Japanese game developer Comcept, known for the games Mighty No. 9 and ReCore, has shut down, according to Japanese website GameBiz, which spotted a Notice of Dissolution in yesterday's Official Gazette.
The studio was founded by Keiji Inafune, a former CAPCOM producer who co-created series like Mega Man, Onimusha, and Dead Rising, in 2010. Aside from the small free-to-play mobile game The Island of Dr. Momo, Comcept's debut title was 2014's Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, an action/adventure spin-off in the Ninja Gaiden series for which the studio worked alongside Spark Unlimited and Team Ninja. Inafune and his team also worked with Sony's Japan Studio on the design of the PlayStation Vita exclusive game Soul Sacrifice.
Their first brand new project was Mighty No. 9, which Inafune presented as a spiritual successor to Mega Man. The action platform game sought funding on Kickstarter, where it gathered $3.8 million in pledges. Comcept developed Mighty No. 9 with the help of Inti Creates, another studio composed of ex-CAPCOM employees. The game was eventually published in late June 2016 by Deep Silver, but it wasn't well received at all. On Wccftech, Mighty No. 9 was rated just 4 out of 10 by Chris Wray, who summarized his experience with the following words:
Mighty No. 9 was designed to be a spiritual successor to Mega Man. If any of that spirit was ever here, it's long since decayed. The game is incredibly frustrating, suffers from bad design choices throughout and offers only middling enjoyment.
In the same year, Comcept also released ReCore, which it created in collaboration with the Texan developer Armature Studio. This game was received a bit better than Mighty No. 9 (at the time, it earned an 8 out of 10 from Wccftech's Francesco De Meo), but it still wasn't enough to get publisher Microsoft Studios to give the green light for a sequel.
The following year, Comcept was acquired by Level-5 and became a subsidiary, helping Level-5 develop games such as Yo-kai Watch Jam: Yo-kai Academy Y, Megaton Musashi, Fantasy Life i: The Girl Who Steals Time, and Inazuma Eleven: Victory Road. Now, all its assets will be transferred to the main Level 5 studio.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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