Fromsoftware the beloved company that graced the world of gaming with the exceptional series Dark Souls along with highly respected standalone titles such as Bloodborne and Sekiro is once again in the spotlight after a whistleblower who claims to have worked at the company for three years, gives insight into the horrors of working at the company.
“On the 13th hour working my double shift, I was starving and went to retrieve my lunch. My lunch was missing and (their manager) was standing there grinning holding my lunch. ‘Get on your hands and feet’ they told me, ‘bark like a good dog and you get your treat.’ After refusing their request, my manager angrily spat in my lunch and threw it in the trash. I had to work the rest of the shift starving. When I checked my pay stub, I wasn’t paid for any overtime.”
One can only imagine let alone live in this environment, especially for those who have to work at this company earning a very low wage. A 2019 review aggregate from Career Connection, a website detailing the benefits of working at a particular company along with salary shows that Fromsoft has a very low employee satisfaction score with an approximate salary of only 2.8 million yen a year, that’s less than half the standard rate other companies pay their developers. Some reviews have been posted below, but none have revealed the same claims the whistleblower makes, but that isn’t to say the claims are false, perhaps people are too scared to speak out in fear of losing reputation in an already tyrannical industry.
The whistleblower elaborated more and says that he is speaking “on their behalf as well as mine… to show the world that we matter and they should know what goes on behind the scenes.” The west has praised the Japanese studio for more than a decade, Miyazaki is always in the limelight receiving all the honor and respect for “his” work, all the while his workers are being treated so poorly… does the director who puts his name first after each credit roll really care about his workers?
“One of my good friends was pregnant at the time and would constantly need to use the bathroom, even bearing a child, management told her to perform as a pet dog, and she did, because the alternative was passing waste on the chair and being forced to work on a soiled chair which has happened to a worker who recently left the company.”
The leaker also claims some staff are forced to act like dogs in order to be granted permission to go home, or even to receive pay. We asked Fromsoftware for a comment and surprisingly they gave us one and a surprising response it was, take a look.
“We care deeply for our workers as they are the backbone of our company, without the team we have nothing and no ability to make the content we want to share with our fans. We are deeply saddened that someone is making up these rumors, but that is what they are and they are false. We treat all staff with the respect they deserve and as we read the statements from this alleged whistleblower, we felt a deep sadness from the lies they were sharing, portraying us to be an evil company when we are better than that and our employees know this. We don’t think one of our own employees would make such claims, we assume this is foreign interference from another development company spreading misinformation to get us bad reputation and publicity. We wholeheartedly reject these accusations and this statement is a way of providing solace for those who believe them.”
Quite the sweet talkers, “foreign interference” that’s quite the accusation, but mostly coverup. I choose not to believe the company’s statements as the industry itself is full of worker neglect and abuse, internationally and domestically, radical changes need to ensue or the industry we know of will become a fossil in time.