Zombies on a plane? Naw. Samuel L. Jackson is busy. Zombies in a casino hotel, however? Maybe. That's if this supposedly leaked trailer for (the supposedly multiplatform) Dead Rising 2 is any indication. Heck, let's throw in rolling hamster balls and Frank West in his Megaman suit too, while we're at it.

Nintendo and Capcom's big bosses are headlining this year's CEDEC over in Japan. At the developer conference, Shigeru Miyamoto will talk about how to start game development while Inafune will be lecturing people on an area yet to be revealed. More in the full article.

Capcom has announced that it has once again licensed Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 for another to-be-announced title. Further details regarding this news are available in the full article.

Capcom's Keiji Inafune, creator of Mega Man, firmly stated that the Blue Bomber is not planning to make an appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii. However, he did express his interest and said he's waiting for Nintendo to do some talking. Details at the full article!

A Mega Man title for the Wii? According to a source from Capcom, there will be indeed a Wii game for everyone's favorite blue guy. With a high turnout present in the recent Rock Man 20th Anniversary event, we hope that Capcom realizes that they already have a big hit franchise in their hands. Read on for more details.

During the recently-concluded Tokyo Game Show 2007, Capcom bigwig Keiji Inafune talked about Mega Man's 20th anniversary, detailing the highs and lows of his career all throughout and some future plans for the series.

Inafune took the opportunity to dispel the myth that he's the creator of Mega Man, saying that his mentor had a design prior to his entry to Capcom and he only created about half of what the blue blaster looks like. "I didn't get to completely design a Mega Man from scratch until Zero," he narrates. "But I realized that this design wouldn't be accepted as Mega Man, so I had another designer create the new Mega Man, and I worked on Zero to release him as the 'other main character' that would steal all the good scenes!"

One particularly noteworthy anecdote came in when he recounted the story of how he designed early boss Elecman. ""When I created this character, I tried to make a character that looked [like] it was from an American comic," says Inafune. "You'd see characters like him in Spider-Man or X-Men. It was pretty hard to design him, and I had to make sure that he didn't end up looking like an S&M queen."

Asked what his favorite game from the Mega Man series is, some of you may be amazed to know that it's Mega Man Legends, released in 1998 for the PSX. The game received lukewarm reception from aghast fans who were shocked with a 3D action-RPG spin-off of the series. Inafune says that the game might have been to advanced for its time, leaving what could have been a good game under-appreciated.

"I'd love to make a revival," says a determined Inafune. "But it's really difficult to have your company give you a budget for a game that flopped. I'm saving up so that I can make it on my own." He says that given today's technology, the idea might just work and sell better than it did almost a decade ago. "I'm making it my dream to create Mega Man Legends 3 before either I die or leave my company. With the continued support of fans, I hope that the Mega Man series continues to live on, and that we'll get to see its 30th and 40th anniversaries."

Keiji Inafune is the same creative mind behind other big Capcom titles such as Dead Rising, Onimusha, and the very first Street Fighter game. He continues to be a major influence in Capcom's projects and is considered as one of the gaming industry's true-blue trendsetters.

Keiji Inafune was recently interviewed by Game Informer about his new position in Capcom and other videogaming-related issues. One of the most interesting highlights of the discussions is when the Mega Man-designer was asked about the possibility of having critically-acclaimed PS2 title Okami on Wii.

First and foremost, Keiji Inafune clarified that he is no longer directly making games. He was promoted to oversee all production at Capcom, meaning he has to make sure that games under them follow quality standards. Basically, his new job is to make sure that Capcom remains a force to reckon with in the gaming industry.

The discussion then shipped to Clover Studio and its departure from Capcom. Despite this, Inafune mentioned that Viewtiful Joe and Okami are still owned by Capcom so a sequel is possible should they want it. When asked if fans will ever have Okami on Wii, he answered,

Of course that's something that I've personally thought about, but it's easier said than done. It's a cliche, but it's not just saying, "Okay, let's port it over here." There's technology, controls, and then people to make the game, whether it’s scheduling or knowing the hardware you want to take it to. It's not out of the realm of possibility.

Despite that, the renowned designer shared as well that Capcom is not considering sequels right now. And on a personal note, Inafune added,

Something like Okami, you can't really have another company make a sequel or other people make a sequel - that's something that only the people who made Okami, it's so unique to them, it wouldn't be a sequel, it would be something else.

This is quite different from the Keiji Inafune we reported about a couple of days ago. It would be remembered that the Head of Capcom Production Studio 2, during a lecture at the Game Developer Conference (GDC), seemed to still have some harsh and melancholic feelings towards the closure of subsidiary company Clover Studio.

Inafune was asked if the engines for Xbox 360 video games Lost Planet: Extreme Condition and Dead Rising would be used for future projects on other platforms. The Capcom official answered that the engines were, in fact, developed for multi-platform usage. However, Mr. Inafune reiterated that they wouldn't work on the Wii.

On a more positive note, Keiji Inafune announced that Capcom is looking to use the Resident Evil 4 engine for some future Wii projects. He then added that they will be making an announcement soon concerning a potential new franchise, but they didn't clarify if it's going to be for Nintendo's new console.

What Inafune clarified is the fact that he's not buying into this whole photo-realism hoopla the whole next-gen scene is riding on. He shared that he is still interested on making iconic mascots such as Mega Man and Wii is a most suitable avenue.

It should be remembered that back in February another Capcom bigwig, Christian Svensson, remarked that their company will not be making any mature titles soon, because gamers of this generation are getting younger and more casual. Inafune curiously rebuffed this and commented that all next-gen systems will get their share of mature projects.

He even commented that Nintendo's current stance provides a better opportunity for developing mature games as compared to the one the video game maker had during the GameCube (GC) days.

Ouch.

Kotaku reports on a GDC 2007 Q&A session with Lost Planet producer Keiji Inafune, and when he was asked about the closure of avant-garde Clover Studio, he had one thing to say. Bluntly. They didn't sell, therefore...

Keiji clarified that he DID think that Viewtiful Joe and Okami were great games (heck, critical acclaim agrees with him there). The problem was that "Games are not a work of art... it's a product... a commodity" (heck, sales of Okami sadly agree with that perspective. So do Lost Planet sales).

Based on this quote of Inafune's response, it seems that there must have been a clash of perspectives, and on approaches to promoting a game, between Clover and Capcom:

... the producer didn't do his work. The producers work is to make the team make good games and then sell those games. The producer has to do the promotion... Certainly to get good reviews is part of his job. However, the producer has to make sure the game sells [on par with the review]. I think the producer dropped the ball there. Capcom said they would do it, but Clover said "Oh, we'll do it ourselves." And I think this was a failure.

To paraphrase: it doesn't matter if you're the great Picasso, you STILL need a market-savvy marketer if you wanna make mad money (well, that definitely means advertising majors have their job secure in the gaming industry). A sad commentary in a mass-market industry, or the harsh Darwinian reality of the economics and psychology of gaming?

Verily, a company does sit on its bottom line, but where lies the line between the bottom line and racing for the bottom?

As we've previously reported, it looks like Wii owners everywhere may have even more reasons to rejoice, and it's all because of Keiji Inafune. Better known as the creator of Mega Man, Onimusha, and Dead Rising, Inafune has just confirmed with the Japanese gaming blog, Gemaga, that he and Capcom are currently developing an unannounced Wii title.

In fact, he also notes that "He hopes to be able to show it this year".

Even though there are still no specifics regarding the title he's working on, we're getting excited as this just means that a quality game is headed our way. After all, considering the fact that the character Mega Man is now an icon, and Onimusha and Dead Rising just happen to be particularly successful franchises, fans might want to watch out and see what Inafune has got up his sleeve.

He's about to work his magic once again, so we hope that you guys are watching closely.