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SNK CEO Kenji Matsubara Steps Down, Transitions to Advisory Role

Fighting game company SNK announced on Tuesday that CEO Kenji Matsubara will step down as CEO and "transition to an advisory role." During a transitional period, the company's board has appointed its chairman to serve as interim CEO (the announcement did not say who the chairman was, but SNK's website does list the seven members of its board).

SNK appointed Matsubara as its CEO in August 2021.

Matsubara was previously CPO, COO, and president of Sega Games; CEO and president of Zynga Japan; and representative director and president of Koei Tecmo Holdings Co., Ltd.

SNK Corporation was founded in 1978, but the company filed for bankruptcy in 2001. SNK Playmore was founded in August 2001, and the company also developed pachinko slot machines and smartphone games aside from console games, but withdrew from the pachislot (pachinko parlor slot machine game) business in 2015. SNK Playmore then changed back its name to SNK Corporation in December 2016.

SNK is known for its franchises such as King of Fighters, Metal Slug, Fatal Fury (Garō Densetsu), and Samurai Shodown (Samurai Spirits), and the NeoGeo console.

SNK's new fighting game Fatal Fury City of the Wolves launched on April 24 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Steam, and the Epic Games Store.

The company recently established KOF Studio in December, on the 30th anniversary of The King of Fighters franchise. The studio's website states that it will "proudly carry on the storied legacy of our iconic fighting game IPs while driving their evolution well into the future."

Source: SNK via Hachima Kiko