Keiji Inafune, Gone From Capcom, Reveals His First New Game

The first game to come from Keiji Inafune in his life after Capcom will be a free-to-play mobile game called The Island of Dr. Momo.

The new game was announced at a press conference held by Inafune's company, Comcept, as well as Atlus parent company Index Holdings and GREE, according to 4Gamer (as translated by Andriasang).

The latter's involvement tells much of the story -- GREE is a social network service that mainly deals with games. Momo will be available through GREE as a free-to-play, microtransaction-based game where players assume the role of lover-of-cute-things Dr. Momo, who tires to create the cutest thing in the world. We know little more than that, but that should change soon -- it's headed to both iOS and Android devices this fall in Japan.

Inafune is the former Capcom designer responsible for the Mega Man franchise. He resigned last October after 23 years. He's known for being outspoken -- in 2009 he described the Japanese games industry as "finished," and after leaving Capcom he explained, "The really big wall that the Japanese game industry is hitting is the changing of its creators into salarymen... There are a lot of people who take their company's commitment for granted and don't work as hard as they should. This could be said of the entire industry, and of course Capcom is no exception."

When 1UP spoke with Inafune earlier this year, he said Comcept, the company he formed after leaving Capcom, wouldn't be ready to show anything at E3. He was hopeful they would, however, be prepared to have something for the Tokyo Game Show in September. With Momo now announced, expect to hear more about it by then.

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