Yoshinori Ono leaving Capcom after almost 30 years

Yoshinori Ono, the executive producer of the Street Fighter series, has announced he's leaving Capcom after almost thirty years with the company. He plans to split this summer, and doesn't say what he's up to next. Ono has become the of public face of pavement punch-ups, hosting video presentations, visiting tournaments, and generally being popular amongst byway brawlers. He's going out in classic Ono style: with a cry of "SHORYUKEN!"

"I've been with the Street Fighter brand for a long time, experiencing good times, bad times, and even non-existent times," Ono said in his statement on Twitter yesterday. "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."

Ono thanks people he's worked with, players, the fighting game community, and event staff for all their effort and support over the years. He says he believes Capcom "will continue making Street Fighter extraordinary" without him, and that he "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 around."

His post also talked about tournaments, which obviously have been derailed this year by the global pandemic. Along with interrupting folks' fun, it blocked Ono's long-running tradition of getting crowds up on their feet for a big Street Fighter shout of "Shoryuken".

So he tries to do that in his statement:

I regret that I as the Street Fighter series executive producer wasn't able to do 'SHORYUKEN' together with you all at each event in 2020, so please allow me to shout as my closing statement in my message to you.

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SHORYUKEN!

Shoryuken, quite.