In the midst of frequent layoffs, it is always refreshing to read about a studio doing something positive. Elden Ring developer FromSoftware has announced that it is increasing its basic salary and starting salary for new graduates by almost 12%.
“FromSoftware Co., Ltd. (Head office: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Hidetaka Miyazaki) has decided to raise the base salary of its current employees by an average of approximately 11.8% from April 2025,” the company announced through a press release. “In line with this, the starting salary for new graduates will also be raised from the current 260,000 yen to 300,000 yen.”
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“Our company is committed to creating games with the desire to ‘communicate emotion. Create value. Make people happy’. To achieve this, we believe it is essential to create an environment where each employee can focus on content development, and we are working to create a stable income and rewarding work environment for our employees. The increase in base salary and starting salary is one of the measures we are taking.”
FromSoftware also said they will continue to create more exciting and valuable games. On June 20, 2024, the company released the first and only expansion for Elden Ring called Shadow of the Erdtree. It was largely dubbed a game-sized DLC.
Earlier this year Konami announced that it was raising the monthly salaries of new graduates to 300,000JPY from the previous 295,000JPY. The raise will take effect in March 2025, a month before that of FromSoftware.
Compared to Capcom and Konami, FromSoftware made the most significant salary adjustments for their staff. The raise now means the three companies have identical wage bills for their workers which should make their search for talent more competitive.
At a time when studios are shutting down or cutting headcount, many Japanese game developers/publishers have yet to cut roles which sets them apart from the rest of the world.
According to LinkedIn analytics, FromSoftware has seen a 13% growth in headcount in the last six months which is another commendable insight considering the spate of layoffs in the video game industry.
