Simon Parkin of Eurogamer recently had a chance to sit down with Capcom’s Yoshinori Ono at Captivate 2012 to speak on a variety of subjects, including his collapse and subsequent hospitalization earlier this year. While full of his typical bubbly personality, Ono very bluntly describes the company policies and extreme work schedule that contributed to his health problems.
“Capcom doesn’t allow a trade union or any sort of worker movement you see,” he says, giggling. “So if I complain I will probably get sacked. You have to say it for me, OK? I want you to write: ‘Capcom overworks Ono’. That’s your headline.”
I shoot the PR guy an apologetic glance. He sighs and looks to the ground. Ono, catching our interaction, turns to him and says, with that impish grin: “Just you wait. It will be you passed out on the floor one day.”
“That’s not quite true though is it, Ono,” I say, when the giggles die down. “I heard that Capcom was eager for you to stay at home for this trip; to take it easy?”
Never trust an interviewee who tries to write your headline for you.
“Whoever told you that is lying,” he retorts, his smile shifting down gears to a rare frown. “The situation is the complete opposite. Nobody told me to take a rest. When I returned to work, Capcom didn’t even acknowledge that I had been in hospital. There was no change in my schedule. I was at home for an entire week before the doctors allowed me to return to work. When I returned to my desk there was a ticket to Rome waiting for me. There’s no mercy. Everyone in the company says: ‘Ono-san we’ve been so worried about you.’ Then they hand me a timetable and it’s completely filled with things to do.”
But perhaps more interesting is the article’s focus on Ono’s early life, as well as his history with Capcom and the Street Fighter series. After the release of Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike in 1999, which performed well-below sales expectations, Capcom was ready to shelve the series entirely in favor of other franchises like Onimusha and Resident Evil.
“When Third Strike came out R&D didn’t really consider sales back then,” Ono explains. “We weren’t as marketing-orientated as we are today. We just wanted to make the best game and wanted to please our most hardcore fans. That’s what drove us. Obviously, in terms of sales it didn’t pay, so the company couldn’t invest in a sequel with a decent rationale. Not only that, but we were adamant we had made the epitome of the fighting game with Third Strike. So from the company’s point of view, if the team is stating that it cannot do any better combined with a lack of sales, it’s a complete story and it’s time to move on.”
During his time with the series both as a producer and fan, Ono grew attached and repeatedly submitted proposals for a new Street Fighter. In addition, he asked journalists to keep the series relevant by letting Capcom know they were waiting for another installment. Ono says it’s this word of mouth demand from the media and community that finally caused the company to relent and allow him to begin designing the game, going as far as to call it a miracle that they were even allowed to begin the preliminary stages of the project.
“Eventually I was given a small budget to create a prototype. That wasn’t really down to me pestering my superiors so much as all of the journalists and fans started making a lot of noise and pressuring Capcom. This was a strategic plot on my part. I had been asking all the journalists to make noise about the series when out and about. I would always tell them that it was their responsibility to tell Capcom, not me as I don’t have the power. Journalists and fans have the power to move Capcom – not producers. With so many voices crying out for a Street Fighter game Capcom could no longer ignore it any more and so they gave the green light for a prototype and they asked me to create it. It’s a miracle that happened after a decade…”
And even after all this, the game was still considered an “unwanted child” at the Capcom offices. It was through both the dedication and effort of the development team and the community that the game ever saw the light of day. The rest is history. Oddly enough, absolutely no mention is made of Street Fighter x Tekken, which has become almost a pariah in the community since its release. Hopefully one day we’ll get to hear from Ono regarding the behind-the-scenes history of its development.
The entire article is a long but interesting read, so be sure to give it some of your attention this afternoon.
the bolded part isn't actually important to the interview, it just made me smile
yeah. people s*** on him and say he ruined SF forever with 4 and SFxT. honestly he seems like a good guy and the FG is in the current uptick that it is because of his efforts.
And I do listen to the community and its suggestions. It's not like they are going to stab me, right? As long as nobody stabs me I am happy to receive criticism."
Calling it a baby seems a little over-dramatic perhaps. It might be better to describe Street Fighter 4 as the crystallisation of all of my tears, blood and effort.
Can't believe this didn't get mentioned. Quoting this for everybody to see.
"My aim is to construct a universal community. Back in the arcade days you had a small neighbourhood town community playing Street Fighter together in the arcades. Then the next town had its own community. But they were isolated from one another... With Street Fighter 4 my aim was to bring these communities together with the online system. I succeeded and now I want to create the 'Order of the Street Fighter', an online community where people can meet to play fighting games. They can engage in any game, it doesn't matter which one."
"The only rule is that every player has to pay me one Euro," he says, smiling. "This will be my pension."
We laugh but what Ono says next makes clear that he is not joking. "I want to sit in my office and plan this out. There have been rumours saying Ono is dead or retiring. None of that's true. I want to support the next generation of fighting game. It's my job. It's my calling."
I can't believe something so simple was hidden in this interview, and yet I'm hyped up for it. I want to see where this goes now. Godspeed, Ono. Godspeed.