There’s been a lot of demoralizing news about the game industry lately, with a constant stream of headlines about mass layoffs affecting several publishers coming one after the other for weeks on end. So when a company like Atlus, developers of Persona, Shin Megami Tensei, and Etrian Odyssey–among many other titles–notes that it’s actively putting efforts in to try to make its workplace better, it’s like a sweet, soft song amongst a cacophony of misery.
As first mentioned in a press release and reported on by Automaton West, Atlus plans to make improvements to its working environment starting in April of this year. New recruits will have their monthly salaries raised by 10%, going from 300,000 yen of pay each month to 330,000 yen. Longtime employees and independent contractors working on their titles will see a raise, too, aiming to increase yearly salaries by around 15%.
Japanese companies are notorious for often-harsh overtime demands, though in recent years government legislation has made conditions better for workers and helped curtail the abuses of so-called “black companies.” Meanwhile, the global video game industry is notorious for its “crunch” practices that require lengthy overtime from workers to complete a game. Atlus, however, is attempting to reduce fixed overtime for its employees, slashing the hours from 30 to 20 each month.
According to Automaton’s translation, “Atlus says that the decision to raise base salaries comes as a way to ‘foster the creativity and improve the productivity of every individual employee,’ arguing that investment in human resources is absolutely essential in order to keep delivering inspirational experiences to their audience.” The move also comes during a time when the Japanese populace has been increasingly worried about inflation and the cost of basic goods.
Several other Japanese developers and publishers, such as Sony Interactive Entertainment, have also increased salaries recently, with many in the Japanese game industry reporting that their pay has increased in the past year. Interestingly, Atlus’s parent company Sega ranked third for average yearly salary in a survey of major Japanese publishers.