Capcom’s head of R&D and global production Keiji Inafune has admitted that although Lost Planet 2 wasn’t quite the runaway success the company had hoped for, he still firmly believes in the sci-fi franchise.
Speaking during a chinwag with the folks at Edge magazine, Inafune was keen to highlight the fact he had very little to do with development of the sequel, and that if a third outing were to materialise, he’d “definitely” have more involvement with the title.
"I came up with the concept for the original Lost Planet and got involved quite a bit," he said. "However, regrettably, Lost Planet 2 was done by someone else and I didn’t really have any direct involvement. I still believe in the franchise, and if we do more with it I will definitely get involved directly."
He went on to observe that the key to perpetuating the success to any franchise is simple – good old fashioned love. Indeed, Infaune pointed out that if an IP is continued by the creator then this isn’t an issue, but when swapping up the producer or director – as often happens in a firm as large as Capcom – then the new face in charge has to share a fundamental interest in the franchise as whole in order for it to succeed.
"If a particular franchise or IP is continued by the creator, there is no problem. But in a large organisation that’s not possible all the time. Therefore if you have to change the director or producer, etc, they would have to love the IP or franchise, including good points and bad points, as a whole. Without love, nothing happens,” he explained.
Inafune recently made headlines for his outspoken views on the state of the Japanese videogames industry, which he sees as lagging some five years behind the West.