Remember the Good Times With Yoshinori Ono

Recent Street Fighter and longtime Capcom producer and sound designer Yoshinori Ono confirmed that he will depart the company at the end of the summer on Sunday morning. The move came as a surprise to many considering his nearly 30-year (!!) run at the company, and how good his apparent standing within Capcom was despite occasional hitches. It wasn’t until the last week that we got an impression of just how seriously things went south for Ono behind the scenes, following a slight internal demotion. If you consider that, this announcement shouldn’t have been that surprising.

That it still came off as a shock spoke to how many fans Ono has, specifically among fighting game and Street Fighter fans. His departure will mark the end of an era for the franchise, Capcom overall, and potentially the fighting game genre.

It wouldn’t be fair to credit one man for the creation of a successful game — they’re always team efforts. But make no mistake: Yoshinori Ono was the main person at the helm for Street Fighter IV, the game responsible for not only reviving the Street Fighter brand, but giving a serious shot in the arm to the genre and overall tournament scene. It’s rare that one game can make a massive difference, but it does when it’s the right product at the right time. It shows how instrumental not only the Street Fighter brand was, but how well-received SFIV was among players of all stripes. Some played it religiously, and still cherish it to this day. Whether you loved it or hated it (and there are more of the former despite the latter being very vocal), there’s no denying its influential status.

This continued with Street Fighter V, a now-successful product after its earlier struggles. It launched too early and was priced too high for the content available early on, considering what players comparatively got for the same initial price with SFIV. Not to mention the deluge of server issues it contained for months. It was reminiscent of the early days of a free-to-play game, but for a title that demanded the full $60 asking price. It largely righted the ship later on after getting more content. It’s helped keep the fighting game tournament, now esports, scene alive following its predecessor’s successful run.

It’s not possible to discuss Ono without mentioning the energy he brought to announcements and presentations, in tournaments and during streams. He was good at trolling the fanbase regarding future announcements and additions of fan-favorite characters and features to Street Fighter games, but even those who sometimes didn’t like that had to respect his enthusiasm for the job and what he did. The man sometimes worked too hard, evident with the health incident he experienced in 2012. His spirit was unmatched by anyone else in fighting game promotional world, even slightly besting longtime rival and friend Katsuhiro Harada, who remains the face of Tekken despite being promoted from the producer role last year. His especially candid interview with Eurogamer likely didn’t help his standing in the company, though it was welcome for anyone curious about Capcom’s inner workings.

It would be improper for me to talk about Ono’s contributions at Capcom over the years without acknowledging how he started at the company by doing sound production and music composition — uncredited in his earliest works. He provided sound and music production for games like Saturday Night Slam Masters, Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, and Devil May Cry before becoming a producer with games like Capcom Fighting Jam/Evolution and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams.

This isn’t to say his record was flawless. Street Fighter x Tekken was a misfire thanks to early balance issues and money-grabbing DLC, and could have released six months later than it did for polishing. He also served as executive producer for Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, a Marvel-branded name that somehow failed despite Marvel’s popularity reaching unseen heights thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (the game launched months after Spider-Man: Homecoming and months before Thor: Ragnarok hit theaters). But remember that Ono had far more successes than failures.

Ono’s name has been seriously dragged through the mud in recent weeks. Rumors surfaced suggesting that internal developers and testers were dissatisfied with his work on an upcoming Street Fighter game, likely Street Fighter VI, which resulted in him being removed from the project and development being rebooted. He was also removed as the head of Capcom fighting games and assigned the head of the esports initiative, a less-important job largely impossible to work in currently thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was bumped off the promotional cycle for upcoming SFV content, with a non-appearance at the fighting game roundtable the Friday before last and in the SFV summer update. But keep in mind these are rumors’ take them all with skepticism.

Yoshinori Ono’s announcement of his departure is coming only six months after Marvel vs. Capcom 3 director Ryota Niitsuma left the company in February. It’s the end of one era for Capcom fighters, but potentially the beginning of a new one. This could be the time for the next generation of fighting game developers to take over — a new age of heroes, so to speak. Of course, they’ll all be at the whim of Capcom’s higher-ups, particularly the long-ruling Tsujimoto family. The first feel for the future of Capcom fighters and the Street Fighter brand will arrive with the upcoming SFV DLC.

In the meantime, best wishes to Ono in the future. There’s no telling where he’ll end up, if he ends up somewhere else at all. He could be a good asset for another company or team, particularly a fighting game developer.