Nintendo Pay Cuts Ahead for President, Board and Mario Creator
The Wii U has been a financial ball and chain leading to Nintendo pay cuts for its top brass. On Wednesday, the President of Nintendo announced that he would take a self inflicted 50% pay cut after a disastrous earnings report for Q4.
As The Inquisitr reported earlier, Nintendo slashed their 4th quarter earnings over 70%. As a result Nintendo President Satoru Iwata is cutting his salary in half for five months as a consequence of the Wii U’s sales performance. The pay cuts are not restricted to just Iwata as other members of the board are also facing anywhere between 20 and 30 percent pay reductions. This includes the “father of modern video gaming”, Shigeru Miyamoto who created Mario, Zelda, Donkey Kong and Pikmin among others. It is unclear at this time if the pay cuts will last beyond the five month window announced by Mr. Iwata.
Nintendo has suffered a harsh blow in the lack of sales for its flagship home console. The Wii U has suffered from various issues since its launch. Brand confusion with its previous console, simply titled “Wii”, was thought by many to be a source of confusion. Nintendo helped further this theory by pushing a message to every Wii that was connected to the internet (see image to right) with the message, “It’s not just an upgrade”. Nintendo of America’s Reggie Fils-Aime spoke to Kotaku saying that the name was not to blame, but a lack of software for the console was the culprit.
Wherever the blame may fall, Nintendo is proving that it is not a serious contender in the current generation of consoles which include the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. With almost a full year head start on the competition Nintendo was blissfully unaware of the pitfalls of HD game development and online integration. Sony and Microsoft have over 7 years of experience with both and the results are in the sales.
The Wii U has sold nearly 6 million units in one year where the PlayStation has sold 4.2 million in a quarter of the time and the Xbox One is close behind with 3 million in the same time window. To give added perspective, the Wii had sold 8.85 million in the US alone in its first year.
According to the AFP, the pay cuts from Nintendo for Mr. Iwata, Mr. Miyamoto and the rest of Nintendo’s board stem from the Q4 sales forecast of 2.8 million Wii U’s sold instead of the 9 million forecasted for the busy holiday season. Nintendo has also ramped up their research and development teams and rumors have already been circulating about the next console from Nintendo which might arrive sooner than expected.
