CEO of Professor Layton studio Level-5 says staff get big pay rises for correctly answering quizzes about its games
The Inazuma Eleven and Ni no Kuni studio rewards product knowledge with higher pay
Level-5 employees are given pay bonuses for correctly answering questions about the company’s games.
That’s according to Level-5 founder, CEO and president Akihiro Hino, who revealed the company’s policy in a recent interview with Famitsu (as spotted by Automaton).
The Professor Layton, Ni no Kuni and Inazuma Eleven studio boss was explaining to the publication that there were no plans to expand the size of the company beyond the roughly 320 staff it currently employs, to which he was asked if it was still conducting interviews to hire new employees.
“Generally, I only conduct the final interview, but this year I also participated in the first round of screening,” he replied (via machine translation). “The reason is that I wanted to redefine our criteria for what it means to ‘select people’.
“If we don’t truly prioritize things like a person’s mindset over superficial technical skills, we’ll end up rejecting the very people we should be hiring right from the first interview.
“I’m applying this ‘selection’ process to our current staff as well,” he added. “I’m actually administering tests to see how well they understand the company’s content.”
When asked for more information on this, Hino explained: “We conduct something like a content knowledge test, and employees who score high receive a pay raise of about [undisclosed] yen, regardless of their career level. We handle this fairly, even for new hires. And we’re planning to raise this amount to [undisclosed] yen in the future.”
While Famitsu’s reporter doesn’t print the figure Hino revealed to them, it reports that those in the room were stunned by the amount mentioned, causing the reporter to remark that such a figure would have a major impact on staff motivation.
“Working on games, has made me realize something deeply,” he replied. “When it comes to entrusting a task to someone, whether they have knowledge of that specific title is truly crucial.
“If their knowledge is insufficient, we’ll need other team members to support them or review their work. On the other hand, if they do have that knowledge, they can take the lead and streamline the workflow.
In other words, we now consider knowledge of and passion for the company’s titles to be a form of ‘skill’, and that’s also part of our value as a company.
“You seemed surprised by the figure, but when viewed as a company cost, it means we’re achieving efficiency gains that far exceed that amount.”
Level-5 is currently working on Professor Layton and the New World of Steam, the eighth main entry in the Professor Layton series and the first in nearly a decade. It’s currently set to release on Switch, Switch 2, PS5 and PC in 2026.
