Yuichiro Kitao, CEO of Japanese game developer Gemdrops, silently announced on April 15 that his company has raised its starting salaries for new graduates to 270,000 yen (around $1900 USD) a month. This includes the salaries of artists, game designers, game programmers, sound engineers and system engineers – and they’re offering a rather challenging amount for a small-to-medium sized company in Japan. I spoke to Kitao to find out more about the decision.
Based in Tokyo, Gemdrops was founded in 2013 by Kitao, a programmer and former tri-Ace developer. The company has since been involved in a number of projects, including console, mobile and VR game development. Some of their notable titles include Spice and Wolf VR and Star Ocean: The Second Story R. Gemdrops has also provided technical support for the development of Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin and Pico Park 2. Their self-published, in-house projects include Cogen: Sword of Rewind and the upcoming hololive’s Holo Hanfuda.
In the past few years, there’s been a tendency of major Japanese game companies raising salaries or folding bonuses into base salaries as they compete for talented human resources amidst a worsening labor shortage. However, despite its hefty portfolio, Gemdrops is not a big company – it has 88 employees, yet it’s offering 270,000 yen to inexperienced new hires. This is something you don’t often see with Japanese companies counting less than 100 people. Moreover, as Gemdrops is a company that does contract development for other clients, you’d expect them to try to reduce labor costs as much as possible to boost profits. Why did they decide to raise starting salaries instead? I asked Kitao.
―Why did Gemdrops decide to raise starting salaries for new graduates?
Kitao:
The main reason was the recent rise in living expenses. However, I also thought that that it was simply necessary for us, as a development company, to raise base salaries and allow our staff to do their work with more peace of mind in their day-to-day lives.
―I believe Gemdrops falls into the small-to-medium size business category. Is it not risky for you to raise new graduate salaries at your scale? Can you keep it up?
Kitao:
We are indeed a small-to-medium sized company, but we really want to encourage our young employees to play an active role here, so we’re kind of prioritizing that sentiment over thinking purely about the long-term. That said, we are, of course, working with our clients to adjust development costs in line with the rising expenses, and they’ve been cooperating with us on that front.
―When you talk about raising starting salaries for new graduates, the topic of “what about other employees” inevitably comes up next. Are you also raising the salaries of existing employees accordingly?
Kitao:
Of course. We’re implementing base salary increases ranging from 3% to 10% depending on length of service and other factors.
In today’s game industry, companies are generally reducing development lines and hiring less, but the scale of development is still large, and the competition for talent between companies is fierce. Starting salaries are on the rise in Japan as a whole, and even more so in the game industry. Amidst these circumstances, the fight for human resources is bound to continue in the future.
For more details about openings at Gemdrops, please refer to their recruitment homepage.
