Japanese game industry hit by decline in hiring, according to HR company  

In a financial report published on October 10, Silicon Studio reported a hit to their HR/recruitment sector that was caused by a “significant decline in game companies’ willingness to hire” (source: GameBiz). 

Silicon Studio is a Japanese company that develops video games and designs middleware and engines. It also offers HR services to major game companies – to put things into perspective, Silicon Studio is currently running recruitment campaigns for developers such as Sega, Capcom, Kojima Productions, Konami, and Atlus among many others. 

Their recently published financial statements for the third quarter (December to August) of the fiscal year highlighted a year-on-year dip in net sales and a net loss of 81 million yen (around $550k). Among the causes is the poor performance of their human resources sector, which saw a 40% drop in net profit. The report attributes these results to a “sudden deterioration of the market environment,” meaning Japan’s game market. It seems that compared to last year, development companies are significantly less interested in hiring new staff.