Bandai Namco Announces Significant Pay Increases For Developers

Bandai Namco Games

Bandai Namco has announced that their base developer pay rate will be increased in April. Employees will receive an increase of more than $5,000 per year, with the beginning salary for graduates and entry-level employees also increasing significantly.

Why is Bandai Namco increasing its base pay?

According to a Bandai Namco press release (about which we're using Automaton Media coverage as well as machine translation), Bandai Namco is increasing employees' base salary by around 50,000 yen per month, which works out to around $5,000 per year. Furthermore, the starting wage is rising from 232,000 yen (about $2000) to 290,000 yen (approximately $2500).

According to the press release, this is in keeping with Bandai Namco's new "connect with fans" goal, which includes encouraging "diverse human resources in multiple disciplines." Studio pay is becoming a big topic as publishers and developers like Team17 deal with employees who claim they are underpaid and have poor working conditions.

Bandai Namco Game Image Credit

In addition to increasing base pay, Bandai Namco says it will allow employees to work where and when they want "according to their purpose" (again, machine translation). However, there are a few unanswered questions at work. Notably, Bandai Namco's news release makes no mention of foreign employees; all sums are in yen, and no mention of non-Japanese staff is made in the text. Of course, no Japanese employees are directly mentioned, but references to "diverse human resources" and communicating with gamers "across the world" could imply a global policy shift for Bandai Namco. We've reached out to the studio for comment and explanation.

Gaming is a challenging sector when it comes to human resources.

Bandai Namco is increasing employee pay at a time when many companies in the industry are dealing with ineffective human resource management. Some legends contain good qualities; for example, Kingdoms of Amalur: After the studio went bankrupt in 2012, Reckoning developer 38 Studios was able to reimburse some of its employees for a part of their overdue salary (albeit not everything that was owed, and not to everyone). Others, on the other hand, are less optimistic. The Materia Collective, a music publishing company, has come under fire for failing to properly compensate its musicians, while Life Is Fuedal: MMO closed its doors in late 2020 after publisher Xsolla delayed payments from creator Bitbox.

Bandai Namco Super Dream Image Credit

Bandai Namco must walk carefully right now, as the world's attention is focused on it following the highly successful debut of Elden Ring. It's also unclear whether the company wants to raise pay globally or if this is solely an incentive for its Japanese development wing. Still, giving staff a raise is a positive thing, and ideally, other studios will follow suit and improve overall working conditions for their employees. We'll update you as soon as we have more information.

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