Street Fighter series executive producer Yoshinori Ono announced today he’ll resign from Capcom after almost 30 years with the company.
His long announcement posted this morning starts by mentioning the difficulties people have had around the world caused by COVID-19. He also explains how COVID-19 affected Capcom Pro Tour 2020.
“We at Capcom had many internal discussions about the format for the CPT 2020,” wrote Ono. “It took a long time for us to decide the format for this year, but we believe that conducting the event itself would repay those who has been supporting the CPT, regardless of what the format is.” CPT 2020 was moved entirely online, which caused criticism, due to the pandemic.
However, what surprised fans was his upcoming resignation from Capcom.
“I’ve been with the Street Fighter brand for a long time, experiencing good times, bad times, and even non-existent times,” Ono said. “My heart is filled with appreciation to those players who’ve been giving warm and kind support on the brand especially little over the past decade or so as all the activities on the Street Fighter brand regained sunshine and grew its liveliness.
“And now, after serving almost 30 years at Capcom, I am leaving the company in this summer. This means that I will resign my position as the brand manager for Capcom’s various titles including Street Fighter.”
Yoshinori Ono became part of Capcom since the early 1990s. He first worked as music producer for Saturday Night Slam Masters. The first Street Fighter game he worked for was the arcade version of Street Fighter Alpha. He later worked on Street Fighter III 3rd Strike released in 1999.
He is accredited with reviving the Street Fighter franchise ten years later with the release of Street Fighter 4 in 2009. After SF4, he continued as producer once again for Street Fighter 5, released in 2016.
He’s had other producer roles in other franchises such as Darkstalkers Resurrection, Monster Hunter Frontier G, Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, and many others.
“Capcom staff in the new generation will continue taking care of the Street Fighter brand and leading the World Warriors,” Ono mentioned in one of his closing statements. “And, I do believe that they will continue making Street Fighter extraordinary. I will look forward to seeing the new Street Fighter brand and how it’s going to be expanded, as just one of the regular gamers next time around.”
Yoshinori Ono was not specific about his resignation.
— Yoshinori Ono (@Yoshi_OnoChin) August 9, 2020
[Sources]: @Yoshi_OnoChin (Twitter): Street Fighter series’ players & Fighting Game Community members. @yoshionochin (Facebook): Street Fighter series’ players & Fighting Game Community members.