Bandai Namco supports its developers by increasing monthly salaries for existing employees and entry-level benchmarks for new graduates.
In a press release yesterday, Bandai Namco announced the “Connect with Fans” medium-term vision that will raise base salaries for existing and new developers with the ‘aim of improving workability by stabilising employee income.’
This is huge as, throughout the pandemic, many publishers and developers have fallen on hard times and struggled to manage the shift in their working situations.
The new compensation system, starting in April 2022, will raise monthly salaries by 50,000 yen (AUD 600) and starting salaries from the standard 232,000 yen/month (AUD 2,800/month) to 290,000 yen/month (AUD 3,500), which is an increase of 25%. That takes base annual salaries to 3,480,000 yen (AUD 41,600).
An increase in salaries is fantastic, but it seems that Bandai Namco is also applying lessons learned from the global pandemic into a new company program.
The “Activity Based Working (ABW)” program will allow employees to choose where and when they work according to their specific roles within the company.
Associated with their roles, there will also be an allowance as part of their “Entertainment Input Opportunity Provision System” that aims at “exceeding the expectations of fans all over the world with high-quality content and various entertainment that can be played for a long time and deeply.”
As the increases are all in yen, it is currently unsure if the pay rise will be given to global development partners or just teams in Japan. Regardless, a pay rise is always lovely, and it is well earned, especially since the incredible success of Elden Ring.
Hopefully, this is a trend that continues throughout the industry.
