Level-5 acquires Comcept, the studio founded by Mega Man’s co-creator

By Kevin Parrish Published June 14, 2017

During E3 2017, Mega Man co-creator Keiji Inafune told Famitsu that game developer Level-5 purchased his Japan-based game development studio, Comcept Inc. It’s now called Level-5 Comcept and is currently working on an Android/iOS game called Dragon Colonies set to arrive in Japan sometime in 2018.

Inafune founded Comcept in December 2010 after leaving Capcom when the publisher canceled Mega Man Legends 3. His staff of around 15 developers consists of veteran Mega Man designers as well as budding individuals who grew up with the franchise. The studio’s name is supposedly a play on two words: Inafune’s former employer and “concept.”

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To date, Comcept has nine titles under its belt starting with 2011’s Kaio: King of Pirates (3DS) to 2017’s Red Ash: The Indelible Legend (Xbox One, Windows PC, PlayStation 4). Some of the notable games in the studio’s library include Soul Sacrifice (PS Vita), Soul Sacrifice Delta (PS Vita), and ReCore (Windows 10, Xbox One).

“Although there are plans to close Comcept as it currently stands in the future, I will take responsibility for the titles I’m working on until the end,” Inafune told Famitsu.

Level-5 will presumably drop the Comcept name in the near future, with Inafune and his staff simply serving as Level-5’s Osaka-based development studio. The status of Comcept’s Tokyo-based office is unknown for now although it may be shut down so that Level-5 can focus on the studio in Osaka.

Level-5 president and CEO Akihiro Hino said that talks of acquiring Comcept began when the two studios were working on Guild 02 for the Nintendo 3DS handheld. The new Level-5 subsidiary will be under Hino’s supervision, who will work directly with Inafune and his team to generate concepts and create awesome games that will clearly reflect their partnership.

“I had the feeling that I wanted to be like Hino since around the time I was at Capcom,” Inafune said.

Level-5 is based out of Fukuoka, Kyushu, an island located just off the southwestern point of Japan. The studio was founded in 1998 by Hino and has since produced a huge roster of games starting with 2000’s Dark Cloud for the PlayStation 2. Other notable titles include Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, the Professor Layton series, several Yo-kai Watch games, Time Travelers, and the Ni no Kuni series.

Dragon Colonies, the first game produced from the new collaboration, will focus on player-versus-player battles. Players will collect, strengthen, and battle each other using six-sided dice-shaped “Hacolonies.” Five sides of the die will be dedicated to dragons that are used as weapons while the sixth side will sport a crest. Once a crest is united with an opponent’s crest, a battle begins to destroy the opponent’s Hacolony.

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