Monolith Soft becomes latest developer to raise employee pay

Monolith Soft's Xenoblade Chronicles 3

In a trend that seems to be catching on recently, Xenoblade Chronicles developer Monolith Soft has upped its employee salaries by 22%. Game companies across the industry, including the likes of Konami and Sega, have been doing the same thing of late. The optimist in me says it's because they're conscious of the crunch culture permeating triple-A game development, but the realist in me says it's because big studios are finally coming around to the fact that miserable employees don't make very good games. Whether or not Monolith Soft faces this specific problem isn't for me to say – I tend to avoid JRPGs like the plague, so any product they put out is going to seem boring to me – but I'll applaud any steps in the right direction nonetheless.