Mega Man Creator’s Kaio: King of Pirates Cancelled

Keiji Inafune and Intercept have been working on Kaio: King of Pirates for three years. Unfortunately, this is one pirate ship that's never leaving port.

Siliconera reports that Marvelous AQL has announced the cancellation of Kaio: King of Pirates, the upcoming action-adventure game that was coming from Intercept and Keiji Inafune, the co-creator of Mega Man who is working on the upcoming spiritual successor to the Blue Bomber, Mighty No. 9. Inafune recently helped with the production of another game done in Rock's likeness, Azure Striker Gunvolt. Kaio: King of Pirates was a retelling of the 400-year-old Chinese tale, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, starring adorable, anthropomorphic animal swashbucklers instead of the story's historical faces. Inafune intended to make Kaio and Three Kingdoms like what Dragon Ball was to Monkey King story, Journey to the West.

Kaio: King of Pirates was going to be a console title to help put Marvelous on the map in terms of original IPs. Based on how the gaming marketplace has been changing over the past few years (with smaller, digital downloads for consoles and mobile titles booming), Marvelous has decided to abandon the project altogether instead of trying to revamp it for one of these smaller methods of release. Marvelous' public statement mentions that it lost 461 million yen (~$3.8 million) by originally investing into the cancelled project. While we're sad to hear that this Intercept and Inafune project has fallen through, we just hope that nothing hinders the release of his anticipated title, Mighty No. 9, next month for PC, PS Vita, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One, made with his other studio, Comcept.