Keiji Inafune split from Capcom about a year ago, clearly burned out—at one point he said he "hated" his job. However, he still was committed to finishing the 3DS game Mega Man Legends 3, whose cancellation set off a firestorm of anger this summer. Inafune threw more gasoline on the blaze when he suggested that Capcom turned down his offer to finish the game under contract.
Backing up, Inafune wanted out of Capcom and intended to start his own independent company. However, the project team for Mega Man Legends 3 had just been assembled, and he felt an obligation to finish that job.
"I stated that I was ready to make a contract with them so that I could keep working on those projects that I started," he told Japanese-language 4gamer.Net (as translated by the Facebook group 100,000 Strong for Mega Man Legends 3). "I couldn't start making contracts with other publishers for sure if Capcom agreed to the proposition, but I wanted to see those projects that I started to completion."
Despite his willingness to put his new company's work on hold to finish MML3, Inafune says, Capcom said no thank you.
"They answered, ‘We have no need to do that.'" he said.
Inafune lamented the fact that he had assembled the team and planned out the production strategy "all so we could barely start on Mega Man Legends 3," so he didn't want to bail out completely "at this crucial moment." But he was completely exhausted by his 23-year career at Capcom. "I wanted to leave Capcom to recharge my energy, and support Capcom from there, but it seems they don't allow it," Inafune said.
Capcom Refused To Let Keiji Inafune Complete Mega Man Legends 3 [GameBlurb. h/t Paradox Me]