Nintendo must have made its employees very happy as it announced that the base salary for its workers in Japan is going up significantly. The move comes at a time when the games industry is in a precarious state, which makes the recognition of Nintendo employees all the more impressive.
Nintendo, like other console manufacturers, is experiencing problems right now. Demand for RAM and other hardware is high, but supplies are low as companies like Micron switch to selling only to AI companies. As a result of rising parts prices, the price of the Nintendo Switch 2 is rising, similar to the increases that have hit the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X console lines.
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Nintendo is refunding its employees
Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa announced the salary increase at Nintendo's last annual shareholder meeting. The investor noted that Nintendo did not have a union and wanted to know what the company was doing to reward its employees. Furukawa responded that he felt it was important for Nintendo to maintain a “reasonable level” of pay and rewards. Accordingly, the base salary at Nintendo Japan is increasing by an impressive 10%. This is somewhat good news for the industry and game developers as the industry as a whole is struggling with countless layoffs and the complete closure of several game studios.
Click on a game with a higher OpenCritic rating.
Unfortunately, it's common to see game developers fired after their games are released, even if they've been successful. For example, Marvel Rivals it reached 40 million players within months of its launch, but the US-based team that worked on the game was let go. Battlefield Studios is another example that he released anyway Battlefield 6 is the best-selling game of 2025. Of course, those who worked on underperforming games will be even more likely to be fired or shut down, but even success doesn't guarantee job security.
But Nintendo isn't the only one that has taken steps to reward its employees for success. Capcom has increased employee salaries by a whopping 30% in 2022, while FromSoftware has increased their salaries by 12% in 2025. Recently Pearl Abyss, developer Crimson deserthe gave a massive bonus of about $3,400 to each member of his team after the game sold 5 million copies. Atlus, the studio behind the very popular Persona The JRPG series also increased wages for its employees, with Atlus employees seeing an average 15% pay increase and an overall reduction in mandatory hours.
It's hard to say what the future holds for the gaming industry as a whole, but Nintendo has a history of its employees trying to do things right, even when the going gets tough. Former Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata famously cut his own salary in half to help cover staff salaries. This was during Nintendo's Wii U era, when the console was notoriously struggling to sell and Nintendo's future looked cloudy. Hopefully it won't be too bad again, but it's good to know that Nintendo is looking out for its workers.
