FromSoftware Head Goes Against the Grain and Doesn't Envision Mass Layoffs
FromSoftware's CEO said he could not imagine carrying out the mass layoffs so popular in the game industry these days.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree, an expansion to the RPG masterpiece by FromSoftware, will be released in a few days. The studio's CEO, Hidetaka Miyazaki, recently gave several interviews, including one to PCGamer magazine, in connection with the upcoming premiere. He spoke there about widespread layoffs in the industry. It turns out that the dev's approach to this issue differs from that presented by most heads of other large companies.
The CEO of FromSoftware cannot imagine conducting mass layoffs
Miyazaki said he absolutely cannot envision carrying out large-scale layoffs at FromSoftware and won't permit them as long as he is leading the team. The studio is owned by the Kodakawa company, so not everything depends on its head, but he is convinced that the bosses of this corporation share his values and understand how important this is.
Explaining his approach, Hidetaka Miyazaki quoted a famous statement written by the CEO of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, who died in 2015:
If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results, employee morale will decrease. I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world.
Executives in the gaming industry should follow the philosophy of the former CEO of Nintendo
Iwata uttered these words in 2013, when Nintendo was having big financial problems - it was then that the company recorded losses for the entire financial year for the second time in a row. The head was then convincing investors that layoffs would provide short-term savings, but in the long run they would prove to be very harmful to the future of the entire Nintendo.
Satoru Iwata was able to take responsibility for the company's weaker results. In 2011, the CEO reduced his own salary by half when the debut of the 3DS console proved to be worse than expected, and also persuaded all other board members to temporarily decrease their earnings.
It's worth comparing such an approach with the attitude of the people running Electronic Arts. Yesterday we wrote that the management of the publisher earned over 60 million dollars last year. Nearly half of this amount, which is $25.6 million, went into Andrew Wilson's pocket, increasing his salary by $5 million. This occurred even though EA laid off 670 developers in February this year, which is about 5% of the total staff, resulting in the cancellation of, among other things, a first-person shooter from the Star Wars universe.
Keep in mind that FromSoftware is currently on a roll, largely due to the great success of Elden Ring. As a result, the Japanese team is constantly recruiting new employees - unlike most companies in the industry. However, if fortune were to turn against this studio in the future, let's hope that Hidetaka Miyazaki will continue to follow the path laid out by Satoru Iwata.
