What Kind of Cash Do Game CEOs Make?

Michael Grimm

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Feb 23, 2009
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What Kind of Cash Do Game CEOs Make?


As game companies struggle to stay afloat in this turbulent economy, the question arises: How much do gaming CEOs make? Unsurprisingly, the general answer is "a lot."

Activision's CEO Bobby Kotick saw one of the industry's largest salaries last year, receiving roughly $9 million in salary and bonuses, plus another $5.9 million from his stocks. Not too surprising coming from the publisher of Guitar Hero and Call of Duty, but a little disconcerting coming from a company that posted a loss of $107 million last year.

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello took home $5 million this year despite the company posting a staggering $641 million loss for the quarter, with little relief in sight.

Close behind Riccitiello is GameStop CEO Dan DeMatteo who took home $4.9 million this year. With GameStop's astronomically lucrative used games sales, it seems the man in charge would be due even more cash than this.

Surprisingly, Majesco CEO Jesse Sutton took home $943,847 for the year; impressive considering the company's decision to focus mostly on budget and portable game titles. Who would've guessed that Cooking Mama could support an entire company?

And what of Ben Feder, CEO of Take Two, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto IV, a game that brought in $500 million in its first week? Well it looks like Take Two paid him one dollar. Not really of course, he's paid by a private subsidiary, but his direct pay from Take Two was less than enough to buy a cup of coffee.

It seems slightly confusing that these CEOs are bringing in multi-million dollar checks while their respective companies flounder and struggle to stay afloat, but I imagine you don't worry about that when you're resting on your solid gold bed in your G5 jet on your way to Monte Carlo.

Source: The Game Trade Journal [http://www.gametradejournal.com/2009/03/what-game-industry-ceos-make.html] (Via Evil Avatar)


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fix-the-spade

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Feb 25, 2008
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I have never understood why it's legal for a CEO (or anyone for that matter) to gain bonuses when their division is failing. If a CEO's company is losing money, it doesn't get much more failing than that.

I suppose if it were illegal they'd just cook the books Enron style...
 

Echolocating

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I guess you can't live modestly and be a CEO because the other CEOs would point and laugh. There's really no other alternative for them than to overpay themselves to save face.

My heart really goes out to those little CEOs, doing what they can to ensure they get a fat check while their personal salary alone could support a good sized development house for a couple of years.
 

GonzoGamer

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Apr 9, 2008
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T2 aside, those figures aren't really that much; even for CEOs of corporations posting losses.
I still want to start my own.
 

nova18

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When I start my own dev team, Im going to make sure that if I'm making millions, my staff are making millions.

Or I'd put a few million from my own wages into making our games even better.
That way we all win.
 

Dogstile

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nova18 said:
When I start my own dev team, Im going to make sure that if I'm making millions, my staff are making millions.

Or I'd put a few million from my own wages into making our games even better.
That way we all win.
hehe, same here, i mean, what are you gonna do with all that money anyway?
 

Echolocating

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dogstile said:
nova18 said:
When I start my own dev team, Im going to make sure that if I'm making millions, my staff are making millions.

Or I'd put a few million from my own wages into making our games even better.
That way we all win.
hehe, same here, i mean, what are you gonna do with all that money anyway?
Two chicks at the same time, man.
 

Sigenrecht

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Mar 17, 2008
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I have this sudden urge to kill Bobby Kotick.

Edit: Also note that there is an unexplainable nine million dollar "disappearance" in South Korea's national treasury coinciding with Bobby's payday.
 

Asehujiko

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Feb 25, 2008
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Why am i not suprised that bobby is personaly responsible for atleast(not counting his stupid buisness policy)10% of A-B's losses?
 

Dogstile

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Darkside360 said:
Echolocating said:
dogstile said:
nova18 said:
When I start my own dev team, Im going to make sure that if I'm making millions, my staff are making millions.

Or I'd put a few million from my own wages into making our games even better.
That way we all win.
hehe, same here, i mean, what are you gonna do with all that money anyway?
Two chicks at the same time, man.
Chicks dig dudes with money.
you mean that's not normal...dammit! midnight tv lied to me again!
 

gmer412

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Feb 21, 2008
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Well, I assume it's made of paper, because carrying all those coins around would get tiring pretty fast. So, they make paper cash. Yes.