At a time when mass layoffs are rampant in the video game industry, one company is talking about a raise. Capcom announced to investors this week that it will raise starting salaries for new hires in Japan and give current employees an "average raise of at least 5%."

It's a modest cost-of-living increase that might have gone unnoticed if many gaming companies weren't currently aggressively cutting costs.

Capcom Japan, headquartered in Osaka, raised the starting salary for new graduates from 235,000 yen per month to 300,000 yen, or about US$2014 per month or $24,168 per year at current exchange rates. This is not high in urban areas of the U.S. and reflects the fact that the average wage in Japan is lower than in the U.S. and many other countries. The yen-dollar rate has also fallen 34% over the past five years, making Japanese salaries appear particularly low when viewed in US dollars.

In addition to providing current and new employees with "one-time special payments as an investment in the company's future talent," the company will introduce "a bonus program more closely linked to the company's performance" and a "stock-based employee compensation program."

The last instance of major layoffs at Capcom that I recall occurred in 2018, when the company closed Capcom Vancouver, the developer of Dead Rising, cutting over 150 jobs in the process. Otherwise, the company has been on a roll in recent years, releasing some of our favorite new PC games: Monster Hunter World, Rise, the Resident Evil remake, Street Fighter 6, and PC versions of classics like Ghost Trick and Ace Attorney. And I'd love to play Capcom's new open-world RPG Dragon's Dogma 2, which will be released this month.

VGC notes that other Japanese game companies have also recently raised salaries in response to Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's request for inflationary measures. From Software raised salaries in response to the success of the 2022 Elden Ring, while Nintendo and Sega raised their salaries last year.

The starting salary increase applies only to Capcom Japan employees, a company spokesperson told PC Gamer. However, "strategic investment in human resources" is one of Capcom's top priorities, and "management is continually discussing investments in human resources across the Capcom Group."