last accessed: 20260202
ゲームクリエイターの引退は考えてる？【稲船敬二さん対談最終回】
Dice que agradece mucho por el soporte de este estudio para permitirle a lanzar sus creaciones. Admite que piensa en no enfocarse tanto en sus propias creaciones, sino en entrenar a sus compañeros más jóvenes para ser líderes. Además, expresa su deseo de elevar la reputación del estudio en cinco años.
Mientras tanto, Sr. Okamoto le comparte su deseo de diseñar una casa por gratis como un pasatiempo. También, clarifica que solo lo que quiere enfocarse es el diseño, no los demás que son necesarios también para realizar la cosa en realidad. Desvela que es mejor hacer esta cosa en vez de lamentar luego que no lo había hecho. Y después de hacer todo lo que le gustó, Sr. Okamoto dice que ya podría morir.
Sr. Inafune también comparte que cuando ingresó en Capcom por primera vez, descubrió que la gente podría leer los tebeos de Jump mientras recibiendo el salario. Todo fue muy liberal. Además, hubo un gimnasio. Sr. Okamoto añade que si ellos se mudasen a otro lugar, la tienda abajo del piso de la oficina podría estar en quiebra.
Por último, Sr. Okamoto dice que Capcom se creció muy rápido desde un estudio pequeño. Sr. Inafune cree que es muy genial crear otro estudio que podría crecer tanto también. Desde luego, dice, ser liberal con algunas restricciones es necesario.
Today let me share with you the results of our dear, but flawed, system of governance for the month of February 2026.
First and foremost, bad food. As most of you may have also observed, videos about food on YouTube have been getting a lot more attention than even billion-dollar esports tournaments.
In fact, Japanese esports athlete Tokido shows more of this sort of video than actual gameplay footages in his own channel, markedly different from our friends at WEILI channel of Guangdong province in Southern China.
The reality that we are all looking for good, quality food speaks about our dissatisfaction toward the food that is being served at restaurants, regardless of whether they're the fine-dining type or a well-recognizable fast-food joint.
In this regard, I was reminded of the predicament that public personalties and the like must face, that is, getting bad food from people who don’t like them.
Due to our currently overpopulated society, we must all now contend with giving jobs to people who are in-need of money, even if these jobs aren't really necessary. This is supposedly done, more as a form of defense against would-be crooks than anything else.
Moreover, as you may have also noticed, not a few of these people have been putting cigarettes or vape into their mouths. They may be the security guards at the parking lots, the boys who bring the purified drinking water containers, or the men at the back of the pizza parlor.
While the tasks that are given them may appear to be ridiculously simple, they aren't doing them right. Walkways smell of cigarette smoke that lingers, or that of vape, whose smoke quickly turns invisible. These make people's heads ache and forcibly cause passersby to feel dizzy for long periods of time.
No wonder the supposedly purified drinking water has too much purifier, or the fried potatoes have gotten too salty.
While we all don't want to point fingers and say that these workers and the establishments that they're part of are knowingly serving bad food, and with malevolent intent at that, a key piece to the problem leads us to these people who are in-need of money and are smoking cigarettes or vape.
In the end, bad food, people in-need money and smoke in the air are the results of a flawed system that has produced an overly populated society incapable of learning through the current means. When classrooms are cramped and workplaces are filled by easily replaceable low-skilled workers, birthrate isn't reduced, and the memory of street children and homeless beggars will never be a thing of the past akin to the cavemen in our history books.
This time around, the main topic is about their experiences after leaving Capcom.
Okamoto-san asks Inafune-san the first thing that he did, and he responds that he first established "comcept," with the letter "m" instead of "n."
However, while Inafune-san had worked at Capcom for 20 years, and after trying out various things, in the end, he couldn't achieve success. He explains that as a creator he focused on the front side of things or what can be seen, for example, his prior achievements when he was still at Capcom. Because of this, Inafune-san admits that the aspects related to management that Capcom had done well couldn't be done as well at his studio.
Inafune-san tries to explain this with an example in that soldiers also need the rest who work behind the scenes of the campaign. Okamoto-san mentions the name of Mitsunari Ishida as a historical figure who worked at behind the scenes.
Okamoto-san also recounts his case with Game Republic in which he had 320 employees. He explains that when he was at Capcom he was able to get employees whom he wanted for some role, and this was very convenient for him. However, at his own studio, although there was a position available, he didn't have the necessary employee for this role.
Further, Okamoto-san says that the employees at Game Republic couldn't identify well who were the leaders, such that the battle for authority started within the studio. Okamoto-san regrets that if he himself could point out the specific person to be the leader maybe he wouldn't have had this problem.
He also explains that his employees divided themselves into groups, and since some were from Square, Taito, Sega or Namco, they would tell Okamoto-san the way used at those studio where they had worked before. But Okamoto-san felt that this shouldn't be the case, because they had already transferred to Game Republic.
Next, Okamoto-san reveals that all the work that they received were from only one studio, so that like a basket that is broken and has a hole, the eggs fell. The result of which is Okamoto-san's debt of 1.7 billion yen.
Moreover, Okamoto-san couldn't convince his employees to lower their salaries so they left the studio. Okamoto-san tried to put the employees below those who had left Game Republic in the vacant positions, but he still needed to pay their salaries each month, and he was worried how he could get this done.
Inafune-san responds that aside from not be able to pay wages, there also the situation wherein the wages don't anymore go up, meaning that the studio isn't doing well, and the employees would notice this and would thereby leave.
Okamoto-san points out that although his best employees were able to stay put, their work increased due to the departure for the rest.
Furthermore, Inafune-san and Okamoto-san both agree that people, who experience hardships together, become closer.
Inafune-san cites Okamoto-san's favorite book, Sangokushi (The Three Kingdoms) wherein when Cao Cao was already fleeing, only the people who had trsuted the leader remained in the battlefield.
This is all. Their conversation also has the story about Street Fighter IV according to Inafune-san, but I should already stop here, and it's a story for another time.
Cuentos del Productor de los videojuegos Yoshiki Okamoto: La tercera parte de la charla con Keiji Inafune, el creador de Mega Man, después de dejar Capcom
En esta vez, el tema principal es sobre la vivencia de ambos ellos después de dejar Capcom.
Sr. Okamoto le pregunta a Sr. Inafune la primera cosa que hizo, y responde que primero estableció el estudio «comcept» con la letra «m» en vez de «n».
Sin embargo, aunque Sr. Inafune trabajaba en Capcom por 20 años, y después de tratar de hacer varias cosas, al final, no pudo lograr el éxito. Explica que como creador se enfocó en el frente o lo que puede ver, por ejemplo, sus logros anteriores cuando aún estaba en Capcom. Por esta razón, las partes de gestión que Capcom hacía bien Sr. Inafune admite que no se pudieron hacer tan bien en su estudio.
Sr. Inafune trata de explicarlo con un ejemplo de que los soldados necesitan también a los demás detrás que trabajan en la campaña. Sr. Okamoto menciona el nombre de Mitsunari Ishida como una persona histórica que trabajó detrás.
También, Sr. Okamoto cuenta su caso con Game Republic en donde tuvo 320 empleados. Explica que cuando estuvo en Capcom pudo tomar a los empleados quienes le gustan para algún papel, y fue muy conveniente para él. Sin embargo, en su propio estudio, aunque hubo una posición disponible, no tuvo el empleado necesario para este papel.
Además, Sr. Okamoto dice que los empleados de Game Republic no pudieron identificar bien quiénes son los líderes tal que esta batalla de la autoridad comenzó dentro del estudio. Sr. Okamoto lamenta que si él mismo podría apuntar a la persona especifica para ser el líder quizás no hubiese tenido este problema.
También, explica que sus empleados se dividieron en grupos, y ya que algunos fueron de Square o Taito o Sega o Namco, le decirían a Sr. Okamoto la forma utilizada en estos estudios en donde trabajaron antes. Pero Sr. Okamoto se sentió que no debía ser así, porque ellos ya habían trasladádose a Game Republic.
Siguiente, Sr. Okamoto desvela que todos los trabajos que ellos recibieron fueron de solo un estudio así que como una cesta que está roto y tiene un hueco, los huevos se cayeron. El resultado de ello es la deuda de Sr. Okamoto de 1,7 billones yenes.
Además, Sr. Okamoto no pudo convencer a sus empleados a bajar sus salarios así que ellos dejaron el estudio. Sr. Okamoto trató de poner a los empleados abajo de los quienes habían dejado Game Republic en los puestos vacantes, pero aún necesitaba pagar sus salarios cada mes, y se preocuban cómo lo pudo llegar a cabo.
Sr. Inafune responde que aparte de no poder pagar el salario, hay también la situación en donde el salario ya no subiría más así que significa que el estudio no está bien, y los empleados lo se darían cuenta y dejarían entonces.
Sr. Okamoto apunta que aunque sus empleados mejores pudieron quedarse, sus trabajos se aumentaban por la salida de los demás.
Es más, Sr. Inafune y Sr. Okamoto ambos están de acuerdo que las personas, quienes vivencian dificultados juntos, se volvieron más cercanas.
Sr. Inafune cita el libro favorito de Sr. Okamoto, el Sangokushi (Los tres reinos) en donde cuando Cao Cao ya estuvo huyendo, solo las personas quienes habían confiado en el líder se quedaron en el campo de batalla.
Ya está. La charla aún tiene el cuento de Street Fighter IV según Sr. Inafune, pero ya debo parar aquí así que es uno para otro tiempo.
