The ongoing crisis of layoffs in the video game industry has disproportionately affected North American and Western European studios, a trend attributed by industry expert Amir Satvat to several key differences compared to the Japanese market.
Satvat, former business development director at Tencent Games and an inaugural Game Awards Game Changer, explained in an interview with Edge Magazine that while the crisis feels akin to the 1983 crash for developers in the West, Japan's gaming sector has largely maintained staff retention rates above 97%. Companies like Nintendo, Konami, and Capcom exemplify this stability.
Several factors contribute to this resilience. Japanese development teams are often smaller and more focused, avoiding the trend toward massive, multi-hundred-person teams that pursue live-service models or mega-blockbuster games. Additionally, executive compensation in Japan, while still substantial, is reportedly an order of magnitude lower than in Western companies, with salaries in the low millions of dollars as opposed to tens of millions.
While Japanese firms have experienced layoffs, the scale has not matched that seen in North America or Western Europe. A 2019 CEDEC report indicated an average salary for Japanese game developers of around $37,000, significantly lower than comparable roles in the US, where H1-B visa applicants in 2018 typically received salaries well into the five or low-six figures, and a 2025 GDC Salary Report showed an average of $142,000.
Satvat projects that while the industry continues to add new positions, the rate of growth—estimated between 18,000-25,000 new jobs annually—barely covers attrition. With approximately 14,500 layoffs predicted for 2026 and a total of 58,000 from 2022-2026, the net job growth is significantly lower than the boom experienced between 2017 and 2021, which saw an increase of 150,000 new jobs. He expressed skepticism about the industry's ability to maintain its current size without further contraction, suggesting a stabilization at a reduced level as a more optimistic outlook.