Nintendo CEO’s refusal to lay-off staff goes viral following industry-wide cuts

nme.com:

Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata.Iwata was president of Nintendo from 2002 until his death in 2015 and oversaw both the Nintendo DS and the Wii.However, he was also CEO during the turbulent Wii U era of Nintendo, which was considered a flop by many.

Following the failure, he took a 50 per cent pay cut while other executives reduced their salaries by 20 per cent.Speaking about the decision in 2013, Iwata said: “If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results, employee morale will decrease.

I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world.”“At Nintendo, employees make valuable contributions in their respective fields, so I believe that laying off a group of employees will not help to strengthen Nintendo’s business in the long run,” he added.For absolutely no reason at all, I am remembering the time the president of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata cut his own salary by 50% and all of the board members cut their pay by 20% so they wouldn't have to lay off anyone when things were looking bad for the company pic.twitter.com/pnVuEt5wTW— Alex M-O | Wishlist Rune Fencer Illyia on Steam! (@AMO_Crate) January 26, 2024And that outlook is currently being praised across social media. “Satoru Iwata being mentioned a lot right now shows you how badly the industry is crying out for someone, anyone on the executive level to actually give a damn about the staff being ground up at a rapidly increasing rate,” wrote one fan.“Video game executives should be shamed off the streets.

Booed loudly at every opportunity. Makes me think of the example set by the apparently unimitable Satoru Iwata, cutting his own executive grade wages before.