Mega-Man creator Inafune says games should not be judged by sales numbers

By Phil Owen

Speaking at the DICE Summit in Las Vegas this week, the mind behind Kickstarter sensation Mighty No. 9, Keiji Inafune, says that over the course of his long career making games he become increasingly concerned about constructing games so they would sell well rather than just worrying about the quality of the product, With Mighty No. 9, he said, he’s shaking that concern.

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Speaking through a translator via GamesIndustry, Inafune said that when he started working in games he neither worried nor cared whether the end result would be a blockbuster, but simply that the end result be good and fun. He said going through Kickstarter and garnering nearly $4 million through the crowdfunding site freed him from worry about sales once again as he says all those backers already liked what he is trying to do enough to pay up front.

Inafune also said he thinks that mindset will soon be the norm in the industry, with developers, as GI paraphrases, “exploring wild ideas with no concern for their viability in the market.”

How does all this strike you guys? Are you intrigued by the thought of developers acting outside the bounds of “safety,” as it were?

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