Oh dear, what a mess! But this is what happens when game news is slow, I guess:

Yesterday, word got out about how much money a few key Japanese videogame industry executives had earned in 2009, thanks to a new rule set out by Japan’s Financial Services Agency.

The rule requires executives at public companies to divulge the particulars of their salaries, if those salaries are greater than ¥100 million ($1.1 million). Naturally, we discovered the salaries of individuals such as Sega Sammy Holdings CEO Osamu Satomi, Square Enix CEO Yoichi Wada and Namco Bandai Holdings President Kazunori Ueno.

The salary of Nintendo’s very own president, Satoru Iwata, was also disclosed in order to adhere to this new rule, and it turns out that, not only did he earn a base salary of is ¥68 million ($764 000) in 2009, but with performance based bonuses, his earnings last year were boosted to ¥187 million ($2.1 million).

This is where a calculation error (or perhaps a translation error) was made at the source, and was then obediently reported by dozens of videogame news blogs the world over (did I mention it was a slow news day?).

It was previously reported that a sum of ¥100 million ($1.1 million) was paid out to six Nintendo board members, i.e. that sum was split between six executives. According to a new post on Kotaku following the release of a report from Nintendo proper, we now know this information is false.

It now seems as though the board members were paid in excess of ¥100 million each, rather than one lump sum being split between them, comprising base salaries as well as performance based bonuses. Here are some salary figures for a few Nintendo executives you may find interesting (seeing as how you’ve persisted in reading this far):

• Nintendo’s Senior Managing Director Yoshihiro Mori:
  • Base Salary: ¥44 million ($497 000)
  • Total Earning (with performance based bonus): ¥110 million ($1.24 million)
• Nintendo’s Senior Managing Director Shinji Hatano:
  • Base Salary: ¥48 million ($542 000)
  • Total Earning (with performance based bonus): ¥114 million ($1.6 million)
• Nintendo’s Senior Managing Director Genyo Takeda:
  • Base Salary: ¥44 million ($497 000)
  • Total Earning (with performance based bonus): ¥110 million ($1.24 million)
• Nintendo’s Senior Managing Director Nobuo Nagai:
  • Base Salary: ¥44 million ($497 000)
  • Total Earning (with performance based bonus): ¥110 million ($1.24 million)

And then, the big one: None other than Shigeru Miyamoto:

• Base Salary: ¥60 million ($678 000)
• Total Earning (with performance based bonus): ¥126 million ($1.4 million)

This makes Miyamoto the second highest paid employee at Nintendo, in terms of base salary, after Nintendo president Iwata, and much wealthier than his previously held image of a ‘salary worker.’

Hopefully this is the end of this, and we can get back to the news of gaming.

By the way, look forward to El33tonline’s in-depth report on why we hate games with the word ‘the’ in the title, as well as our ‘Top Ten Clowns in Games’ feature, both coming soon.

Source: Kotaku

Tags: japan, nintendo, satoruiwata, shigerumiyamoto