Nintendo President Takes Blame for 3DS, Getting 50 Percent Pay Cut

[Neo Matrix]

Originally Posted by Kotaku

Today in Tokyo, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata addressed shareholders regarding the Nintendo 3DS. For Nintendo, things have been better.

At Today's meeting, Iwata said the goal was to address questions why Nintendo cut the 3DS's price. In an official release from Nintendo detailing the meeting, Iwata acknowledged that the price reduction does help retailers plan for the end-of-year sales period as well as keep game developers on board with the 3DS. Iwata repeatedly stressed the importance of games.

The 3DS has been subject to numerous game cancelations.

Iwata said he is taking responsibility for the 3DS, which translates into a cut in his paycheck. "For cuts in fixed salaries, I'm taking a fifty percent cut, other representative directors are taking a 30 percent cut, and other execs are taking a 20 percent cut," said Iwata.

As Kotaku previously posted, former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi just lost half a billion dollars. In one day.

Iwata isn't one of the highest paid CEOs (especially compared with American CEOs), with Iwata making the equivalent of around US$2 million. Shigeru Miyamoto earns around $1.2 million.

At the end of Nintendo release detailing Iwata's remarks, Nintendo wrote that it would publish the Q&A at a later date. Tokyo-based analyst David Gibson from Macquarie Securities was in attendance during the Q&A. Gibson wrote that Nintendo stated there was a missed opportunity with giving the GameCube a price-cut. This influenced Nintendo's decision to move quickly on cutting the 3DS's price.

According to Nintendo, the 3DS must offer an experience that mobile phones cannot offer. Iwata did apparently admit that the 3DS is not profitable at this reduced price, but added that costs would go down once output picks up.

Nintendo is looking to further expand into the digital realm, and the company said it had been moving into the digital arena through trial-and-error. This is apparently why the 3DS and Wii U place emphasis on digital downloads and content.

Iwata apparently reiterated that Nintendo has no plans to sell its games to other non-Nintendo platforms.

In a recent letter, Iwata wrote at this current time, it's necessary to make a "big change" to alter the state of affairs.

"We decided that if we take brave measures now," Iwata wrote, "there's high likelihood that a many players can enjoy the Nintendo 3DS in the future."

Source...

Has that ever happened in any other company?

[Crazy Jamie]

This sounds unprecedented to me considering the size of the company. Just goes to show how even Nintendo are recognising how poor the 3DS sales have been.

[SegaDragon]

It's actually pretty common in Japan. One guy who was CEO of an airline willingly got paid less than his pilots (I think he only made $90k USD). He said it would be silly for him to be paid more than anyone else.

They are just taught economics differently than we are. To them, big income results in a failed business. I imagine they've learned from their mistakes. Shame we don't have that kind of priorities in America.