Back in July 2011, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata announced that he would be taking a 50 percent pay cut following poor 3DS sales. With the Wii U now facing a similar situation, Iwata is making a similar move.
Iwata will once again take a 50 percent pay cut, it’s been confirmed as part of Nintendo’s most recent financial results. Japanese publication Nikkei reports that his salary will be reduced from the period of February until June.
Nintendo’s two other representative directors, Genyo Takeda and Shigeru Miyamoto, will be taking a 30 percent cut as well. All other board directors, including Tatsumi Kimishima, Kaoru Takemura, Shigeyuki Takahashi, Satoshi Yamato, Susumu Tanaka, Shinya Takahashi, and Hirokazu Shinshi, will take a 20 percent reduction.
According to Iwata, Nintendo will evaluate future salaries based on the business environment at that time.
After slashing its forecasts for Wii U and overall business earlier this month, Nintendo has today reported its full fiscal results for Q3 2014.
Through the end of December, total Wii U hardware sales stand at 5.86 million worldwide, compared to the PlayStation 4’s 4.2 million units and Xbox One’s 3.9 million units. Software sales come in at 29.37 units. In order to meet its yearly Wii U hardware forecast, Nintendo must sell 400,000 units in the following quarter.
Other lifetime hardware sales include the Wii at 100.9 million units, 3DS at 42.74 million, and DS at 153.93 million. On the software side of things, Wii has shifted 829.34 million games, while the 3DS and DS have sold 152.29 million and 942.32 million games respectively.
Between April and December 2013, Nintendo moved a total of 2.41 million Wii U consoles. The 3DS performed fairly well having sold 7.43 million units during the same period – 7.43 million units of the XL mode, and another 2.11 million units of the 2DS release.
Other notable tidbits:
– Pokemon X/Y sales: 11.61 million units (as of December 31, for the full year)
– Tomodachi Collection: New Life sales: 1.82 million units
– Animal Crossing: New Leaf sales: 3.52 million units
– Mario & Luigi: Dream Team sales: 2 million units
– Zelda: A Link Between Worlds sales: 2.18 million units
– Zelda: Wind Waker HD, Wii Party U, and Super Mario 3D World sold over one million units each
– Net sales: 499.1 billion yen
– Overseas sales were 340.0 billion yen or 68.1 percent of the total sales
– Gross profit of 149.2 billion yen
– Due to depreciation of the yen against the U.S. dollar and euro, expenses that were initially quoted in foreign currencies grew when converted into yen, with total selling, general and administrative expenses exceeding gross profit, resulting in an operating loss of 1.5 billion yen
– Exchange gains totaling 48.1 billion yen due to depreciation of the yen at the end of this period
compared with the one at the end of the last fiscal year
– Ordinary income was 55.5 billion yen
– Net income was 10.1 billion yen
Along with today’s screenshot, Sakurai passed along the following message on Miiverse:
You can find this statue of the Goddess of Light in one of the stages. She’s watching over the arena.
Space Enigma Studios’ new project, Space Pioneer, is currently seeking funding on Kickstarter. The team has raised nearly $18,000 of the $150,000 goal with 41 days remaining.
Real world astronauts, writers, artists, designers, and architects are all involved with Space Pioneer. It features a mix of space sim, real-time strategy, and city-building mechanics.
Space Enigma has expressed interest in bringing Space Pioneer to Nintendo’s console, with the studio telling us, “We want Space Pioneer to become the best space based game on Wii U.”
You can find Space Pioneer on Kickstarter here. If the $150,000 target is surpassed, new platforms will be announced for the campaign as stretch goals.
This week’s video additions to the Wii U/3DS eShops are as follows:
Wii U
Yoshi’s New Island – It’s a Shell of a Time Trailer
Mario Bros. Stage 7: Make Poor Luigi Lose a Life
Mighty Bomb Jack Trailer
Miiverse Overview
3DS
Art Style: Solitaire Trailer
Yoshi’s New Island – It’s a Shell of a Time Trailer
Mario Bros. Stage 7: Make Poor Luigi Lose a Life
Life Force Trailer
Miiverse Overview
Source: Wii U/3DS eShops
One new game has been confirmed for the Japanese 3DS Virtual Console. King’s Knight (Famicom) will be out on February 5. Pricing is set at 500 yen.
