Today has not been a great day for the gaming industry as a whole. Microsoft is letting numerous people go from the Xbox brand, including canceling titles and shutting down entire studios, to try and “recoup costs.” Or, as Phil Spencer is trying to spin it, “ensure future success.” Obviously, many aren’t buying it, including myself, and it makes me ever more grateful for Nintendo, which has proven to have the “right view of things,” including when it comes to paying the top people in the company, like President Shuntaro Furukawa.
In MANY gaming companies, we hear how they get “big paychecks” and “massive bonuses,” no matter the success or failure of their games. However, as revealed by Insider Stealth, the top execs at Nintendo don’t make as much as you’d suspect:
If I'm understanding this correctly, Nintendo's executives will be making less money this year than they did last year. If this is just the performance based compensation, they all got pay decreases.
— Stealth40k (@stealth40k.bsky.social) 2025-07-02T12:33:27.712Z
Reportedly, EA CEO Andrew Wilson was paid $31m last year. Nintendo CEO Shuntaro Furukawa is making approximately $1.8m and Miyamoto is making $1.4m. Compared to the rest of the video game industry Nintendo's executive salaries are lower than you'd expect.
— Stealth40k (@stealth40k.bsky.social) 2025-07-02T13:05:59.336Z
Why does this matter? First, due to the success of the OG Switch, Nintendo’s profits and stocks are at all-time highs. Yet, the company’s top brass isn’t making over 2 million a piece. That shows that while they are driven to success, they are also driven to keep their COMPANY afloat and happy, with various teams being brought in or created to make great titles.
That’s in contrast to Xbox/Microsoft, who spent money like it was never going to run out, didn’t put quality into games, and then we got layoffs like today.
So, while Microsoft is trying to “right the ship” in the worst way possible, look to Nintendo, who are doing things the right way more times than not and are already having record success with the Switch 2, with even more success to come via titles like Donkey Kong Bananza, Metroid Prime 4, Kirby Air Riders, Hyrule Warriors Age of Imprisonment, and so on.
