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Square Enix has highest salary average among game companies in Japan

Jonathan Toyad
By Jonathan Toyad, Associate Editor

Final Fantasy publisher holds top spot, above Sony, Nintendo, and Sega.

Japanese salary and income analysing company Nensyu Labo recently revealed a ranking chart for the companies with the highest average salary for its employees (via Andriasang). Square Enix is at the top, with employees getting an average salary of 21.68 million yen per year ($273,057).

This was followed up by Sony, with an average of 9.23 million yen ($116,253), and Nintendo, with 9.14 million yen ($115,117). Sega Sammy Corporation was placed fourth, with a salary average of 8.22 million yen, while Konami and Namco Bandai were just behind with 6.78 and 6.40 million, respectively.

The top 10 list is just below:

1. Square Enix -- 21.68 million
2. Sony -- 9.23 million
3. Nintendo -- 9.14 million
4. Sega Sammy Corporation -- 8.22 million
5. Konami -- 6.78 million
6. Namco Bandai Holdings -- 6.4 million
7. Tecmo Koei Holdings -- 6.15 million
8. Gala Japan -- 5.91 million
9. Capcom -- 5.71 million
10. Yuke's Future Media Creators -- 5.65 million

Nensyu Labo stated that it compiles its data based off public filings from each company.

Jonathan Toyad
By Jonathan Toyad, Associate Editor

Born and raised from a jungle-laden village in Sarawak, Malaysia, Jonathan Toyad has been playing games since the early 90s. He favors fighting games, RPGs, and rhythm titles above every other genre, and occasionally spaces out like Pavlov's dog to video game music on his iPod.

183 comments
megakick
megakick

WOW its' like Square Enix is the video game software equivalent to Microsoft and Sony spending as much money as they make to compete in the market. I can't think of many remarkable games made by Square Enix.

tigertaru
tigertaru like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

So the more mediocre your work becomes, the more money you make?  I need to move to Japan faster than I thought.

Erdi90
Erdi90 like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @tigertaru i guess we all can agree that square enix is the least mediocre company in the list

tigertaru
tigertaru like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

 @Erdi90 Well that's because their games aren't just mediocre anymore,they downright suck.  They've violently raped the FF series and then ran it over with a truck, along with most of the other IPs they've dropped this gen, and they've yet to release games that their fans really want.  And if I see another KH spinoff on a handheld before a true sequel on PS3, I'm shooting someone. 

StaticKornSlipX
StaticKornSlipX

that's why they aren't as innovative. No incentive to put your best work forward when you know everyone's making that sort of change.

twtech
twtech

 @StaticKornSlipX Though I don't necessarily agree with your premise, the top-down structure of many Japanese businesses is likely the reason that some have trouble sustaining innovation.  

 

A flat structure will tend to bring the most out of every team member, doing what needs to be done without worrying about how it affects hierarchy.

CItizenTaylor
CItizenTaylor like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 6 Like

That's a shame when they haven't made a good FF game since X. Go back to the old formula. XIII was absolute garbage.

HonorOfGod
HonorOfGod

This after FF11 was named the most money making FF game to date. They should be thanking the people who play FF online for this huge boost.

GulliversTravel
GulliversTravel like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

Capcom make that much money and thats how much they pay. =S

DLobotomist
DLobotomist like.author.displayName 1 Like

good now.... SE go make a good FF game and please work on FFvXIII and make it good..... I know Tomb Raider is turning out well and Hitman Absolution is very gorgeous but I need a good FF..... Keep The battle system from FFXIII, its a very good one imo..... and also tell Eidos I would like to see more Deus Ex......

Amirygon
Amirygon

 @DLobotomist I agree.

 

I didn't like much of FFXIII, but I did enjoy the battle system.

tigertaru
tigertaru

 @DLobotomist if you think FFXIII's battle system was good, I need to know what crack you smoked before you played it.  Maybe if I smoke the same and play it again, I might actually enjoy it this time.  There are several FF's that have way better systems.  Hell, even FF1 has a better battle system to me lol. 

mechmaster525
mechmaster525

 @DLobotomist While I agree with you that they need to make a good FF game, I disagree completely about the battle system in FFXIII. The battle system was terrible, not quite as bad as FFXII, but pretty bad. I don't understand why they can't just go back to the turn based battles of FFV, VI, VII, VIII, IX, and X. Even X changed things by getting rid of the ATB but not enought to make it suck like XII and XIII. Brining back the classes was a terrible idea and so was the break system, and don't even get me started on the transformer summons! I think you can probably agree that V-X had the best battle systems. I also agree about Deus Ex!

 

tigertaru
tigertaru

 @mechmaster525 I'm totally with you on the suckage that is XIII, but I'm curious to know what you specifically disliked about XII.  I seem to be one of the few hardcore FF fans that actually enjoyed XII lol.  Though the battle system of XII seemed to resemble to me a sort of offline version of XI,and being a recovering hardcore XI addict,maybe that's why XII's system wasn't bad to me.   

HyuugaHinata
HyuugaHinata

 @tigertaru The mediocrity only really applies to their franchises. Their original titles (The World Ends With You, Last Remnant (PC), etc) are generally still quite good. The World Ends With You is the only reason I even took a second look at Dream Drop Distance (still not buying it though.)

tigertaru
tigertaru

 @Altis I'm playing XII again myself, although the international version (not sure if you know about it, but it's awesome.  You get to choose independent license boards for each chr. based on classic FF jobs).  I don't know if I can advise you to try XI though.  As hard as that game is, It was my crack cocaine habit for years.  I had to kick my XI habit cold turkey, and I'm unhappily sober for a year now lol. 

 

I finished XIII while grinding my teeth the whole way.  I did it because as an FF fan, I feel an obligation to finish each one.  But the few mins. that I experienced XIII-2 was enough for me to decide not to put myself through this again (the game is hardly an improvement).  That's probably why so many fans beg for a VII remake.  Not just because it's considered a classic, but at best Square games are only decent now.  I can't blame FF fans for wanting to relive a time when their games were epic.  And you're right, where the hell is Versus?  And I don't even know if they've started or intend to start development on Kingdom Hearts 3. 

Altis
Altis like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @tigertaru  @mechmaster525 I also enjoyed FFXII. It was different. I still play it now. The battle system was nice but felt a bit stiff. I felt as if the game could have been more. I think Crisis Core's battle system was a upgraded version of FFXII's battle system. Its just that FFVIICC had no party members. And the one thing I hoped FFXII Batlle would have... DODGE!

 

Never played FFXI though. I played FFXIII and XIII-2 even though it was painful! (XIII-2 being the most painful really.. I hate Serah so bad.). SQUENIX's game made on UDK though was nice. Last Remnant :D 

 

As for FFvs13. I have graduated high school, shifted from programming and graduated from arts.. and it is STILL TBA....... I think they are planning to do a Blizzard!

CeasdRedemption
CeasdRedemption like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 4 Like

well payed workers resulting in good games

RenegadeGR
RenegadeGR like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

 @CeasdRedemption

 u can say that again (wonder how much is people at EA gets paid)

CeasdRedemption
CeasdRedemption like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @RenegadeGR hehe i feel more bad for the people at activision who have to make the same game over and over... Or I am jealous because all they have to do is *copy game.... *paste game

JimmeyBurrows
JimmeyBurrows like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

So thats an average of about £170ish... Does that mean they're giving all employees a nice wage, or someone(s) at the top is yoinking the money, sending up the average?

JimmeyBurrows
JimmeyBurrows

£170,000ish... damn lack of edit button strikes again.

blamix99
blamix99 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 3 Like

OK.. so do they have enough money to finish final fantasy versus 13 now?

chazzeromus
chazzeromus

Yeah so what's up with activision? 4 billion in sales with MW3, do their devs get love too?

Cyrinith
Cyrinith

 @chazzeromus It's about Japanese gaming companies. And Activision isn't Japanese obviously ;)

RenegadeGR
RenegadeGR like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

 @Cyrinith

 lets hope gamespot do the western company version of this

HyuugaHinata
HyuugaHinata

 @mechmaster525 Slave labor? Seriously? C'mon man, that's not accurate at all. You're giving EA WAAAAAAAAAY too much credit

mechmaster525
mechmaster525

 @RenegadeGR Nah I don't think we want to see that. It will probably just be an insult to modern Western society. Heres what I think it would look like.

 

1. Blizzard - average: $50k

2. Activision - average: $40k

3. Bethesda - average: $30K

4. Rockstar - average: $20k (If you survive their brutal overtime)

5. EA - average: Slave labor 

Jin_Hakazura
Jin_Hakazura

also, god damn my comment for throwing away my neat paragraphs xD

Jin_Hakazura
Jin_Hakazura

Ya know, i haven't actually been disappointed once in this company. i get what i expect, because i dont hold astronomical standards like some people may have done. When i played ffXIII, or any of the newer ones for that matter, i was very happy with the games themselves and took them as what they were; IMHO, great games. maybe they aren't the best in the series, but people who like to call them pieces of trash obviously like to over dramaticize things to a point that is beyond stupid.Is it up to the standards of the old games? i dont think we can judge them so harshly, given that we have fond memories of the past that may never change, no matter how good or bad these new games in the square catalogue, or hell, every game in the industry, may be. We are dreaming if we think we aren't biased in our opinion. I know i can be, even when i try my hardest not to be, but i still try to see the good in everything.So for those who may not like to read, here's the shortTL;DR For god's sakes, stop letting nostalgia ride you like a mule up and down the street, and holding standards that could reach further then the boundaries of the universe xD satisfaction can never come if you do that :P

CItizenTaylor
CItizenTaylor like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

 @Jin_Hakazura I'm sorry but the story in XIII was absolute throw-up inducing, I couldn't stand it; emo, cliche BS, and I'm not over dramatizing it. That, along with a confused repetitive battle system that was caught between action and turned based fighting and just resulted in the game doing everything for you is why I think yes, it is a "piece of trash".

mechmaster525
mechmaster525 like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 2 Like

 @CItizenTaylor I can't agree more with you! Unlike FF XII which had a decent story and some cool cutscenes (despite a shitty battle system), XIII just sucked in every way possible. I got half way through it and got sick of the whiney bitch kid, the rapper affro wannabe, the Cloud Strife wannabe (aka Lightning), and the transformers summons. I got up, pulled it out of my PS3, and promptley returned it to the store. I'm not buying anymore FF games until they go back to the old battle system and come up with a good story again!

 

chechak7
chechak7 like.author.displayName 1 Like

Square Enix is great ...how about 

highest salary average among game companies in America=EA 

nanorazor
nanorazor like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName like.author.displayName 5 Like

 @chechak7 Probably Not, EA is to greedy to give money to their employee, the employer just pay them low wages. I say Valve since there aren't much workers there and have high profits

eva02langley
eva02langley

What is funny is that Suare didn't release a good game in years!Long gone Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana and FF6. Actually, I never digged them after going PS.

GunEye
GunEye

Want to see a brand new, re-enovating Final Fantasy! that will really leave that "WOW" impression of classic titles and better.

 

Also make up Thief 4 for crying out loud!!

 

Arsyad00
Arsyad00 like.author.displayName 1 Like

no wonder their game always good

JBL81
JBL81 like.author.displayName 1 Like

As long as I'm not making that money, I don't really care. I used to like Square back when they were Squaresoft, but these days they've kinda disappointed me with a lot of their releases. Especially the Final Fantasy series.

Dragdar
Dragdar like.author.displayName 1 Like

 @Rashak "According to the article on Kotaku, Square Enix is broken up into two companies.  The number above is for the Square Enix Holdings side which only has 18 employees.  This would explain the high average, it's all the big shots.

 

http://kotaku.com/5922273/report-square-enix-average-salaries-are-sky-high"

 

Are you fucking kidding me?

these Gamespot wannabe "pro journalists" make such shitty analysis.how can they overlook something so huge!?

 

this makes the first spot on your shitty list INVALID, and whether the rest is accurate is now a question.

----------------

newsflash, if the readers can find better, more precise news than you then wtf do we need you for

 

eva02langley
eva02langley

 @Dragdar Haha, nice one, you just prove that internet news are forwarded by dumb people.

Arsyad00
Arsyad00

 @Dragdar relax, let juz say Gamespot got the same news source as kotaku do. so they juz put it there. If there`s 2 or more same news mean that the new really is LEGIT

parrot_of_adun
parrot_of_adun

 @Dragdar And you know they included the holdings company, how? After all, the holdings company and development company count as separate entities. Kotaku (notoriously bad journalists) just seem to have decided it was the case without any evidence.

Dudeinator
Dudeinator

 @parrot_of_adun 

We don't. However, "average salary of employee" is different from "salary of average employee". The huge discrepancy that separates rank 1 and 2 suggest that a selective filter was likely used to achieve those numbers.

 

Furthermore, as a company you can't pay your employees more than double the market salary without pissing a bunch of people off. That's not how the pricing mechanism works.

parrot_of_adun
parrot_of_adun

 @Dudeinator Yes, I am aware of how the English language works. I am not saying SE employees all earn roughly that amount, I'm just saying that people are casting aspersions, all the while referencing a work that cites no evidence (regarding how these numbers were obtained).

KLonso
KLonso

 @Dragdar You'd think they'd be smarter when they see the difference of more than 10 million, but nope!

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