Inafune hasn’t heard from Capcom regarding Mighty No. 9
There’s no denying that Mighty No. 9 has many similarities to Mega Man. There are obviously differences between the two, but some aspects are comparable. This should come as a big surprise given how both games come from the same creator Keiji Inafune.
Despite these similarities, Capcom hasn’t initiated any legal proceedings… at least not yet.
Keiji Inafune told Kotaku that he has yet to hear anything from the company:
“We haven’t heard anything from Capcom at this point. If it turns into a legal battle, then obviously it’ll be lawyers that hash out what the solutions are. However, from my perspective, Mega Man is something that I created. It would be like having a child, then having somebody adopt that child and then saying that child isn’t really yours. That child has your DNA in it, no matter what anybody says. So, since my style, my spirit isn’t something that I can’t change as a human being, if I create anything and it’s something that looks like [Mega Man], well, it was created by the same person, me. To say that Mighty No. 9 looks like Mega Man is to say that my work looks like my work.
But we have been careful. The base gameplay is not the same as Mega Man. The naming, the character, all that is not the same. The details are very different. Personally, I’ve gone out of my way to make sure that this is something original. And if Capcom does come back and say something, I would be surprised.”