To Provide Better Working Conditions

R&D center of NCSoft

NCSoft has become the ninth South Korean game company that promised to do away with a blanket wage. The possibility of an increase in labor cost and the resultant competitive disadvantage against Chinese companies is still a problem that has to be dealt with.

NCSoft announced on April 2 that it would discard its blanket wage in October this year. The other eight are Nexon, Netmarble, Smilegate, Pearl Abyss, WeMade Entertainment, Webzen, Neople and EA Korea.

The companies determined to do so in order to provide better working conditions in step with the growth of the local game industry. The remaining dilemma is that their employee welfare improvement should be accomplished along with their competitiveness enhancement in the global market.

“Tens or hundreds of developers work on one new game in most South Korean game companies whereas the number is hundreds to thousands in the case of Chinese companies,” said a local game developer, adding, “As a result, Chinese companies are increasingly overwhelming us in terms of pace and cost of development.” He continued to say that the South Korean government needs to come up with some measures so that game companies’ efforts for following its policy at the sacrifice of their opportunity costs can be better rewarded.

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