Understanding whales — a former Capcom employee spends $500,000 on his gacha games.

Understanding Whales - Former Capcom Employee Spends $500,000 on His Own Gacha Games

Former Konami and Capcom game developer Yoshiki Okamoto, best known as the producer of Street Fighter 2, recently appeared on a Fuji TV show about celebrities who have experienced both loss and the accumulation of huge fortunes. On the show, Okamoto candidly talked about how much money he earns after the success of the gacha hit Monster Strike, and how he spends it.

For reference, in 2011, when his independent game development company Game Republic closed, Okamoto was saddled with debt exceeding $10.7 million. The company employed over 300 people and was severely impacted by a long absence of hits, as well as the bankruptcy of an American partner company, leaving a large portion of development work unpaid.

However, in 2013, Okamoto released the mobile RPG Monster Strike. As Okamoto told Fuji TV, this allowed him to go from limiting his food expenses to two dollars a day to earning over $7.81 million a year at his new company, Deluxe Games.

Interestingly, he also revealed that he now owns a house in Malaysia roughly the size of 20 tennis courts and spends most of his income on purchasing microtransactions in his own games. Apparently, Okamoto spends up to 80 million yen, or about $520,000 USD, on each account in games he is involved in developing.

The reason, he explains, is that he believes it's necessary to understand the feelings of players who spend a lot of money in the game. This way, he can ensure that players spending large sums are not disappointed by what they receive.

In response to comments from X users expressing surprise at his spending, Okamoto commented: "I always do my job conscientiously" and "Even if there were administrative privileges, if I used them, it would be difficult for me to understand the players' feelings."