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Nensyu Labo: The average Square Enix Japan salary is $275,000 a year

D

dramatis

Member
cosmicblizzard said:
Isn't that salary ridiculously high for a Japanese CEO? Aren't they supposed to be closer to the workers further down the chain?

Also, doesn't Bobby Kottick only get like 1.5 mil a year or something?
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On paper Kotick's salary is less than 1 mil. But his actual earnings is a lot more than that. In 2009, his salary was about 900k, but his bonus was 5mil and Forbes listed another 3mil under other and didn't even cover what he earned from stocks.

I don't think the companies in Japan are as generous, even to their CEOs.
 
G

Glass Rebel

Member
Nensyu Labo says that it compiles its data based off public filings. Some of the numbers are a bit suspect (that high Square Enix Holdings figure, for instance), so you'll have to consider how far you'd like to read into them as indicative of how much an average employee at the company actually makes.
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Well, this seem like a highly unscientific method.
 
S

Sho Nuff

Banned
Fancy Corndog said:
Which game did you work on?
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I'm credited on PlayOnline Navigator, Final Fantasy XI, Unlimited Saga, Sword of Mana, Drakengard, Front Mission 4, Fullmetal Alchemist and the Broken Angel, Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls, Fullmetal Alchemist 2: Curse of the Crimson Elixir, Romancing SaGa,
Final Fantasy IV Advance, Valkyrie Profile 2, Dirge of Cerberus: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy III DS, Final Fantasy V Advance, Final Fantasy VI Advance, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales, Dawn of Mana, Heroes of Mana, Front Mission DS, Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of the Lions, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon, Final Fantasy IV DS, Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: My Life as a King, Song Summoner: The Unsung Heroes, Infinite Undiscovery, The Last Remnant, Chrono Trigger,
Dissidia: Final Fantasy, Valkyrie Profile: Covenant of the Plume, Yosumin! Live, Season of Mystery: The Cherry Blossom Murders.

I had a good time working there; the pay was good for a Japanese company. The company I worked for previously paid me less than a McDonald's employee and I could barely afford to eat so it was definitely a step up. I worked there for about ten years in total so yeah, they were doing something right.
 
G

Gaspode_T

Member
Anonymous Tipster said:
What's the average Japanese salary for programming positions?

Translated to USD without any context makes those seem pretty exceptional.
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I am quite sure no grunt programmer at Square Enix is making even over $100K, although maybe the veterans would be. Those numbers have to be including exec salary and then just dividing by some # of employees

The standard pay at Japanese companies for programmers is more like $35K to 50K or 60K for 20 to 30 age range, then slowly creeping up until you reach 50 years old when you might be getting something near $100K, then suddenly plummet off a cliff and the company does everything in its power to get rid of you.

Exception to the rule would be social game startups, Google/Microsoft/Apple/etc, foreign companies like banks or investment firms.

Edit: although i would like Sho Nuff to confirm what I say - I would move to work at Square if they are paying $250K lol
 
C

Crazymoogle

Member
Sho Nuff and others have covered the Average salary != average game Dev salary. Most likely the "average" incorporated executive/ upper management salaries, which heavily boost the numbers.

I used to work with an ex-Sega Japan programmer who told me pay was worse at SE than Sega, FWIW...both were easily worse than what he made in North America.
 
R

ronito

Member
Yeah, average salary doesn't mean much depending on how they calculated it.

It's actually probably closer to Sony and Nintendo and they just have some really huge outliers.

It's the same with american companies. They tout the average employee makes 80-100k but don't tell you that average is propped up by executives that make millions.
 
J

jakncoke

Banned
Sho Nuff said:
I had a good time working there; the pay was good for a Japanese company. The company I worked for previously paid me less than a McDonald's employee and I could barely afford to eat so it was definitely a step up. I worked there for about ten years in total so yeah, they were doing something right.
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:O

damn..
 
S

Sho Nuff

Banned
Gaspode_T said:
I am quite sure no grunt programmer at Square Enix is making even over $100K, although maybe the veterans would be. Those numbers have to be including exec salary and then just dividing by some # of employees

The standard pay at Japanese companies for programmers is more like $35K to 50K or 60K for 20 to 30 age range, then slowly creeping up until you reach 50 years old when you might be getting something near $100K, then suddenly plummet off a cliff and the company does everything in its power to get rid of you.

Exception to the rule would be social game startups, Google/Microsoft/Apple/etc, foreign companies like banks or investment firms.

Edit: although i would like Sho Nuff to confirm what I say - I would move to work at Square if they are paying $250K lol
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I had a friend who was a hot-shit programmer working for another large company (that was NOT Square) and they told me that no matter how awesome you were, the programmer salaries were capped at JPY6M (about $60k). The only way to go above that was to become a manager -- and being a hot-shit programmer, he had no interest in that.

By the way, a lot of Japanese companies have the attitude of "You get to work on GIANT FRANCHISE X, you should be glad we're even paying you at all," and offer you an insulting salary. I recommend not biting.

Glass Rebel and Missing Person: They're not all gems ;) My first game was Unlimited Saga....hooooo
 
U

Ushojax

Should probably not trust the 7-11 security cameras quite so much
That explains a lot. Why waste time coming up with good game ideas when you can spend time rendering fancy hairstyles for six figure sums.
 
T

Takuhi

Member
This survey is total BS, obviously. Click through the link and see the stats on Square Enix Holdings: They are listed as having only 18 employees.

These aren't the stats for game maker Square Enix, but for the holding company who owns and manages Square Enix's stock.
 
S

spwolf

Member
Since it says Holdings, are you guys sure this doesnt count executives working in main Holding company and not its "affiliates" where rest of the people work? Because this is how it works usually - those 5-50 people might get paid well but rest of it is a lot lesser paying jobs.
 
A

Azih

Member
Sho Nuff said:
I had a friend who was a hot-shit programmer working for another large company (that was NOT Square) and they told me that no matter how awesome you were, the programmer salaries were capped at JPY6M (about $60k). The only way to go above that was to become a manager -- and being a hot-shit programmer, he had no interest in that.
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Where is he now?
 
A

ArjanN

Member
ronito said:
Yeah, average salary doesn't mean much depending on how they calculated it.

It's actually probably closer to Sony and Nintendo and they just have some really huge outliers.

It's the same with american companies. They tout the average employee makes 80-100k but don't tell you that average is propped up by executives that make millions.
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This.

Mitt Romney and the guy who cleans his pool have a huge average salary.
 
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