Even worse 100,000 fans of Mega Man Legends wrote to Capcom telling them they'd pre-order the Mega Man Legends 3 if Capcom would just make it. Now personally if I had 100,000 customers begging me sell them something I'd get started on getting it to them right away. Capcom responded with insults, that's not an exaggeration.

The new Lost Planet really looks like shit, I have to say. Apparently metacritic agrees.

It's pretty trainwreck-interesting to see how Capcom (and other companies like Squeenix to an extent) have basically decided to ignore or brush off everyone that made them a big name and kept them that way, when the only other guideline they aim for now is "Do what those other guys are doing, they're making all the money!" and farming out their IPs instead of trying to do their own shit.

RE4 worked because they somehow managed to hit the sweet spot between old Resident Evil mechanics (Limited motion while aiming, limited resources and inventory, angry zombies everywhere) and new things (Full 3D exploration, treasure and upgrade system, the only AI partner in modern gaming who is not retarded).

Then RE5 came out, and we're back to a stupid AI which stumbles around, dies constantly, and wastes all your items.

This is "Fixed" in RE6 by making a game that uses the equipment system and combat rules from "The Mercanaries" minigame. While it is fun (and different!) I dunno if generic mooks firing guns at you from the very first stage of the game is very Resident Evil. Also, they gave up trying to code the AI partner well and gave it infinite ammo and lives so if he dies or messes up somehow it doesn't actually matter. It is a much better game then RE5, but I still suggest you pick up a copy of RE4 and play that if you can as well!

The funny thing is that Inafune was responsible for a lot of Capcom's Western-developed projects. Of course, he was also behind franchises like Lost Planet and Dead Rising, and he actually had to trick Capcom's higher-ups into approving them.

In fact, Mega Man wouldn't even be a series if Capcom's management had its way back in the '80s. They only agreed to fund Mega Man 2 after Inafune and the development staff promised to work on other games at the same time.

I guess I should keep being the sanctimonious nerd here and point out that Inafune's more like the co-creator of Mega Man, since the character was already thought up by the time he joined Capcom. He's definitely the one who kept the franchise going, though.

Capcom has always made games targeted at the western market. Final Fight, Street Fighter II, their many and various licensed games, Resident Evil etc. They just lost a lot of talent and the budgets got a lot bigger so the creative decisions became solely the domain of clueless board members.