Nintendo President Satoru Iwata has announced that he will be halving his pay. This comes as the console maker suffered another loss making year, with a total operating loss of 35 billion Yen in 2013. Other Nintendo executives will also take a pay cut of between 20 and 30 percent.
The reduced salary won’t last forever, as Nintendo has also announced that it is only in effect for five months. A move that is puzzling as this was mentioned to be a cost cutting measure. While it wouldn’t be too hard to imagine the company making a profit again in the second half of 2014, previous earnings have fallen well below what they were projected to be.
Nintendo is facing stiff competition from both Sony’s PlayStation 4 and Microsoft’s Xbox One. A lack of triple A titles like Battlefield 4 and Assassin’s Creed have hampered sales. Despite this, the Nintendo 3DS handheld console is still doing well against the PlayStation Vita. In recognition of this, Nintendo has also announced that it will be bringing DS games to the WiiU through a virtual console.
Another shock move by the Japanese manufacturer is that they may be looking to license out their existing character rights to other companies. This is apparently to increase exposure for their games and hardware. It’s difficult to see this actually happening, but nobody will argue if BioWare gets to remake the Metroid series.
