Japanese entertainment giant SNK Corporation has officially announced that CEO Kenji Matsubara will trade his high-ranking position for an “advisory role.”
The brand’s news release says Matsubara’s new post will allow him to “continue to lend his expertise and vision.”
SNK’s news release details Matsubara’s contribution to the brand:
“During his tenure as CEO, Mr. Matsubara has been instrumental in driving the company’s growth and innovation. He transformed SNK by expanding its development division and strengthening its sales and marketing functions, building it into a global publisher capable of competing worldwide. As part of this transition, the board will appoint the Chairman of the board to assume the interim role of CEO.
“The board expresses its deepest gratitude to Mr. Matsubara for his dedication and leadership during a transformative period in the company’s history. SNK Corporation remains committed to its strategic vision and is excited about the future as it enters this new phase of leadership.“
The now-former SNK CEO has long worked in industry leadership roles. Matsubara joined SNK four years ago after departing from Sega in 2020 for “personal reasons”; he joined Sega as brand CTO in 2014, eventually landing a role as president in 2017. Matsubara also previously worked for Zynga, the social games brand behind early 2010s Facebook fixtures Farmville and Words with Friends, before the studio became a Take-Two subsidiary. He later joined Tecmo Koei — the studio behind Ninja Gaiden and Fatal Frame — a position he held until he penned his resignation in November 2010, just one year later. His departure followed continued operating losses and preceded the brand’s 2014 switch from “Tecmo Koei” to “Koei Tecmo.”
Matsubara’s role swap comes after the commercial flop of Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves, a modern reboot of the company’s 1990s fighting game IP. The game marks the brand’s first return to the Fatal Fury franchise in over 20 years. Despite high anticipation from fighting game fan circles and some seriously intensive marketing pushes — WrestleMania ring presence and soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo’s role as a playable character — Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves‘ performance was suboptimal.
SNK (formerly Shin Nihon Kikaku and SNK Playmore) got its start in 1978 and became an arcade mainstay in the 1980s. From the 1990s and early aughts onward, SNK moved releases to its proprietary Neo Geo hardware. Modern gamers can pick up classic and novel SNK titles using their PCs and home consoles.
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A lifelong gamer raised on classic titles like Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, and Croc, Stephanie brings her expertise of gaming and pop culture to deliver unique, refreshing views on the world of video games, complete with references to absurd and obscure media.
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