How Much Money Does Shigeru Miyamoto Make?

[John Funk]

How Much Money Does Shigeru Miyamoto Make?

Wonder how much money the CEOs and major bosses of Square-Enix, Nintendo or Sony make? Wonder no longer.

Let's be honest with ourselves here: Many people have no idea about the finances involved in game development. You pay $60 for a game, but where does that $60 go? How much goes to the retailer, how much to the distributor, and how much for the licensing fee? How does it compare to buying SNES carts for $75 fifteen years ago? For that matter, how much money do the top executives at the gaming companies make, and how much goes to the grunts modeling and programming the levels?

The answers to the first few questions are still largely murky, for the most part. But new legislation in Japan that requires companies to disclose to shareholders the salaries of any executives pulling down over ¥100 million ($1.13 million) annually.

Nintendo, being a Japanese company, naturally complied. It revealed that its CEO Satoru Iwata pulled in ¥187 million ($2.11m) last year, though just ¥68 million ($0.77m) of that was his salary - the rest included performance-based bonuses. A six-man group of Nintendo board members that included the legendary Shigeru Miyamoto, on the other hand, pulled in ¥100 million ($1.13m) in total, which indicates that Mr. Miyamoto's claims of refusing exorbitant salaries in order to remain more in line with his lesser-known coworkers are probably true.

Sony CEO Sir Howard Stringer, meanwhile, pulled down a salary of ¥816.5 million ($9.20m) - though, to be fair, Sony is much bigger than just its PlayStation division - while Square-Enix boss Yoichi Wada earned ¥240 million ($2.70m) and Sega Sammy CEO Osamu Satomi raked in ¥435 million ($4.90m).

Meanwhile, on the other side of the Pacific, Activision-Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick is thought to have received $3.15 million in pay last year. However, according to GI.biz [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/nintendo-boss-earns-$770000-basic-salary], Kotick's salary looks relatively meager next to that of rival EA's CEO John Riccitiello, who made $9.85 million during the same year.

That's a lot of money being thrown around, and it's interesting to note that the salaries seem to have no correlation with the performance of their respective companies. Iwata and Miyamoto are earning chump change compared to their equivalents at other publishers, and yet Nintendo is eating everybody else's lunch.

Go figure.

(GamesIndustry [http://www.andriasang.com/e/blog/2010/06/29/ceo_salaries/])

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[Firia]

So was there a breakdown on how much goes to the grunts of the process? The coders and developers?

 

[Ringwraith]

I think it's a product of western culture of bosses have huge (or at least, comparatively huge) salaries, and I've seen at least one instance of a business start to go down in the quality stakes purely as the money seems to be going into the higher-ups backpockets rather than into funding the departments that are the frontline for drawing in the money in the first place.

Its sad how the drive for having the bosses (or other general high-ranking staff) of a company having higher salaries can have a detrimental effect on the business as a whole.

Though of course I'm viewing the world from a very small hole in a wall, so I probably don't have anything near the full picture.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

When I saw the title of this topic, I was seized by a sudden, irrational fear that my boundless respect for Shigeru Miyamoto would be about to take a bit of a ding if it turned out he was raking it in hand over fist. On the contrary, the fact that he's earning a pittance (relative to his influence and output) is oddly reassuring- the man clearly does it for the art and because he loves games, not because he loves money. Hell, he's so synonymous with Nintendo that they'd give him a solid gold toilet if he demanded one, yet he doesn't. The man is an inspiration.

 

[Timbydude]

Wow, that's pretty interesting that Miyamoto turns down large salaries. Can't say I understand why; I don't really see anything wrong with hard-working innovators reaping benefits from their work.

But Iwata's salary is incredibly low for a CEO of an incredibly successful company. It actually seems like the "grunts" are getting pretty good pay, unless all that revenue is just vanishing.

 

[wooty]

So does Miyamoto take his payments in Gold Coins or Rupees?

OT: I'm actually amazed that Miyamoto only gets that much, I would have thought it would be at 4 times that amount, unless its just Japanese custom to not be greedy little piggy wigs

 

[WaderiAAA]

I actually think Miyamoto's pay seems fair - and anyone in the game business that makes more money than him is over-paid.

 

[Kajin]

In business school I did a study on this and I learned that more successful companies are much more likely to have CEO's who work for pennies in comparison to what other CEO's make. It isn't always true, but that's how it usually works.

 

[TheDukester]

Wow, I feel really bad for buying used games now and depriving these poor, poor executives their BMWs. If companies are really taking that big of a "hit" from the used games market, maybe they should shave some of the pork off those salaries?

Kudos to Miyamoto, though. Always a fan.

 

[SnootyEnglishman]

That's pretty cool although i was a little surprised at what Overlord Kotick pulled in. One would think that with all the random firing he does he'd have much more money.

Note: as i posted i just had this thought. That 3.12 million was probably the only money he told people about with about 10 million and more kept under the table in stolen employee salaries.

 

[Jared]

Well, nice to see them release this kinda information. Actually somewhat intresting to see what the guys at the top get

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

I actually think Miyamoto's pay seems fair - and anyone in the game business that makes more money than him is over-paid.

Technically everyone in the industry who earns more than he does IS overpaid. Why should anyone get paid more than him when he is, quite simply, the greatest genius the games industry has ever seen? But then, since when has income been based on merit?

Wow, that's pretty interesting that Miyamoto turns down large salaries. Can't say I understand why; I don't really see anything wrong with hard-working innovaters reaping benefits from their work.

Knowing Miyamoto as well as I don't, I'd imagine that it's partly because of the stated reason (he prefers to remain in line with his coworkers for reasons of team cooperation and goodwill) and partly that he probably doesn't have anything he wants to spend obscene amounts of money on. As far as I can tell, his favourite activity in the world is coming up with new ideas for and creating video games. He simply loves his job (he'd have to, he's been doing it flawlessly for more than 25 years) which is a rare and beautiful thing.

 

[UberNoodle]

Yeah, and you really need 5 million dollars a year.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

So was there a breakdown on how much goes to the grunts of the process? The coders and developers?

No one cares about the Workers, so... No.

 

[Georgie_Leech]

Huh, I always assumed he made quite the nice chunk of cash. Now I learn he actually makes humane amounts of money (a sixth of the total is just shy of 200000$). My respect for Nintendo has gone up.

 

[Irridium]

Yeah, and you really need 5 million dollars a year.

Well how else can they afford their nice cars, mansions, and private jets? That stuff doesn't pay for itself you know.

Pirates are costing these companies their livelyhood. No longer can they go on all expense paid trips to Hawaii, no longer can they use toilet paper rolls made out of money, no longer can they afford giant bonfires of money.

Pirates take it all away.

This has opened my eyes.

 

[twm1709]

wonder how much the average developer is making...

 

[John Funk]

I am actually surprised I have some love for Pirates, so long they keep torrenting they are denying those CEO's all the luxury.

CEOs, and the thousands of people they employ who all probably make much more reasonable salaries.

That's a bullshit justification that hurts the "little guy" far more than it does CEOs, and it boils my blood.

 

[Outlaw Torn]

I think the Japanese guys get paid less on average because they take half of their salary in soiled panties.