How much can you earn from video games? Here are the multimillion-dollar salaries of the big names in the industry
The salaries of the big names in video games are not affected by the crisis gripping the industry and is leading to numerous layoffs even among the most established software houses. The discrepancy between the paychecks of US and Japanese managers, however, is clear
In Italy alone, the video game market fuels a turnover of over 2.2 billion euros supported by over 14 million people. And we are one of the most peripheral countries in the gaming world. Worldwide, last year the turnover of the sector was 92.3 billion dollars, with a decrease of -2.2% on 2021 which, however, with the aftermath of the pandemic and the many lockdowns still active in different parts of the world , inevitably presented false data. What is certain is that, in the face of similar revenues, even the salaries of the big names in video games have nothing to envy to those of managers in other sectors.
THE CRISIS OF THE VIDEO GAMES MARKET
This despite the fact that the videogame market is going through a silent crisis, essentially due to two factors. On the one hand there are the chip crisis and the war in Ukraine, with the inflationary wave pushing the average consumer to give up entertainment in order to be able to afford the essentials.
CONSOLE PRICES DON'T GO DOWN, THEY GO UP
Moreover, the semiconductor crisis forced Sony to raise the price of PlayStation 5 twelve months ago and this summer Microsoft will follow closely: from August 1st in most European markets, the price of Xbox Series X will in fact go up at 549.99 euros. It is the first time that a console instead of decreasing in price, increases. Nintendo differs, but only because it should soon present a slightly more powerful and therefore presumably more expensive Switch 2.
AI BLOWS JOBS TO CREATIVES
The second factor of the crisis does not concern video game companies, but the job market they feed: the many AIs under development on the market, some of these at the gaming software houses themselves, are pushing various labels to fire human personnel to replace them with algorithms tireless and inexhaustible . All of this, thanks to the pandemic business hangover (billions of people locked up at home have had to find new hobbies), is leading to continuous waves of layoffs .
THE SALARIES OF THE BIG VIDEO GAMES ARE NOT AFFECTED
At the time of the crisis gripping the industry, the salaries of the big names in the video game market do not seem to be affected. Market which, it is known, temporarily keeping aside the very strong Chinese interference (China also excels in this field), sees the USA and Japan compete above all. Above all, the managers of American companies are the most highly paid.
For example, Bobby Kotick of Activision Blizzard, the software house that Microsoft would like to acquire for about 70 billion dollars, receives a salary that already amounted to 154 million dollars in 2020. Andrew Wilson of EA, a label that has not failed to proceed with personnel cuts and which in the near future will have to do without the official Fifa license (the next EA Sports FC is expected), reaches 34.7 million dollars. Strauss Zelnick , CEO Take-Two Interactive is over $18 million. Coming to the European labels, in 2020 Lars Wingefors , CEO of Embracer Group, now in crisis , had secured only 162 thousand dollars. Yves Guillemot , CEO of Ubisoft, also forced to undergo a profound restructuring in the last year , was close to one million dollars: 925,314.
THE DISCREPANCY WITH JAPAN
From this point of view, the Japanese are much more moderate, seeing the big names in the video game industry bring home wages that are far lower than those of their American counterparts. To give just one example, Shuntaro Furukawa , number 1 of Nintendo, the historic brand founded in Kyoto at the end of the 19th century, takes home “just” 2.51 million dollars every year according to data disclosed by the same company . However, the document probably only takes into consideration the "fixed" part, not mentioning variables due to performance bonuses and share coupons.
However, these are salaries in line with those of other big names in the Japanese video game world: Hajime Satomi of Nintendo's historic rival, or Sega, receives three million dollars a year, Yosuke Matsuda of Square Enix stands at four.
As for the other key men of Nintendo, the Kyoto House gives a salary of 2.02 million dollars to Shigeru Miyamoto , father of the blockbuster series Super Mario and Zelda , who today has the role of "mentor" in the company of young people entering R&D, 1.61 million in Shinya Takahasi and 1.19 million in Satoru Shibata .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia-on-demand/quanto-si-guadagna-coi-videogiochi-ecco-gli-stipendi-multimilionari-dei-big-dellindustria/ on Sat, 08 Jul 2023 06:39:43 +0000.