According to Japanese website Career Connection, FromSoftware employees have reported poor pay and working conditions.
Elden Ring FAQ: Every Guide You’ll Need
Elden Ring is obviously the big game that everyone is talking about at the minute. If you have played any amount of the game at all, you will likely know how massive it is. So it’s probably unsurprising to hear that FromSoftware employees have reported poor pay and working conditions. Similarly to sites like Glassdoor, the Japanese site Career Connection lets employees report on things like working conditions and rate of play at various companies. And according to the page for FromSoftware, it’s not the best company to work for.
Currently, FromSoftware has a rating of 2.6 stars, across 21 reviews. For things like job satisfaction, the company has a rating of 2.2. For stress management it has a rating of 2.6. And for compensation, it has a low rating of 1.9 Apparently, the average annual income is ¥3.4 million, around £22,000. Which is a staggeringly low number for a job like game development. Not only this, but FromSoftware is based in Tokyo, a very expensive city to live in.
what have staff said?
A number of the more damning reviews are from around a decade ago. But more recent reviews do not paint a perfect picture either. ““The amount of compensation is very low in terms of the workload,” one programmer writes (thanks, TheGamer). “The attrition rate at the company is extremely high.”
And unsurprisingly, conditions for women do not seem good either. “There are no special treatments for pregnancy and childcare,” a designer wrote. “Most female employees who are about to give birth are expected to leave the company.” Most concerningly, another designer pointed out that “it seems there was sexual harassment in the past.”
While Elden Ring might have reviewed well, it’s important to note that no game can be so good as to justify a poor working environment. Hopefully things are different at the company now, but ignoring the issue won’t make it go away.
Featured Image Credit: FromSoftware