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Industry analysis and dueling surveys highlight a stark contrast between Japanese and Western game development: Japanese studios have largely avoided the mass layoffs plaguing the industry this year (which have hit Xbox, Bungie, EA, PUBG Productions, Take-Two, Warner Bros., and Epic, among others), attributed to smaller team sizes, executives earning far less than their Western counterparts, and less reliance on the live-service trend. Separately, surveys show Japanese developers are more open to adopting AI tools than their more skeptical North American peers. These findings have fueled broader industry discussion about executive pay, studio scale, and business models as root causes of Western gaming's ongoing layoff crisis.