Mighty no.9 Developer Comcept Officially Shut Down

A chapter in gaming history is closed. Following a shareholder's resolution on January 13th, Level-5 has shuttered studio Comcept down. Founded by Keiji Inafune in 2010, following his departure from Capcom, the studio was infamous for the stressed and controversial development of Mighty no.9. Aimed at being a spiritual successor to the then-dormant Mega Man series, the adventures of Beck was met with poor direction, a long production cycle, and ambitions that were placed far too high for the Kickstarter-funded project.

Comcept had also aided in development of other software, of varying quality. In 2012, they partnered with Team Ninja and defunct US company Spark Unlimited to work on Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, which was released in 2014 for the Xbox 360, Windows, and PlayStation 3. It was met with mostly negative reception. Kaio: King of Pirates spent four years in development before being eventually cancelled in 2015, a seemingly recurring trend with Comcept titles.

2016's ReCore was a collaboration developed project between Comcept and American studio Armature Studios (who also recently saw their doors shutter after being acquired by Meta) and published as a Microsoft exclusive. An open world action adventure game, it's likely one of the most critically well received pieces of software Comcept was involved in working on during its tenure.

In 2017, Comcept was acquired by Inazuma Eleven publisher and developer Level-5, becoming Level-5 Comcept. Their Tokyo offices was shut down and they operated exclusively out of Osaka.

The team would aid in production on releases like Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, Yo-kai Watch Jam: Yo-kai Academy Y – Waiwai Gakuen Seikatsu and Megaton Musashi. The Comcept team was given the task of heading development of Fantasy Life i, and lead founder Inafune would abruptly leave in 2024, following poor feedback from playtesters, causing Level-5 to completely reassess the game's vision and development. This was likely Keiji Inafune's last shot to leave a positive impact on the game industry.

Level-5 now attains all the assets of what remains of Comcept, and the studio is now no more, bringing an end to one of the more tumultuous Japanese game producing studios. And for Keiji Inafune, he now works as an executive for Rocket Studio (ROAD59: A Yakuza's Last Stand). It's hard to determine what's left for someone who once was held in very high regard in the game industry. A creative character designer, his ambition may have gotten the best of what he was capable of as a head of an entire team, seemingly squandering the good will he had from fans and peers in the industry.

In my eyes, I see him very similar to Dark Souls' Gywn, Lord of Cinder. To ignite a fading flame, he sacrificed himself in an effort to rekindle an old spark into greatness. But in the wake of those ambitions, those dreams were reduced to ash. Red Ash. If anything, he truly did bet on himself. And Mighty no.9's existence wasn't a total waste. Its successful did place Kickstarter and more earnest crowdfunding projects in a higher tier of legitimacy and quality assurance.