For this Wrap-up, however, our good friend Jake Hans has some additional news for us:
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Hello everyone, this is Jake Hans from International Strategies. In this time of rebuilding, I come with two interesting bits of news to report. First, Keiji Inafune hosted a presentation at the Game Developer's Conference in San Franscisco, California. Thanks to Game Watch Impress's full transcript of Inafune's speech, we are able to provide a complete translation for the part where he mentions Mega Man Legends.
Source: Game Watch Impress
甘やかされた日本。人間は1度楽をすると、2度と苦労したくありません。昔、こんなことがありました。カプコン時代、プロデューサーに成り立ての頃、15 年以上前の話です。「Mega Man Legends」の制作に関わりました。「Mega Man」のプレステの作品、3Dで作る新しいものです。内容も自信ありましたし、私自身とても気に入ってる作品です。しかし、プロデューサーとしては道は 険しかったです。「Mega Man」自体、たくさんのものを出してきて、あまり売れなくなっていました。だから、その作品に対する期待はそれほど高くありませんでした。だから、 「Mega Man」の新しい作品を出すと発表しても、それほどプレスやゲームファンも期待してくれなかった。インタビュー依頼もあまりありませんでした。だから地道 にプロデューサーとしてがんばって作品を売っていこうとしました。世の中は甘くなくて、販売実績的には悲惨なものでした。いまでこそ「Mega Man」ファンの間では語り継がれる存在になりましたが、当時はそうではありませんでした。稲船のゲーム人生の中では、最大の失敗であり、最大の宝であり ます。
"Today, Japan is too self-indulgent. Once something comes easily for a developer in this industry, that developer doesn't even want to risk having setbacks again. I, too, have felt like that before, back when I was at Capcom, just after I began my career as a producer. This was more than 15 years ago. I got to participate in the production of "Mega Man Legends", which at the time was a new 3D Mega Man series for the Sony PlayStation. However, working as producer was quite tough. Although the Mega Man franchise itself had released lots of titles by that point, sales were in a decline. Because of that, the fans and Sony weren't expecting a new Mega Man series. Hardly anybody even asked us for an interview, so I thought I'd have to work hard to sell this as a producer. However, it wasn't that easy and the game's sales turned out miserably. Now lots of Mega Man fans are talking about Legends, but it wasn't like that at that time. This experience is both my biggest failure and biggest treasure in my video game career."
The second bit of news is a revelation (credit: Protodude) that the Mega Man Legends Prototype was submitted to and approved for distribution on the market by CERO, a public Japanese rating organization. This suggests the decision to cancel the Prototype was made with a major formal requirement completed.
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Remember, if you have any ideas for new campaigns, new NewDevroom events, or new pieces of news that we should cover, feel free to email rockvolnutt@ymail.com. Also, don't forget to sign our new Petition for the Prototype over at Change.org.
Let's keep working to save our hero. Legends Never Die!
