Former Capcom producer Yoshiki Okamoto has revealed that he spends more than $500,000 of his own money on his mobile titles to better understand “the feelings of high spenders.”
Okamoto made the comments during an appearance on the Japanese television show Where Did That Money Go?, where he discussed his career, including the rise and closure of his former studio Game Republic.
Spending big to understand big spenders
According to Sponichi Annex (via Automaton), Okamoto said he spent over $500,000 (80 million yen) per account across multiple accounts in his own gacha-style games. He described the spending as research, explaining that he wanted first-hand insight into how high-spending players interact with monetization systems.
“I need to understand what people who spend a lot of money on them think. I do this to make sure the people who spend the most don’t end up dissatisfied,” he said during the show.
While it’s not clear how many of his own games Okamoto has dropped that much cash on, it’s safe to assume one of those is Monster Strike. Released in 2013, the gacha title is massively popular in Japan, having surpassed more than 50 million downloads globally since launch.
Okamoto, who previously worked at Capcom on major titles such as Street Fighter II and Resident Evil before founding Game Republic, now focuses primarily on mobile games since the latter’s closure in 2011.
Before Monster Strike’s success, Okamoto, who said he now earns just under $8 million annually, revealed that the closure of Game Republic left him $11 million in debt.
“That was really devastating. I was evicted from my apartment for unpaid rent. I had to move from one friend’s house to another. I decided to limit my daily food expenses to 300 yen,” he said.
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