Why this Japanese game developer left Capcom for his own startup

Job-hopping is not a common thing in Japan. People usually join companies and stay there for the rest of their careers. Becoming an entrepreneur and working on your own startup is an even rarer occurrence in the country. So what made Shinichiro Obata, CEO and founder of the game development studio Byking, leave Capcom for his own startup?

Obata was a game designer and director at Capcom for thirteen years before he founded Byking. He started at Capcom – the company is famous for games like Street Fighter and Resident Evil – in 1994, after he graduated from university. In his thirteen years there, he had a hand in development of games like Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny – Alliance vs. Z.A.F.T. II, Heavy Metal Geo Matrix, Vampire Slayer, Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, 19XX – The War Against Destiny, and Street Fighter III.

Obata’s game development portfolio is definitely impressive, and he probably would have steadily risen in the company’s ranks had he stayed. However, that was actually his concern. “For creators who have real ability and are energetic, a safe, large company is dangerous,” he tells Tech in Asia.

Shinichiro Obata, CEO and founder of Byking.

In 2006, a year before he left Capcom, Obata says that he had a big dream for his future, and he felt that if he did not make it happen, then his life would be a waste. “As just another employee in a large company, I thought that it would take too much time to succeed.” So he left.

While Byking now has over 60 staff, Obata says it started with just one: himself. “When I left Capcom and departed Osaka for Tokyo, it was just my wife, myself, and our three-month-old baby. That was my first team,” he explains.

Today, Byking works around one common request from Japanese game makers: “come up with a hit idea, and make that game.” Its partners include bigwigs like Square Enix, Taito, Bandai Namco Games, and yes, Obata’s old employer, Capcom. “It’s funny, isn’t it?” he says. He adds that these companies find that Byking is “essential” to them.

Some of Byking’s most famous productions to date include Square Enix’s hit arcade game, Gunslinger Stratos, and the much-beloved Gundam EXVS series, created in collaboration with Bandai Namco Games. Byking has also developed a simple running game for iOS called Chicken Run.

In spite of its success, Obata doesn’t have any lofty plans for expansion. Rather, he says that the company will use its capital to become an “enjoyment maker”, and create new games, fund, and trends. “We are planning things that small companies like us have not done before,” he adds.

The future of video games, according to Byking

A screenshot from Rise of Incarnates, the title Byking is working on with Bandai Namco.

If you couldn’t already tell, Byking’s standards are high. Obata is pessimistic on the state of the industry, thinking it only has games that are so boring it’s wasteful to spend money of them.

To him, game development might be more accessible than ever but quality games are being minted with less frequency due to a get-rich-quick attitude. “A chef who says ‘even if the food is bad it’s still ok because I make money anyway,’ should never be in the kitchen,” he says. Flappy Bird clones might be lucrative but there is nothing enriching about them.

“Even without games, you can live. It is not a necessity for life,” Obata says, explaining that he wants developers who can make consumers think of games as a must-have part of their lives.

There are many games Obata wants to make, most stemming from his childhood dreams. “I wanted to try flying, to use magic. I wanted to be able to move objects like a Jedi and fly into space to do battle. I wanted to try to become a hero who could save the world, to be a star who all the girls loved,” remembers.

Since there are already so many games like that, he is pushing Byking to create something groundbreaking. “There must be some new approach or an idea that creates a new emotion. There is an infinite number of ideas that can create a world that has never been experienced,” he says.

Byking is currently working on the free-to-play PC game, Rise of Incarnates, with Bandai Namco Games.

See: Rovio exec quits to help a Japanese music startup go global

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Why this Japanese game developer left Capcom for his own startup