Level-5 CEO Says Employees Get Raises for Acing In-House Game Trivia Quizzes
Level-5 president and CEO Akihiro Hino has revealed that staff at the Japanese studio behind Professor Layton, Ni no Kuni and Inazuma Eleven can earn significant pay raises simply by acing internal quizzes about the company’s own games. The claim, made in a recent interview with Famitsu and first translated into English by Automaton West, has since been corroborated by multiple outlets including Video Games Chronicle and GamesRadar+.
Talking to Famitsu, Level-5 president and CEO Akihiro Hino said the company conducts “knowledge quizzes” designed to test employees on their familiarity with Level-5 products. Those who score highly are rewarded, and the policy applies uniformly across the workforce.
“Content Knowledge Test” Rewards New Hires and Veterans Alike
Asked for specifics, Hino explained the mechanics of the system directly. “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,” he told Famitsu, according to a translation carried by Video Games Chronicle.
In other words, a freshly hired employee who nails the test on Level-5’s back catalogue receives the same bump as a veteran developer with years on staff. 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. Hino reportedly went further, noting plans to raise the payout again down the line.
Hino Frames Franchise Knowledge as a “Genuine Skill”
Hino’s justification centres on production efficiency rather than pure fan service. “If their knowledge is insufficient, we’ll need other team members to support them or review their work,” he said. “On the other hand, if they do have that knowledge, they can take the lead and even streamline the workflow. In other words, I consider a person’s knowledge of and passion for the company’s games to be a genuine skill.”
The CEO added that weighing the cost of the raises against the efficiency gained, the trade-off clearly favours the studio. Addressing the shocked reactions to the salary raises he mentioned, Hino says the efficiency Level-5 gains in exchange far outweighs the cost.
Around 320 Staff, With No Rush to Grow Headcount
The quiz policy surfaced in a broader conversation about Level-5’s hiring strategy. The 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, even as demand for its franchises continues.
That restraint appears deliberate. Rather than chase rapid growth, Hino described a preference for keeping the roster lean while making sure each hire genuinely understands and cares about the studio’s back catalogue, spanning Dark Cloud, Yo-kai Watch, Professor Layton, Ni no Kuni and Inazuma Eleven.
Hino Personally Joined First-Round Interviews This Year
The CEO also disclosed a change to his own role in recruitment. “Generally, I only conduct the final interview, but this year I also participated in the first round of screening,” he replied. “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.”
That philosophy extends to how Level-5 currently structures its offices. While the company is currently increasing the size of its Osaka offices, one of its three hubs alongside its Fukuoka HQ and Tokyo offices, it has become more selective when choosing employees, valuing not just talent and motivation, but candidates that have a genuine love of gaming and Level-5’s franchises.
For a studio whose flagship franchise is built entirely around puzzles and deduction, tying real yen to trivia about its own games is an unusual, if fitting, wrinkle in Japanese game-industry HR practice. Whether other Japanese or international studios follow suit remains to be seen, but the disclosure has already sparked debate among fans over whether rewarding lore knowledge outweighs rewarding raw technical craft.
Read also: id Software: Studio Still Has “Crew We Need” Despite Xbox Layoffs
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