Yoshinori Ono, long-term developer at Capcom, has been appointed as President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of studio Delightworks. Ono took to Twitter on April 27 to announce the transition after 30 years with Capcom.
Ono is a Japanese video game producer who joined Capcom back in 1998 and is best known for his work on the Street Fighter franchise. The company he joins, Delightworks, is a studio that has worked on mobile games such as Fate/Grand Order as well as Melty Blood: Type Lumina for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch.
This announcement is a follow-up to his statement in August of 2020 in which Ono first mentioned he was leaving Capcom. Ono has been credited on dozens of games throughout his tenure with Capcom including Street Fighter V, Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite, and Ultra Street Fighter II: The Final Challengers. His career as a video game developer began as a sound producer and composer but sees him leave with credits as executive producer on various titles. He will finalize his transition to the new position as President and COO of Delightworks on May 1st.
This is the latest update in Ono's separation from Capcom and shouldn't come as too big of a surprise as both parties were likely looking for new challenges. Delightworks gains a long-standing name in the video game scene and, while Capcom has greatly benefitted from Ono's presence for all these years, he hadn't been relied upon as much as of late. According to his tweet, this new position should see him tackle challenges he did not see at Capcom but didn't specify if he would continue with his work in the fighting genre. The new position likely opens up numerous opportunities and time will tell which way Ono moves Delightworks.
The resume is impressive when it comes to this tenured Capcom employee and this change will see even more expansion. What is unclear, though, is the future of the Street Fighter franchise and what this move means for another title. It might mean that there won't be a Street Fighter 6 for a while or that that game won't have Ono involved.
Though Street Fighter V had its limitations and issues, on the whole, it won over players and reviewers alike. Removing Ono from the picture for a future title may have the same result but there is more uncertainty than in recent memory. Either way, this is great news for Ono who has been given much more responsibility at Delightworks than he had at Capcom.
Source: Delightworks