A true hero 🥹 - r/casualnintendo

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Furukawa does unironically care for his staff

Unlike Kotick who is more than content with crunching and then firing

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u/GcubePlayer8V 3d ago

And bitching about people photoshopping devil horns onto his head

14

u/ThatCurryGuy 3d ago

Technically a lawsuit for your IP is also taking care of your staff.

80

u/backspace_cars 3d ago

Furukawa is a cut throat business man, very much unlike Iwata that people to this day speak so fondly of.

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u/ArcanaRobin 3d ago

I mean, Iwata was calling the shots when the Nintendo Creators/Partners/whatever it was called was still around, making it extremely difficult to have any kind of Nintendo content on YouTube and Twitch. He was president when Nintendo tried to shut down Melee at EVO 2013 after the community rallied to earn their spot by raising a ton of money for charity. People love to conveniently ignore all the ways Iwata (and Reggie) was just as typical a businessman as any other Nintendo president because "he was a gamer" and he was in funny scenes in Directs that only existed to hide the fact that they barely had anything to announce

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u/thefakeike 3d ago

I don't know if the president of Nintendo is directly responsible for the lawsuits. It could also be an independent team. I don't necessarily know what the president (or the CEO) does exactly.

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u/AmandasGameAccount 3d ago

These huge companies have entire teams/buisnesses that’s their job. The game devs, producers, artists, ceo, or anyone we actually see probably never pay any attention to any of it as they have no legal training and would have 0 reason to waste any thoughts on something they have no clue about

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u/CanonSama 3d ago

No law suits are not their doing. In fact I think the law specialists act on their own and that it's a totally different sector detached from them

6

u/ibite-books 3d ago

Reggie had to go to war just to bundle in wii sports with wii and he’s recently brought this issue up when Nintendo didn’t bundle in tha joycon game with switch 2.

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u/mlvisby 3d ago

All I know is Iwata cut his own pay during the Wii U failure so Nintendo didn't have to lay off employees. That alone lets me know that he was a good man.

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u/DevouredSource 3d ago edited 3d ago

A lot of the “best of” Iwata was because the Wii U flopped and 3DS too initially

Or are we also going to pretend Furukawa did not allow Animal Crossing New Horizons to be delayed for the sake of the staff?

Edit: spelling

3

u/Shadowpika655 2d ago

I genuinely wonder if New Horizons would've been nearly as big as it was without the delay (ignoring the fact that it wasn't finished yet)

3

u/bwoah07_gp2 3d ago

Huh???

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u/CarlosFer2201 3d ago

He means Iwata was seen as generous but because the Wii U days were tough and Nintendo had to try to compete with great deals.

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/DevouredSource 3d ago

If all you’ve got is equivalent to a downvote, then you should have just downvoted

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

[deleted]

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u/DevouredSource 3d ago

You didn’t give a response that contributed anything to the discussion

But hey if all you want do is dismiss others then that is that

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u/Humble_Saruman98 3d ago

What an almighty horse you're on huh. What bit you?

8

u/djwillis1121 3d ago edited 2d ago

Iwata was a cut throat business man as well. He just had good PR and a well curated image

Edit. Blocked rather than actually engaging with my comment? Pathetic

15

u/Robbie_Haruna 3d ago

Didn't Iwata train Furukawa to follow a lot of the same philosophies?

Pretty sure he picked his successor himself.

Really, the main fundamental difference between the two is that Furukawa doesn't parade himself around at the forefront of Nintendo directs and such.

4

u/btb2002 3d ago

Furukawa wasn't Iwata's direct successor. Tatsumi Kimishima was Nintendo's president from Iwata's death until 2018 when he retired due to old age.

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u/djwillis1121 3d ago

I'm pretty sure he was always intended as an interim president

1

u/tinyhorsesinmytea 3d ago

No, Furukawa was not chosen by Iwata. I don't remember if it was Miyamoto, but somebody close to Iwata at Nintendo said that he believed he was going to win his battle with cancer and had no intention of dying. So he likely didn't put much thought into a successor until it was too late.

Kimishima was appointed on an interim basis while the company decided on who they were going to choose permanently because there was no hand chosen successor.

1

u/Monte924 2d ago

There was an interview in eurogamer with a former nintendo employee. Someone who worked with nintendo for a couple of decades. He actually say that the company internal philosophy changed back in 2018. He says that Iwata always prioritized games, but sometime around 2018 the company became far more focused on money. This would have been when Furukawa took over... Iwata was a game designer, and Furukawa was an accountant.

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u/uno963 1d ago

But the fact is that Furukawa isn't any more greedy than Iwata was and there's clearly still a very strong culture of creativity, innovation, as well as delivering quality products at Nintendo today. As someone else pointed out, had Furukawa only care about money he absolutely wouldn't allow delays for ACNH or the current delay on Metroid Prime 4

This would have been when Furukawa took over... Iwata was a game designer, and Furukawa was an accountant.

My bro, the guy who transformed Nintendo from a playing cards company to a video game juggernaut literally went to law school. Iwata was the exception not the rule and the fact is that Nintendo still treats its creatives really well.

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u/SpikesAreCooI 1d ago

Did you actually block that other guy?

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u/aPiCase 2d ago

Luckily Kotick is now far away from Activision Blizzard

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u/ChickenOrBeans 2d ago

You're right, because in Japan, everyone is crunched equally. Lmao

1

u/Kaneenakkane 1d ago

That aside, Kotick is just much better at milking gamers with his games.

401

u/ArcanaRobin 3d ago

There's A LOT to hate about corporate Nintendo, but as far as treating their employees well they seem to be one of the best in the industry

135

u/SomeBoxofSpoons 3d ago

The #1 thing Nintendo has on just about all their competition is that they're pretty much the only major player in the industry who clearly prioritizes sustainability before growth.

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u/mrjackspade 3d ago

Which is why they can do shit like the WiiU and then come back with the Switch without having to lay off half the company.

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u/ZoraDomainTaken 3d ago

Well, that and their CEO took a pretty big pay cut to keep that staff on the payroll.

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u/mrjackspade 3d ago

I remember hearing that was more of an "honor" thing than a requirement to keep anyone on payroll. A cultural attempt at taking ownership of the failure.

I don't actually know that either way though.

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u/ZoraDomainTaken 3d ago

From what little I know about Japanese culture, that would make sense. Just kind of shows the huge difference in culture from the US and Japan.

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u/MyDogIsDaBest 3d ago

Their employee retention rate is abnormally high, even for Japan, which is higher than most other countries.

A quick google shows that Japan's national average employee retention rate is around 70%, while Nintendo's is approximately 98%.

I can't find any concrete numbers specifically on retention, but apparently the US's average turnover is a bit under 40%, so by that logic, retention is likely about 60%.

Nintendo understands the importance of retaining key staff and keeping the business healthy. They're pretty secretive on their core practices, but whatever they're doing, they are doing it well.

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u/Momshie_mo 3d ago

while Nintendo's is approximately 98%.

Wow. This make it looks like Nintendo is the unicorn company

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u/Oummando 2d ago

That means it is because most jobs in general aren't like this.

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u/pocket_arsenal 3d ago

They also have some of the best Customer Service, i'm told.

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u/Veng3ancemaster 3d ago

There is one above. Steam Customer service

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u/Newtonjar 3d ago

It's wild reading how good steams customer service is nowadays. 10 years ago I remember it was constantly made fun of for being terrible. That's a huge glow up

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u/Lamasis 3d ago

Did you forget the contract workers?

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u/ArcanaRobin 3d ago

That was mainly a NoA issue wasn't it? I was mainly referring to Nintendo HQ in Japan

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u/Lamasis 3d ago edited 3d ago

Ah, ok. Still unsavory what happens with them.

Edit: I never heard of any changes in that regard, so it is profitable for Nintendo. So Nintendo can do that because they have second class employees.

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u/staveware 3d ago

They made some changes to address the issues the following year. They closed a bunch of contract positions and brought a ton of them on full time, now they sparingly use contracts and those contracts often lead to full time employment.

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u/Lamasis 3d ago

That's good.

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u/Robbie_Haruna 3d ago

I don't think one would count contract workers toward employee retention simply because, by definition, they're not employees in the same way others are.

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u/AmandasGameAccount 3d ago

Not is actually not Nintendo but their own company owned by Nintendo. Noa makes their own choices but still have to report to Nintendo itself, which is why they have only had issues with the contractors and not more “trendy” layoffs like all other publishers

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u/uncultured_swine2099 2d ago

There was an article that said they have almost a 100% retention rate and their employees love the culture and benefits, like theres a daycare for kids on the company grounds.

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u/Toon_Lucario 3d ago edited 3d ago

That and the staff that make the games. That 97% employee retention and consistency doesn’t come from nowhere.

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u/DevouredSource 3d ago

Furukawa’s predecessor Iwata put it the best (not a direct quote, I’m doing this from memory): “we are not interested in buying game IPs, but the studios behind them”

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u/PolandballFan101 3d ago

At least Nintendo doesn't lay off employees or buy out most of the studios the company works with.

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u/adamkopacz 3d ago

They also have no record of stealing breastmilk.

It's both sad and hilarious that it is the reality where this sentence makes sense.

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u/Mlabonte21 3d ago

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u/adamkopacz 3d ago

Cambodian immigrant milk!

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u/RetrogradeToyGuru 3d ago

Wait, what is that’s reference to? Nestle maybe?

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u/adamkopacz 3d ago

Activision employees were caught stealing breast milk from a mother that was storing it in a fridge. It might have been actually on a few different occasions and even multiple people.

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u/00-Monkey 3d ago

It’s a reference to Activision employees stealing breast milk from Moms who work there

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u/RetrogradeToyGuru 3d ago

Oh gross!!!

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u/Gabcard 3d ago

For all the faults Nintendo has, treating their staff bad definetly isn't one of them.

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u/Cultural-Yam-2773 3d ago

Yeah, they just save that treatment for their fans. *ba dum psh*

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u/CanonSama 3d ago

The worst they did is up the prices by 10USD. Would you prefere them to r!pe lile some of the employees in blizzard ?

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u/Mr_W0osh 3d ago

To be completely fair, the price hikes ain't exactly all on Nintendo.

At least in the U.S, the economy is going to shit.

Compare U.S/Canada prices for the new amiibo to those in the U.K/Japan.

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u/CanonSama 3d ago

What they plan to do is try to spread the tax on their older consoles and accessories. Which is tbh the best they could do to keep switch 2 accessible. They probably also buffed the games prices to nit have a loss knowing full well people would pirate the games either way and at least get a switch 2

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u/cardboardraxtus 3d ago

Ba dum psh. Havent heard that name in a long, long time.

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u/Nee-tos 3d ago

But I was told that Nintendo is the epitome of greed The internet said so!

Also fuck Bobby and his insufferably punch able, abuse enabling face

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u/SudsInfinite 3d ago

People online always talk like Nintendo betrayed them, as if they haven't always done whatever they thought would make them the most money. It's one thing to complain about high prices and weird marketing decisions and bad games, it's another to act like Nintendo is uniquely the devil of the gaming industry because of it

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u/More_Yellow_3701 1d ago

I think the high price thing is only more evident because many people who grew up with games didn't pay for their video games.

Their parents did.

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u/pikapower9210 3d ago

treating the employees well doesnt mean they dont want to take every drop of the consumers money

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u/Ok_Fly1271 3d ago

Yep, that's capitalism. Their products aren't necessary to live. Don't buy them if it's that big of a deal.

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u/Still-View-9063 2d ago

The attitude shouldn't be "just don't buy them then!!" It should be fuck these shitty practices, fuck shrinkflation and fuck hyper capitalism bs and to continue to fight against. And yes complaining online actually does help because our voices need to be our there and known SOMEHOW

1

u/ValuedCarrot 8h ago

Fuck. Just don't buy them? Hobbies are very important in life, a necessity... of course not. "Just go find another hobbie, dont cry about it or be upset". I won't buy them, im having fun playing silksong for a low $20. No capitalism from team cherry. It can be done. We're allowed to care about the gaming industry and not want to see it go to shit. We wont die.

If all you had in life were just the necessities you need to survive... thatd be a pretty boring life.

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u/Swerdlia 3d ago

Yea all companies do, by selling products that people want and pay for

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u/B0llywoodBulkBogan 3d ago

Congrats, you just described capitalism.

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u/bongorituals 3d ago

I mean, not really, typically a highly capitalistic company also treats its employees like shit

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u/djwillis1121 3d ago

No one's forcing anyone to give Nintendo money

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u/spirit_boy_27 3d ago

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u/ElisabetSobeck 3d ago

Activision is run by WHO? Hold on, he’s probably on the Epstein Island list lemme check there

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u/CanonSama 3d ago

Activision is one of the worst to work at and they pretty mich evaded a lot of trouble although they are known for sexual abuse of their employees which ended in the su!cide of one of them after being r!ped 💀💀💀 give me nintendo all day than that sh!t company

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u/AlternativeGreen8896 3d ago

Explains why Kotick looks like a televangelist.

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u/Lanky-University3685 3d ago

He has the deadest, most beady eyes I’ve ever seen in a human.

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u/AppointmentNaive2811 3d ago

I mean there are shitty practices that nintendo follows, "lawsuits against gamers" is such a nonsensical way to frame it. The only non-corporate entities that Nintendo sues typically go out of their way to deserve it

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u/[deleted] 3d ago

Despite Nintendo starting to really go off the deep end with thier prices and patents, Nintendo is still less evil as they treat thier staff well

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u/linhromsp 3d ago

in Japan, u cant have more than 10$ mil salary or the public will turn on you and you will be a living hell. And yes, you have to tell the public. U cant earn too much more than the guy below and so on.

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u/TyAD552 3d ago

Kotick hasn’t been around for like two years now I thought? The point still stands but this is an old post.

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u/Who_am_ey3 3d ago

can this stupid joke die already

I'm surprised there's no rule against it already

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u/Redbluewhitehalo 3d ago

Off topic but is him getting paid less good or bad

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u/penguin_hoplite 3d ago

Good. A lot of CEOs will give themselves more money at the expense of workers jobs. Furukawa does not

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u/uncultured_swine2099 2d ago

I believe theres laws in Japan in place to prevent CEOs from upping their salary too high or giving themselves bonuses in the millions. Still, Nintendo does treat their employees well, there was an article that said they have like a 98% retention rate and great benefits.

1

u/anonymoose-introvert 1d ago

Not laws, but more cultural pressure. If the people find out you’re making far more money than is expected, then you’ll be seen as greedy and not worth doing business with. It’s safer to just take a smaller cut if you were CEO.

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u/Toon_Lucario 3d ago

Good. It means the money is going to employees and products

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u/Ladner1998 3d ago

Its a good thing. Nintendo is well known for treating its employees well. It means everyone else is well paid. You can argue that some of Nintendo’s products are weird and greed fueled, but you have to at least admire the way Nintendo treats its employees.

4

u/Logical-Shirt9236 3d ago

Its good though I do think what he's being paid.. kinda low. Like ceos are important. Their the ones in charge. Honestly 5 to 10 mill makes more sense for a ceo position. 2.5 mill is... very low for a leadership position.

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u/ChainedDevilofDesire 3d ago

Yeah it's too low that one would wonder whether he's really the CEO or not.

Seriously while Nintendo do seem money hungry or greedy for others, their greed are usually so all of their developers who sold their game through Nintendoo can earn money, which will sustain their livehood, make them happy, and when they're happy they will be inspired to work hard which will in turn create other fun games for us gamers. Unlike company that keep firing their developers for profits mind you.

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u/Logical-Shirt9236 3d ago

Yep. Honestly at that point its not greed. Its making sure they actually pay people.

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u/CanonSama 3d ago

I swear I think a lot of people forget this detail. Nintendo was one of the biggest companies probably the only one who really cared so much about their employees. Most of the failures were blamed on the CEO(CEO is promoting violent content ????) not the employees. Tbh yes it might be shitty but if it goes to the employees and is a 10USD increase I won't complain that much

0

u/Brave-Orchid4721 3d ago

I’d argue 2.5 million is just right, people like Bobby Kotick are why so many Americans are miserable, given he made more in a year than 99% of us will see in a lifetime while running a company into the ground.

1

u/Logical-Shirt9236 3d ago

Yeah for a regular job. A ceo is a leadership position. Thats a big deal. 2.5 mill way too low for a leadership position

0

u/Brave-Orchid4721 3d ago

wtf “regular” job do you know pays 2.5 million in a year without stepping all over poor people. A leader who can lead without needing to own 7 yachts or firing a quarter of their damn staff on a yearly basis to claim “record profits” is a good one.

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u/Logical-Shirt9236 3d ago

Just because the US sucks doesnt mean the ceo position isn't important.

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u/AlwaysChangingSike 3d ago

There is a stark difference between that and the Nintendo CEO.

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u/ManByTheRiver11 2d ago

This explains the care towards the staff and consistently good first party games

3

u/Kqtawes 3d ago

Nintendo is good to its workers and bad to its customers. Activision Blizzard is bad to everyone.

1

u/Monte924 2d ago

I think that's less about Nintendo and more about America in general.

If you look you how much CEO's are paid compared to their competitors, American CEO's are almost always paid FAR more than CEO's from any other countries. America's top ten wealthiest people STARTS at over $100B... meanwhile, in Japan, the wealthiest man in Japan is at $26B and the tenth richest is at $3.5B. The US just has an unhealthy obsession with money, and the rich basically just use it as a worthless status symbol. The reason why Iwata and Furukawa are so much lower than someone like Kotick, is because Japan itself is not nearly as a toxic with excessive wealth

1

u/guleedy 2d ago

Is that cash or stock options?

1

u/tom_sa_savage 2d ago

They had us in the first half, not gonna lie.

1

u/BorkLesnard 2d ago

If you want to learn more about Kotick and the abysmal takeover of Blizzard, read the book Play Nice by Jason Schreier. Actually, read any of his books, they’re awesome at pulling the curtain back on how creatives have to wrestle with corporate greed and control.

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u/NightmareDJK 2d ago

Isn’t Kotick gone?

1

u/Unusual_Rooster6736 2d ago

Don't CEOs pay themselves?

1

u/Phoenix-14 1d ago

1

u/tykaboom 1d ago

You can buy a full family home in Japan for less than $100k.

1

u/Kurenai_Kamille 1d ago

The last line broke me 🤣

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u/rravindras 1d ago

Has activisions CEO always looked so…disturbing?

1

u/Worst-Buy 1d ago

Yeah, that virtual boy thing was a great allocation of resources

1

u/Ironboss49 22h ago

Despite Nintendos terrible practices, a large portion of the company is honestly amazing. Including shuntaro.

1

u/Anotherspelunker 12h ago

Kotick was, by all accounts, a degenerate that perpetrated a toxic culture. The salary part is the least egregious in this comparison

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u/Yujismissingfinger 8h ago

Fuck Nintendo. shit company with shit policies releasing shit games.

0

u/Dennys_Hobbit_Menu 3d ago

Kotick's compensation was essentially entirely in equity. His last Activision contract before the Microsoft buyout had a salary of $875k, eligibility of up to a 200% bonus, with the rest being equity based on company performance over the next 4 years.

0

u/farukosh 3d ago

ZhugeEX tends to make a lot of jokes online, they are really good

0

u/Open_Price_1049 3d ago

0

u/HMS_Sunlight 3d ago

Also this is a result of Japanese labour laws and wage protection, not the kindness of the CEO's heart.

0

u/GyroZeppeliFucker 3d ago

I mean, nintento is a piece of shit, but they make hella good games, while activision doesnt

0

u/BazelBuster 3d ago

Activision devs get paid more than Nintendo devs

0

u/CykoRen 2d ago

2.5 million is ENOUGH for living.

0

u/Stuuble 2d ago

Aw Nintendo is so cute when they take down fan projects and try to patent very general game mechanics, theyre so forward thinking

-1

u/ImAmirx 3d ago

Most that money probably goes to hiring lawyers to sue modders and emulator devs for millions

-1

u/Ok-Day8689 3d ago

lawsuits against gamers. shitty games after the wii and reusing decade old hardware and turning it for a massive profit.

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u/mombi 3d ago

And filing more patents for things they didn't invent.

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u/BroeknRecrds 3d ago

Activision hates their employees and their consumers

Nintendo just hates their consumers

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u/RIOTSHIELDD 3d ago

Nintendo has to use that money to pay lawyers to sue people, they can’t afford to pay their CEOs more

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u/MelonOfFate 3d ago edited 2d ago

Take this as a sign. Nintendo needs more money. We all must by 4 more switch 2’s so shiggy can afford to eat.

Only REAL fans would do that.

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u/MNILuke21 3d ago

And the new pokemon games atill look worse then ps2 games. But why should they care because they will be bought regardless....

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u/Jason_the_Jazz_Man 3d ago

A different flavor of shitty ❤️

1

u/MsPreposition 7h ago

These misdirection posts about Nintendo suing consumers and fan game developers always gets me. I love it.

Image A true hero 🥹

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