The Street Fighter II producer Yoshiki Okamoto has announced a date for his retirement in a recent video on his YouTube channel (as spotted by Gosokkyu).
The former Konami and Capcom game designer and producer has worked in the games industry for over 40 years but recently revealed that he plans to retire on June 10th, 2027. This is a date that will coincide with his 66th birthday.
Okamoto got his start in the video game industry at Konami in the early '80s, where he worked on classic arcade games like Time Pilot and Gyruss. However, during the development of Time Pilot's sequel, Time Pilot '84, he left Konami for one of its main rivals Capcom, with the developer citing low pay and a notable encounter with Konami's president as the reasons behind this.
At Capcom, he had a hand in designing a bunch of notable arcade titles, including 1942 and Gun.Smoke, and later memorably served as a producer on Final Fight, and Street Fighter II. In 1997, he then formed a start-up called Flagship, to create several scenarios for games, while continuing to supervise various projects at Capcom.
Over the next few years, Okamoto continued to add even more enviable feats to his résúme, being credited — in a roundabout way — with the creation of Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption series, on account of his early involvement with its predecessor Red Dead Revolver. Then, in 2003, he left Capcom, forming his own studio called Game Republic, where he was a co-director on several titles for the PS2 and PS3 including Genji: Dawn of the Samurai, Genji: Days of the Blade, and Folklore.
He continued in this capacity until 2011, which is when Game Republic, unfortunately, went out of business.
After Game Republic, Okamoto made the switch to mobile development, joining the company Mixi. There he would go on to develop the puzzle strategy game Monster Strike, which has since become one of the most successful mobile games of all time. He is currently an investor/strategic planner for the metaverse gaming platform Creta and runs a channel on YouTube where he shares stories about his time in the industry. Safe to say, he's had quite the career!
You can read our interview with Okamoto about his early years at Konami here.