Capcom Producer Yoshinori Ono Temporarily Stepping Down

Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono, producer of the Street Fighter IV games and, more recently, Street Fighter X Tekken, announced on Thursday that he will be temporarily stepping down from his position due to health concerns.

The news follows a week after Ono was hospitalized due to unspecified health complications while on a tour to promote Street Fighter X Tekken. The producer’s condition reportedly “heavily deteriorated” as he was wrapping up a promotional event in Asia.

“I caused you so much worry for a while. I went back to work. [The Street Fighter] team are working wholeheartedly on patches for SF X TK. Please wait just a little longer,” he said in a series of tweets.

Ono continued: “I’ll refrain from work [on my] current job for a while. Another person [is] in charge of the SF series for a while. Of course I’ll [give] constant support to it. I’ll be out of the limelight [of] fighting game series for a while. I’ll think about the new future of fighting games after this.”

Following Ono’s announcement on Twitter, Capcom issued a statement to Game Informer, saying: “Ono-san is a vital component of the Street Fighter franchise and he continues to play an important role on the R&D team at Capcom. More information regarding his involvement with future Street Fighter products will be revealed at Capcom’s annual Captivate event next week.”

via Edge