Animal Crossing Switch.JPG
Image: Damien McFerran / Nintendo Life

Nintendo has enjoyed a very successful year, with the Switch and various key titles excelling in 2020 and so far in 2021 - the company was able to maintain strong production of hardware, while titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons sold huge numbers as increasing numbers of players sought entertainment in difficult circumstances. These and various other factors combined to enable the company to make huge profits.

As noted last year, Nintendo's executive pay is nonetheless relatively modest, especially when compared to the compensation packages enjoyed by Western executives such as Bobby Kotick of Activision Blizzard and EA CEO Andrew Wilson, both of whom routinely earn tens of millions of dollars each year.

In Nintendo's annual financial report we are given the exact most recent earnings of the company's three most senior directors - President Shuntaro Furukawa, Shigeru Miyamoto and Shinya Takahashi. We've converted to approximated US dollars below, followed by the original publication in Japanese yen.

  • Shuntaro Furukawa - approx $2.9 million ($710,500 fixed, $2.19 million performance compensation)
  • Shigeru Miyamoto - approx $2.3 million ($655,992 fixed, $1.64 million performance compensation)
  • Shinya Takahashi - approx $1.75 million ($109,332 fixed, $1.64 million performance compensation)
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Image: Nintendo

It's worth noting that the base salaries are unchanged since last year, the increases are solely from performance compensation.

It certainly reflects a rather humble corporate culture, with performance bonus increases staying relatively low considering the company made over $4 billion in profit in the last financial year. Nintendo anticipates a drop in profit for the current financial year, though the projections are still very healthy.

Let us know your thoughts, as always, in the comments below.

[source nintendo.co.jp]