Street Fighter brand boss Yoshinori Ono is leaving Capcom

Street Fighter’s brand boss and long-time producer Yoshinori Ono has announced he is leaving Capcom after nearly 30 years at the company.

Ono has worked on the Street Fighter series since 1998 and in recent years had become the figurehead for the fighting game series.

In a statement published on his Twitter account, Ono thanked the fighting game community for its support and said that a “new generation” would now lead the Street Fighter brand.

Ono did not give a reason for the departure, though a recognised insider has alleged that Ono recently stepped away from the in-development Street Fighter 6 project, due to scepticism around its direction.

“I’ve been with the Street Fighter brand for a long time, experiencing good times, bad times, and even non-existent times,” he wrote.

“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.”

He added: “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.

“Capcom staff in the new generation will continue taking care of the Street Fighter brand and leading the World Warriors. 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 regular gamers next time.”

Capcom recently announced it will release a fifth Season of content for Street Fighter V, adding five new fighters and three new stages to the game.

Dan, Rose, Oro, and Akira will arrive as four major updates scheduled to release between the winter of 2020 and autumn 2021.

According to recognised Capcom insider Dusk Golem, the unexpected content season was created to replace a sixth full game release, which was delayed due to scepticism around its direction.

“SF6 was supposed to release next year, but it was not received well internally or with testers,” he wrote, alleging that the unannounced game has had new leadership put in place.