Capcom Increases Starting Salary of Employees in Japan by Around 25%

This really feels like the year where Japanese and Eastern game devs just completely dominate. The biggest game of the year is Palworld from Japan, the highest rated game of the year is FF7Rebirth from Japan, ATLUS/RGG both made their fastest selling titles ever and that’s probably gonna be vanillaware also, Tekken 8 is the new FGC darling. And even looking towards the future, a lot of the most anticipated games (Stellar Blade, Wukong, Dragon’s Dogma, Rise of the Ronin, Elden Ring DLC) are from the East (not even mentioning Nintendo). What is there for Western AAA games this year? Star Wars Outlaws, Xbox’s admittedly great lineup, and that’s it. Not to mention how every Western game studio has been laying off people left and right.

I don’t mean this in like a “Place, Japan” type of way, but I really hope Western AAA devs take note of what the indie and Eastern scene is doing

To people calling this a win, the starting salary is less than the minimum wage in the UK.

Some people really don't read past the headlines.

The government has strongly urged all companies to raise salaries and analysts are saying this year will be see the biggest raises in general to help combat the very bad inflation.

@somnambulance Facts! With games like Marvel Vs Capcom 4, Viewtiful Joe PS5, Dino Crisis 4, Powerstone 3, azuras wrath 2, darkstalkers & Tatsunoko vs Capcom 2 , all praises to the capGOD 💯🔥

I don’t mean this in like a “Place, Japan” type of way, but I really hope Western AAA devs take note of what the indie and Eastern scene is doing

So they should learn to pay their staff less than what a Janitor earns and make them crunch 52 weeks a year?

Geez i think the stoned kid behind the Burger King counter makes more then this, shame on Capcom

The headlines make it sound like a big win. I honestly have no clue how they could live on those wages while working under crunch and so forth, it’s not financially worth the stress. You hear about companies like Nintendo sorta taking advantage of workers’ love for the brand to get away with mistreatment though.

@ChrisDeku Yea, but remember around 2020 when everybody started hating and revealing crunch culture on western games. It made western publishers stop the practice, but look where we are now, 6-7 years to make a game. Wth?
It's the media that stopped crunch, but you can indirectly blame them for the drought of AAA Sony releases we have now.
With Totori at the realm of Sony, things will probably go back to what they were, now that we live in a cut costs anyway possible world.

What do you prefer? Close down studios for not delivering games or make them work harder and faster for less money, but have results. The latter is why there are abundant japanese games releasing this year, and no western games.

@Sil_Am I wouldn't mind waiting 10 years for a new game if it meant the end of crunch. I value people's physical and mental health over my enjoyment of yet another video game, especially when I have such a huge backlog to begin with. But that's just me.

@naruball I get you, I also have a huge backlog of games to play and can wait, but it's not sustainable, for Sony, at least.

@TrickyDicky99
You do realise that the cost of living in Japan is roughly 50% less than in the UK, right?

That's still less than my current pay as an assistant English teacher in Japan.

@TrickyDicky99 You do realize that approximately 0.0000001% of the active users in this website are from Japan and fully understand Japan salaries and currency, right?

@Sil_Am yup. From a business point of view, absolutely.

I did some digging because that number was alarming to me, but for Osaka, that's a pretty decent income for a young single person starting out. Just a hair below the median income but enough to cover all expenses plus some discretionary spending if livingcost.org is accurate.

Capcom HQ is in Osaka.
And for Osaka living standards the starting salary is a bit below the average (average approx 4-4.5M yen per year or 333300-375000 per month).
So I would say that’s not too bad for Japanese standards.

Also a Big Mac here is ¥480.
When 2 people earn that kind of salary, they can easily afford their own house depending on the area in Osaka (there are great choices that set you back 40-70M).

Just to give a perspective. The salary is nothing crazy, but I’m sure senior devs earn pretty well at Capcom.

Source: I live in Osaka since 8 years.

Hey, it’s something. Better news than hearing people getting laid off.

It's still not much money but fair enough. Least it's a decent starting wage and not more job cuts

@ZhuckelDror depends where you live in either country

@Frmknst Just looked it up and the average house price in Japan roughly $337K/£263K

Average house price in UK is $370K/£290K

So not much of a disparity.

@ZhuckelDror Just looked it up and the average house price in Japan roughly $337K/£263K

Average house price in UK is $370K/£290K

So not much of a disparity.

@nessisonett
Cost of living is vastly different in Japan. When I visited Tokyo, I was astonished at how cheap it was to do certain things like eating out at a restaurant. Close to 50% less than what I would pay at home.

@TrickyDicky99 What about taxes, living did you check that?