Atlus is a Japanese video game-making company that had its early start in 1986. They were acquired by SEGA in the early 2010s. Two of their most popular franchises are the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series of games. They are shown to be in some positive news in recent days, which is good for their personal morale.
What did Atlus do?
The first thing is that their current employees and other workers are getting a 15% increase in their salaries. New hires will also get a good amount of money and a salary. That’s all good news, and the second one is that fixed overtime will also be compensated properly.
This will allow people to work more efficiently and not be stressed out over their jobs. It’s a win for everyone because the workers get compensated properly, which will make them work better. This will lead to better games being made in the future.
Why this is good for Atlus
Increasing pay can be driven by multiple motives: attracting scarce specialized talent (designers, engineers, artists, composers), reducing turnover and the costs of rehiring, improving morale and creative output, and aligning compensation with the global market as Japanese studios compete internationally. Higher pay also addresses reputational concerns; in an industry where crunch and low pay are recurring criticisms, proactively improving compensation signals commitment to employee welfare and long-term quality over short-term crunch-driven delivery.
If Atlus raises wages meaningfully, it could pressure peer studios to follow, especially within niche JRPG development, where experienced teams are scarce. This could accelerate a shift toward more sustainable labor practices across the Japanese and global game industries, raising the baseline for compensation and changing how projects are scheduled and priced. Conversely, it might also widen gaps between larger publishers able to absorb higher costs and smaller indie studios, highlighting the need for varied strategies to support healthy labor markets across the sector.
Why this could also be risky
Raising wages increases operating costs and may compress profit margins or require adjustments to budgeting, scheduling, and publishing cadence. Management must weigh trade-offs: higher unit labor costs versus savings from lower turnover and higher-quality products that can command premium pricing or longer sales tails. For a studio under a larger corporate umbrella like SEGA, compensation changes may also require negotiation with parent-company financial planning, and could differ across domestic and international studios due to local labor markets and tax considerations.
At the end of the day, their workers have to ensure that the quality of the product is good. If they increase salaries and the product isn’t up to par, then it won’t sell well. That also means making money can be a challenge, and they are drowning in expenses. Increasing salaries means that they want good results too, so they should make sure to rein in the workers when needed. This is Atlus we’re talking about, and the employees are already proven to be good at their job. The benefits and the results can be there, but monitoring is still a good idea.
