Nintendo CEO Iwata doesn't earn as much as you'd think
We never thought we'd say this about a CEO (it just feels wrong), but Nintendo's Satoru Iwata totally deserves a raise. The CEO's base salary last year was a measly ¥68 million (about $770K), with the executive taking home ¥187 ($2.1 million) after a performance bonus. Nintendo, as a company last year, made roughly $2.45 billion in profit! Nintendo guru Shigeru Miyamoto, along with a group of five other board members, apparently earned just ¥100 million ($1.13 million) total. These guys have to be making more money from stocks or something.
Andriasang reports the salary revelations are thanks to a new Japanese law requiring companies to reveal any board members' earnings over ¥100 million ($1.13 million). For comparison, Square Enix's Yoichi Wada collected ¥240 million ($2.7 million), while Sony's Sir Howard Stringer, heading a company that admittedly extends way beyond games, pulled in a cool ¥816.5 million ($9.2 million). As for some CEO salaries from around the world, according to Forbes (via GI.biz), Activision Blizzard's Bobby Kotick is guesstimated to have made $3.15 million in 2009 and EA's John Riccitiello allegedly took home $9.85 million.
