Street Fighter producer steps down over health concerns

Yoshinori Ono is a well-liked icon in certain gaming circles. As producer on the Street Fighter franchise, he's credited for the recent revival of the fighting genre. He's known for his dedication to the community, and can be seen participating in goofy stunts. For example, he recreated a random scene from the live action Street Fighter movie.

Over the weekend, Ono was hospitalized for reasons unknown. Today, he's confirmed on Twitter that he will taking a leave of absence from his role at Capcom to focus on his recovery. "I'll refrain from work for current job for a while," he said. "Another person in charge of SF series for a while."

While Ono admits that he'll be "out of the limelight" for a while, he promises that he'll "think about the new future of fighting game after this."

Ono's most recent project was Street Fighter x Tekken. It's been largely rumored that his next project was going to be a revival of the Darkstalkers franchise.