Where Are They Now? – Keiji Inafune

Mighty No. 9 and Red Ash are the two biggest disasters in Kickstarter history. That’s how it feels anyway, but in reality they’re far from the worst. There have been legitimate scams in the past, and not in the sense that somebody you don’t like took money to make a game you don’t like. There have been literal scams where people have taken money and ran away without ever even attempting to create whatever it was they were pitching.

But one-time legendary developer Keiji Inafune can at least lay claim to the most hated individual to use the crowdfunding platform. Except maybe Peter Molyeneux, or Zoe Quinn, or Anita Sarkeesian, or Tim Schafer, or Chris Roberts… you know, gamers hate a lot of people.

If there’s anyone for whom the hate may be justified (but not the harassment), it’s Inafune. He talked about sequels, movies, and TV shows for Mighty No. 9 while constantly delaying it. The final game was terrible, but either he or his translator (we can’t say for sure due to the translator’s editorializing) said it was better than nothing.

Inafune then launched a second crowdfunding campaign for Red Ash, before Mighty No. 9 was finished. His company, Comcept, quietly delayed Mighty No. 9 again during the campaign, and even misled fans and backers about the delay before their publisher, Deep Silver, had to confirm it.

Near the end of the campaign, Comcept announced out of nowhere they signed with a publisher. Because of that, they lost thousands of dollars. Eventually, Red Ash failed, and since then Inafune and company have been silent. After all that, you might be wondering what happened to both the man himself, and Red Ash. Join us in our journey to find out by watching the video above.