Rumour: Level-5 Game Delays Linked To Mass "Employee Exodus"

How well have Level 5 games been performing recently? That's the only reason I could think of as to why staff would be cut.

@FragRed I think the article implies the staff have quit, rather than been cut (hence the "shortage of staff" delaying releases). Sounds like unpleasant working conditions or low pay for staff, rather than a cash problem for L5.

@FuseBlues That makes more sense. Things must be real bad if there was this many staff quitting. Will be interesting to see how things play out.

Yeah, sounds like it might be a strike, but, as far as I know, that’s not a very common thing in Japan

I read it as if Level-5 had delayed a game called "Linked to Mass". Took a while to understand that headline.

Unfortunately "mass exodus" is so vague there's no real way of telling what it means. To me it brings up:
1) Staff quitting, maybe pay/conditions?
2) Staff jumping ship to other studios.
3) Staff cuts linked to overseas sales.

Because "mass exodus" is so vague, I'll take it with a grain of salt as people tend to make vague guesses so they can seem right no matter what the truth is.

I don't think that Ni No Kuni 2 sold that well, and delaying Inzuma eleven ares and yo kai watch 4 could mean that they aren't in the best financial state. Still hope they get through this because I love their games.

@DanteSolablood My thoughts exactly, it's pretty much impossible to even discuss about, since there's so little tangible information available.

All I can say is, Yokai Watch flopped. I have never played the games myself, but when I first came to Japan about 3.5 years ago, kids were talking about it like Pokemon and Dragon Ball and more so. Now, kids still talk about Pokemon and Dragon Ball, but Yokai Watch is so unpopular that I can only give away the stickers for it in class, if they are the ONLY stickers I offer.

Maybe Microsoft are buying them.

I would so play Employee Exodus!

Time for Nintendo to purchase Level-5 outright.

It is impossible to know why they left without actual statements, so it is a guessing game until then. Maybe it was Ni No Kuni 2 not selling well. I wish Nintendo would buy them. They have some talent and I would hate to see them go under.

Another day, another rumour, another NL article.

@FuseBlues
So you are saying the same issues plaguing Bandi Namco, Telltale (before they went under) and allegedly Blizzard also.

Bandi Namco are a special kind of bad though. They treat their staff worse than federal prisoners. I'm not even joking. Bandi Namco, working there is like being in prison, apart from making sure no one wants your junie cakes and the constant violence.
Working for Bandi Namco is employment hell.

Bandi Namco and Blizzard have both had staff left because the wages are so low they can't even afford the rent even if a few of the staff share a house together.

I just wish that Inazuma Eleven would completely be available in the US. I think we've only gotten one or two games total and I would rather be able to play all of those games without import. I mean, if level-5 needs more money perhaps they can consider putting them in the US market.

@Heavyarms55 "It's not as big as Pokemon (literally the highest grossing media franchise in the world) and Dragon Ball, so it's a failure". I wish more series were flops like Yokai Watch, with yearly releases that actually come out in the west.

@Preposterous My point was that people here in Japan were treating it like the next Pokemon when I got here, and now, a few years later, it's barely talked about, if at all.

@Heavyarms55 I get it, but majority of media fails to break into everyday conversations, yet somehow manages to thrive. YW not giving Pokemon a competition in the long run is regrettable, though.
At least Let's Go underperformed in Japan, so not everything is lost.

They just need a Rogue Galaxy 2. ....Well at least I do.

@Heavyarms55 The problem with Yo-kai Watch is that Level-5 has been way too lazy with localization.

Just take Yo-Kai Watch 3 for instance, that finally released here in the west a couple weeks ago.
Everyone and their grandmother has moved on to the Switch by now, so no wonder hardly anyone is buying Yo-Kai Watch 3 for the 3DS.
It's a shame as it's a really good game. If they were quicker with localization and released it in the West over 2 years ago, when the 3DS was still a thing. Sales might have been a lot higher. /shrug

It's the same with the toys. All we ever got is the first watch and medals. I have never seen the newer ones here in Europe.
It's the same with the TV series. All we ever got localized is the first season and that's it.

Level-5 has been betting too much on their home market, Japan and largely ignored the rest of the world and now the craze is over in Japan they are in trouble, since they never put much effort in the Yo-Kai Watch brand internationally.

@Preposterous No it didn't. It's gonna sell nearly 1.5 million by years end. Not counting digital.

@michellelynn0976 Apparently, major retailers have already put it on 40% discount, with Pokeball+ bundles for the price of regular games - seems like a number greater than 1.5 million was expected.

This is hard to discuss as it's firmly in rumor territory and has few concrete details. I hope this doesn't affect localized games outside of Japan very much; I like the looks of YW4.

@Heavyarms55: This is mostly off-topic, but as you've alluded to it above and elsewhere....Well, I've always been genuinely curious: what encouraged you to move to Japan and teach elementary/primary school (or the equivalent) there? How easy has it been to learn/read/write Japanese?

Btw, I applaud people like you and my mother that have the patience, desire, and work ethic to educate the younger generations. I like kids but don't think I'd have the patience to teach in the long-term.

@Preposterous stop trolling. Lol Spiderman went on sale just a month after it came out. Welp, guess it failed. Nearly 2 million counting digital is terrible according to you. Lol

@Blitzenexx I have been a hardcore YKW fan and I have to say that YKW Shadowside series hasn't been doing that well in Japan. I would classify it as mediocre, no where near the hype of original YKW series.

@Magician
Yeah you would think it would make smart sense. At last try to get a controlling stake to make them a second-party developer. That would be some more nice series to get exclusive to Nintendo.

Ni No Kuni 2 didn't seem to sell very well, and they take years to localize Yokai Watch games. Why would I buy Yokai Watch 3 on a dead platform (3DS) so long after the Switch launch? Seems they need smarter people working there

@hakjie11: What are the differences that some seem to dislike? I know very little about Shadowside other than the fact that it's a more mature take on the franchise.

I consider myself a casual fan of the series. I've seen the full Season 1 of the anime (Seasons 1-2 here in the US) and enjoyed it. Game-wise, I've only played the first game but hope to get to one of the copies of YW2 within the next few months.

@Strumpan Well time to make a game with that title heheheh

@Blitzenexx What motivated me? If you asked me when I started I'd have given a much prettier answer about wanting to bridge cultures and experience the world... And while those things are true, if I am more honest, it is selfishness. I wanted an excuse to come here and live in Japan, to experience the culture and all the other perks of living here. Working as a teacher was a good way to do it and not feel as selfish as I probably am. lol

Rumors, always post when its real

@Heavyarms55: Lol, I appreciate an honest answer! My reasons for even visiting there would admittedly be for selfish reasons, though I commend you for having the courage to live there (I don't mean anything negative by that, just that I'd get pretty homesick in the same situation). I'm a fan of many aspects of Japanese culture and love to travel to boot! There are many countries that I want to visit, but for now I've only been to two. I have a lot of catching up to do. XD Sometimes I do wonder what it'd be like to live just a short drive from another country, like in mainland Europe.

I do know someone who visited Japan this past year, but her reasons were way less selfish than mine; her son is in the US Air Force and is stationed in Okinawa.

I could believe it, but at the same time this only occurred because two games were delayed.
One of them I know was heavily criticized for its performance, and both of them could be projects that were bigger than the company initially anticipated. So it's also possible they were delayed because simple because they are behind schedule.

I don't know why anybody is even taking this article seriously. There's no actual proof in them using something like their open recruitments or anything to suggest this is even remotely true other than a speculation over a console game's release date being pushed back.

@Heavyarms55 Except it didn't flop. It still has a wide variety of mobile games that are still seeing success in Japan due to the fact that the mobile game market in Japan is HUGE. Not to mention they still have that Medal Wars one coming out soon. As I make this comment, Yo-Kai Puni Puni is still beating out Pokemon Go and Fire Emblem Heroes for one of the highest grossing mobile games in Japan. You can't seriously call that a "flop". If these stats are anything to go by then I guess that if a series that can make top 10 in grossing mobile games in Japan is a "flop", then I guess Dragalia Lost (which isn't even in the top 50 on this list in the grossing category) is an absolute failure. https://www.appannie.com/en/apps/google-play/top/japan/game/

@ZionWario Perhaps "flop" was too harsh. But I actually live in Japan and work as a teacher here. So I often hear what the kids are playing, more so than average even because the kids know I'm a big nerd myself, so they are happy to talk about it with me. Yokai watch was positively HUGE when I came here. But now it has faded quite significantly.

@Blitzenexx Travelling is an awesome hobby, but one of the most expensive hobbies around. If I were wealthy, I would travel quite a lot. While I'm far from poor, travelling is still expensive enough that I don't want to go far unless I have a really good reason.

Which is another benefit of Japan. Physically Japan is very small. I can travel by train or bullet train. Which is massively cheaper than flying.

If you do have the opportunity to visit, I highly encourage it. There is more to see and do than you could ever imagine!

@Heavyarms55 Even so, you should probably look into the actual statistics of a game rather than judging its popularity and status based purely on the small sample that is your classroom. My local college here in America has only one guy that's a fan of Dragon Quest games but that doesn't change the fact that that series is still huge in Japan. What's funnier is that Yo-Kai Puni Puni is grossing more than Dragon Quest's mobile game library as well.

@ZionWario I teach students at 5 different grade levels across 3 schools. But it's still fair to say that's a comparatively small sample size. That said, I don't for a moment take back my point. Yokai watch is not the hit it was. It has faded. It's not dead by any means, and it could make a come back. But it has indeed faded.

@Heavyarms55: The cost of traveling, particularly overseas, is the primary reason why I haven't been out of the country more than once (and barely the one time, at that). I'm also by no means poor, but I can also relate to not traveling very far on my own dime unless I need to. That's one thing I'll hand to Japan - better public transportation. It's almost non-existent in my part of the country outside of cities. I also learned the hard way on a weekend trip a couple years ago that freight trains here often take precedence over public transport (at least with Amtrak) in most situations.

But yeah, I definitely plan on getting to Japan at some point! I like getting out of my Midwestern bubble on occasion and experiencing new things!

Now that Level 5 is mostly focused on mobile, it seems to go down the drain.

@Henmii How does that kind of correllation make any kind of sense? Mobile games can be made cheaply and are like 10 times bigger in Japan than they are in America. In fact, focusing a ton on mobile games is a huge financial bonus over there, so if anything, they're MAKING more money than usual.

@Heavyarms55 The new movie recently came out on top of the Medal Wars mobile game and YKW4 being on the way, so it'd certainly be unsurprising if it did.

@ZionWario,

And yet they (the developing staff) are running away. I don't know what is going behind the curtain. Maybe they sacked a lot of people because they don't need that many for mobile-games. Maybe they pay the people less, thus they run away. And then there's the fact that one of the most important guys at Level 5 has left. Things don't seem to go so well at the moment. Even the quality of their games isn't that huge anymore from what I have heard.

My advice: Develop mainly for consoles again, and do it seriously! A strong new professor Layton again, with Layton in the lead...physical copy on Switch, perhaps?

@Henmii You just contradicted yourself in your first 2 sentences.

"I don't know what is going behind the curtain."
Neither does the article above, hence why its title starts off with the word 'RUMOR'. Heck, all you can clearly do is speculate . Yet, you go on to say (as though you actually know what's going on behind the curtain)

"And yet they (the developing staff) are running away."
You have some actual proof that that's the case? In fact, Level-5's current job postings certainly do nothing to prove that's the case: https://www.level5.co.jp/recruit/
Their most recent job openings are months old and are for things like story board artistry and legal advice regarding patents (which makes sense since they do alot of crossovers). Absolutely NO job postings asking for replacements for game developers they allegedly lost.

"And then there's the fact that one of the most important guys at Level 5 has left."
Any chance you can provide a name so I can verify if THAT is at least true?

"Things don't seem to go so well at the moment. Even the quality of their games isn't that huge anymore from what I have heard."
Have you actually played any Level-5 games as of late to see if that's the case or do you just believe everything you hear? From personal experience, the only people that have ever said the Yo-Kai Watch games are bad are Americans that have never played the game for more than like 3 hours, let alone actually finished it, let alone actually played the sequels to see how immensely the series improved both in quantity and in quality. Even Inazuma Eleven fans have been in general agreement the franchise gets better with every sequel. Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom won the RPG of the Year Award. A game lacking in quality doesn't exactly accomplish that.

"My advice: Develop mainly for consoles again, and do it seriously!"
My advice to you is that you try looking through Level-5's list of projects lately so you'll find that they've actually been doing that this entire time, even WITH Layton for the past 3 years and even longer before that.

-Yo-Kai Sangokushi, 3DS console, 2016

-Yo-Kai Watch 3, 3DS console, 2016

-Layton's Mystery Journey, 3DS console but also on mobile, 2017

-The Snack World: Treasurers, 3DS console for 2017, ported to Nintendo Switch console as Snack World Treasurers Gold in 2018

-Yo-Kai Watch Blasters 2, 3DS console, 2017

-Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom, PC and PlayStation 4, 2018

-Yo-Kai Watch 4, coming to Nintendo Switch in 2019

-Inazuma Eleven Ares, coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 AND mobile in 2019

-Ushiro, coming to Nintendo Switch, release date unconfirmed.

Seems to me they've already been following your advice just fine. What's more is that Level-5 stated themselves that their mainline games would mostly be for the Nintendo Switch from here on out so they were ALREADY way ahead of you: https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/03/30/level-5-basically-all-our-future-main-titles-coming-to-nintendo-switch

@ZionWario,

I agree that I don't know if the staff is really running away. But it wouldn't surprise me. I played the lastest Layton (you know, the one starring his daughter) and I think it was a lot less compared to the previous titles. That may be because it was mainly made for mobile. I haven't played Ninokuni 2 sadly. I would love both Ninokuni games on Switch. As for the important guy that left: I forgot his name, but there should be a article on this site about it. He was supposed to be quite important, and he might have gone to the Pokemon company (though I am not sure).

@Henmii Why wouldn't it surprise you when the company is clearly doing just fine with making tons of money off mobile games and still making console titles seriously? The fact a developer would leave the chance to develop and learn quality coding for numerous genres of games on numerous platforms for a company that's still very profitable is what would be surprising.

Regardless of Layton, pretty much all the titles I've listed above had a ton of quality put into them with the possible exception of Yo-Kai Watch Busters 2, given that that game was outsourced and ended up receiving a ton of updates to finally fix all its issues for how buggy it was but that's just one game for the nine that I listed.

That's kinda vague and just suggests you have no actual proof since you clearly don't even know. I suggest you provide an actual link to that article to back up that claim, otherwise nobody has any reason to believe that that statement is true.