In a session with Capcom R&D head Keiji Inafune, the creator responsible for games like Dead Rising, Lost Planet and Mega Man, the topic turned to the recently closed Clover Studios. Session moderator N'Gai Croal asked Inafune about Clover's gorgeous financial underperformers Okami and Viewtiful Joe.

He was about as blunt as one could be. Here's the Q&A.

When you looked over the games that came from Clover Studios, why do you think that audiences didn't respond to those games, Okami and Viewtiful Joe in particular, which got excellent reviews?

Perhaps I might get into trouble if I say this in front of people from the mass media. Games are not a work of art. It's actually a product. If we think of it as a work of art, then... when we think about Picasso and Van Gogh's paintings, the end result is beauty, so it doesn't matter if you sell it or not. However for games, it's a product. It is a commodity. The producer has to think about that.

Okami and Viewtiful Joe, I think, are wonderful games and because they are wonderful games I think, the job of the director was fantastic. But 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. They have to think about the promotion. The producer has to take those good games and think about how to deliver it to as many users as possible. 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.

Great directors may exist in great numbers, however, if you don't have a good producer it won't lead to sales. And I think this Clover Studios example is a really good example of that.

Daaaamn! Who knew Keiji could be so harsh? Let's hope Clover producer Atsushi Inaba has better sales success at his new venture Seeds. Michael McWhertor

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