The game industry has seen continuous layoffs in recent years, with developers affected across North America and Europe. However, gaming industry analyst Amir Satvat notes that the situation in Japan is quite different. He observed that companies like Nintendo, Capcom, and Konami have retention rates exceeding 97%, creating a stark contrast with the frequent layoffs at some Western studios.
Japanese Teams Are Relatively Lean
Satvat believes Japanese game companies generally operate with smaller, more streamlined development teams, and haven’t invested heavily in service-based games and massive projects that require hundreds of people to maintain long-term. This organizational model may reduce operational burden and means companies don’t have to drastically cut staff when project directions change.
Executive Salaries Are Vastly Different? You Bet
Satvat also highlighted executive compensation as a key observation. While Japanese game company executives still earn well, it’s typically in the millions rather than tens of millions of dollars. For context, EA CEO Andrew Wilson’s total compensation for the last fiscal year was approximately $38.6 million, while Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa’s total compensation was around $2 million.
This disparity in company culture and structure raises questions about the sustainability of the Western game development model, where massive teams and high executive pay seem to go hand in hand with layoff cycles.