Tencent Veteran: Japanese Companies Lay Off Less Frequently Due to Compact Teams and Moderate Salaries for Top Executives
While Western game developers and publishers regularly conduct layoffs, companies from Japan hardly reduce their staff. According to Amir Satvat, former director of game business development at Tencent, this can be attributed to the unique way of conducting business in the country.
Resident Evil Requiem
In an interview with Edge, Satvat explained that Japan cannot be called a utopia. Nevertheless, in his observations, when needing to cut costs, local companies prefer to terminate contracts with foreign contractors rather than lay off their own employees. This approach, even during crisis times, helps them maintain a high level of employee retention in top positions — for instance, at Konami and Capcom, it currently stands at 97%.
Additionally, Satvat noted that Japanese companies generally strive not to inflate their expenses.
“Their workforce is typically much smaller and more compact [than in the West]. They did not succumb to the trend of service games and did not create mega-blockbusters with teams of 500 people. Executive salaries also affect the situation. In Japan, top managers earn big money too, but we're talking about 2-3 million dollars, not 30 million dollars,” the specialist explained.
For comparison: Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson earned 38.6 million dollars last year, while Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick earned 42.1 million dollars.
In July, Satvat calculated that over the past five years, game companies worldwide have laid off 53.6 thousand people — out of which 9.8 thousand lost their jobs in just the first seven months of 2026. It is estimated that 96% of the layoffs in 2026 occurred in North America and Europe.