{"id":47238,"date":"2025-04-21T18:07:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-21T09:07:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/?p=47238"},"modified":"2025-04-21T18:07:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T09:07:41","slug":"even-small-scale-japanese-game-companies-like-gemdrops-are-raising-entry-level-dev-salaries-significantly-we-ask-them-if-they-can-keep-it-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/automaton-media.com\/en\/interviews\/even-small-scale-japanese-game-companies-like-gemdrops-are-raising-entry-level-dev-salaries-significantly-we-ask-them-if-they-can-keep-it-up\/","title":{"rendered":"Even small-scale Japanese game companies like Gemdrops are raising entry-level dev salaries significantly. We ask them if they can keep it up\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yuichiro Kitao, CEO of Japanese game developer Gemdrops<\/strong>, 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 \u2013 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s Holo Hanfuda. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Hololive's<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the past few years, there\u2019s been a tendency of major Japanese game companies raising salaries<\/a> or folding bonuses into base salaries<\/a> as they compete for talented human resources amidst a worsening labor shortage. However, despite its hefty portfolio, Gemdrops is not a big company \u2013 it has 88 employees, yet it\u2019s offering 270,000 yen to inexperienced new hires. This is something you don\u2019t often see with Japanese companies counting less than 100 people. Moreover, as Gemdrops is a company that does contract development for other clients, you\u2019d 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2015Why did Gemdrops decide to raise starting salaries for new graduates?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kitao:<\/strong>\u00a0
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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2015I 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?<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kitao:\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0
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\u2019re 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\u2019ve been cooperating with us on that front.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2015When you talk about raising starting salaries for new graduates, the topic of “what about other employees\u201d inevitably comes up next. Are you also raising the salaries of existing employees accordingly?<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kitao:<\/strong>\u00a0
Of course. We\u2019re implementing base salary increases ranging from 3% to 10% depending on length of service and other factors.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In today\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more details about openings at Gemdrops, please refer to their recruitment homepage<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Japanese game developer Gemdrops has 88 employees, but they’ve raised starting dev salaries for new graduates to an amount that’s challenging for such a small company.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":47240,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-47238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interviews","tag-japan-related-news"],"blocksy_meta":[],"yoast_head":"\nEven small-scale Japanese game companies like Gemdrops are raising entry-level dev salaries significantly. 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