Level-5 CEO Says Employees Get Raises for Acing In-House Game Trivia Quizzes

Knowing your own company’s back catalogue inside and out might actually pay off — literally. According to GamesRadar+, the CEO of a major Japanese studio has revealed that staff who can ace an internal quiz about the company’s games are rewarded with a pay raise, arguing that this kind of deep game knowledge counts as “a genuine skill.”

Testing Staff on Their Own Games

The studio in question is best known for beloved franchises like Ni no Kuni, and GamesRadar+ notes that being a devoted “student” of the series can quite literally boost an employee’s paycheck. The idea is straightforward: workers who can demonstrate detailed, accurate knowledge of the games their employer has produced are seen as bringing real value to the table, not just trivia for its own sake.

Rather than treating fandom-level familiarity with a game’s lore, mechanics, or history as a nice-to-have, the CEO frames it as a legitimate professional competency worth compensating. That stands in contrast to how many studios handle internal knowledge, where institutional memory about a franchise is often assumed rather than formally tested or rewarded.

Why “Knowing the Games” Counts as a Skill

The reasoning behind this policy appears rooted in the belief that employees who deeply understand what makes their studio’s games tick are better equipped to build on that legacy. Whether it’s designers referencing past mechanics, marketing staff crafting accurate promotional material, or support teams answering player questions, intimate knowledge of a franchise’s details can translate directly into better work across departments.

By explicitly calling this “a genuine skill,” the CEO is pushing back on the notion that such knowledge is merely trivia or a personal hobby. Instead, it’s being treated as measurable expertise, on par with more traditional technical or creative competencies that companies typically use to justify raises.

A Different Approach to Employee Incentives

This approach also offers a glimpse into how some Japanese game studios structure incentives differently from their Western counterparts, where performance reviews tend to focus heavily on output metrics, sales targets, or project milestones rather than cultural or franchise literacy.

For fans of the studio’s games, including Ni no Kuni’s whimsical worlds, the revelation adds a charming layer to how much internal culture can shape a company’s identity. It suggests that behind the scenes, staff aren’t just clocking in to build the next game — they’re expected to genuinely know and appreciate the ones that came before it, with tangible rewards for those who do.

As more details emerge about workplace culture at major game studios, this kind of policy could spark discussion about whether other companies in the industry might consider similar incentives to keep staff engaged with, and knowledgeable about, the franchises they help create.