Japanese publishers including Nintendo, Capcom and Konami are reportedly maintaining staff retention above 97 percent, offering a striking contrast to the wider video game industry’s continuing layoffs.
The assessment comes from Amir Satvat, a former Tencent business development director who has operated ASGC’s Games Industry Layoffs Tracker since 2022. In an interview with Edge, discussed by GamesRadar, Satvat examined why Japan’s major studios appear healthier than many overseas counterparts.
His current figures estimate that 14,500 video game workers will lose their jobs during 2026. At the same time, he says approximately 18,000 to 25,000 people find new work in games each year. That calculation suggests the industry could still grow overall, despite the highly visible cuts reported across major companies.
Japan stands apart from the global layoffs picture
Recent reductions elsewhere make those numbers difficult to reconcile. Xbox, for example, suffered 1,600 job losses in July, with another 1,600 planned within the following year. The scale of these announcements has helped create the impression of an industry in freefall.
Tim Sweeney, chief executive of Epic Games, has described the current period as potentially “the worst videogame crash, or disruption, that we’ve seen since the 1980s”. He linked that risk to unprecedented investment in artificial intelligence systems and data centres.
Sweeney compared the possible downturn with the 1983 video game crash, when home-console revenue fell by 97 percent in 1985 and hundreds of thousands of people lost their jobs. Satvat’s data does not necessarily disprove that warning; Japan may be distorting the wider picture because its largest studios have followed a different operating model.
Smaller teams and lower executive pay
“Japan is a completely different ballgame,” Satvat said, pointing to Nintendo, Konami and Capcom as companies with staff retention of 97 percent or higher.
He attributes part of the difference to teams that are “much smaller and leaner”. Executive compensation is another factor in his view. Japanese studio leaders can still earn substantial amounts, he said, but typically receive around two or three million dollars rather than packages worth 30 million dollars.
That approach may leave more room for long-term development and employment stability. It also reflects a broader industry lesson for anyone following arcade and gaming business news: the size and cost structure of a project can be just as important as its headline sales.
Less exposure to the live-service gamble
Satvat also believes Japanese studios avoided being swept into the live-service boom and the race to build mega-productions staffed by 500 people. Fewer companies taking that particular risk may have meant fewer catastrophic failures.
There are exceptions. PlatinumGames’ Babylon’s Fall is one Japanese-developed live-service example that struggled, but Satvat’s broader point is that the live-service graveyard contains comparatively few titles from Japan.
By contrast, publishers such as Nintendo, Konami and Capcom have continued to rely heavily on established intellectual properties and sequels. That strategy is not risk-free, but familiar series can provide a more predictable commercial foundation than an enormous new online game that must retain players for years.
What this means for games and arcade fans
The comparison does not prove that one national model will solve the entire industry’s problems. It does suggest that sustainable budgets, smaller development groups and restrained executive pay can reduce the damage when a major release misses expectations.
For players, the consequences reach beyond employment figures. Stable teams can preserve specialist knowledge and support the long development histories behind enduring game series. That same attention to maintainability matters when choosing an arcade machine, planning a home setup or sourcing replacement controls and displays from an arcade parts range.
Satvat’s figures therefore offer a more complicated picture than a simple industry collapse. Layoffs remain severe, but Japan’s major publishers show that consistent franchises, leaner teams and fewer costly live-service bets may provide greater resilience.
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