Rumor: Japanese game programmers report low salaries

It would be, like, totally glamorous and exciting to be a programmer for a game company in Japan, right? Maybe not so much. According to anonymous responders on Japanese super-forum 2ch (as translated by CNNGo), salaries for game programmers are far below what you'd expect for a tech job in one of the most expensive countries in the world to live in.

"¥130,000 [$1,457] for 256 hours of work a month," one poster reports. "¥160,000 [$1,793] and I am ready to die," another laments. "I can't even afford the 'recruit suit' I'll need for interviewing for another job." How do you live in Tokyo on that kind of scratch? "¥180,000 [$2,017] a month, no bonus, and only thanks to the company dorm can I afford to live in Tokyo," one responder explains.

It seems that game development is considerably less prestigious than other fields. "I'm 27, live in Tokyo, working for a major company, and make ¥680,000 [$7,622] a month, with a separate yearly bonus," one anonymous poster boasts. "But it isn't in the game industry. Ha!" The moral of this story is this: Don't work for a game company in Japan.