History
Inti Creates was founded by ten former members of Capcom, with Takuya Aizu as CEO. In a 2019 interview, Aizu said the company's founders initially found it difficult to find a company willing to publish its games because they were not yet well-known developers. He said that one of the company's members successfully applied to Sony Music Entertainment's Club Dev program, which led to negotiations that secured funding to establish the company.
The company's vice president, Yoshihisa Tsuda, repeatedly expressed an interest in developing a Mega Man game during conversations with Keiji Inafune, who later invited the studio to submit a proposal that ultimately led to the Mega Man Zero series.
Initially established as a limited liability company, it became a publicly traded company in 2003.
The company expanded by opening a studio in Nagoya in 2008.
In 2011, Inti Creates began collaborating with WayForward on the Shantae series after being hired to work on Shantae and the Pirate's Curse. The company continued its work on Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, contributing key artwork, concepts, and character illustrations.
In 2014, Inti Creates released its first self-published games, Azure Striker Gunvolt and its cross-promotional title Mighty Gunvolt. In a 2015 interview, Aizu said the company had decided to become a publisher after seeing Keiji Inafune establish his own company and publish games. He also cited the decline of the Japanese console market and the company's desire to reach a global audience as factors in the decision.
Inti Creates collaborated with Keiji Inafune and Comcept on Mighty No. 9.
In a 2018 interview, Aizu attributed many of the development difficulties of Mighty No. 9 to shortcomings in the Kickstarter campaign's financial planning. He said that Kickstarter fees, backer rewards, and additional platform and feature promises substantially reduced the available budget while expanding the project's scope.
The company later collaborated with producer Koji Igarashi on the game Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, but left the project after E3 2016 with DICO taking over development.
Inti Creates subsequently developed and released the 2D action-platformer Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon in 2018. The game sold more than 100,000 copies within two weeks of its release.
In a 2019 interview, Aizu said the company had focused its international publishing efforts on the United States, the United Kingdom, and China, describing them as markets where players were more receptive to independent games.
Several of the company's collaborations were facilitated by platform holders, according to Aizu. He credited an introduction by Nintendo of America for including Shovel Knight in Azure Striker Gunvolt 2 and Blaster Master Zero, and said that a chance meeting between Sunsoft and Nintendo at E3 led to the development of Blaster Master Zero.
