The studio FromSoftware has announced that its employees will receive a salary increase. The higher pay will start from April 2025.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree
The average base salary at FromSoftware is expected to increase by 11.8%. Additionally, the studio will improve the wages of its younger employees. Starting salaries for specialists who join FromSoftware shortly after graduating from university will increase from 260,000 yen ($1,700) to 300,000 yen ($2,000) per month.
FromSoftware hopes that the salary increase will make working at the studio more comfortable and that employees will become more enthusiastic about creating great games.
As a reminder, earlier this year, the studio's parent company Kadokawa granted FromSoftware employees stock options worth a total of 5.3 billion yen ($35 million). It was assumed that Kadokawa made this generous gesture in hopes of retaining FromSoftware employees and preventing them from leaving for other companies.
In November 2022, FromSoftware employees complained about crunch time and below-market salaries. According to Salary Explorer, at that time, studio job offers started at 220,000 yen ($1,600 at the exchange rate then). For comparison, the average salary in the Japanese game development industry ranged from 231,000 to 735,000 yen ($1,670 to $5,300).