For reference, the 3DS bombed so hard its price was cut almost in half to try to spark sales, causing Nintendo to post their first ever financial loss as a video game company for fiscal 2011. It wouldn’t get any better for them after Wii U also bombed as bad as 3DS the following year. Their only yearly profits would appear after Switch finally replaced both failed systems. You can read about Iwata’s 50% pay cut of 2011, which he was also able to convince the board to take massive payccuts as well, so they wouldn’t have to lay off any lower employees:
https://www.wired.com/2011/07/nintendo-satoru-iwata-pay-cut/
by SnooConfections5434
30 Comments
Some execs would rather burn the company to the ground rather than take a salary cut. The recent lay-offs come to mind.
This happens regularly in Japanese companies, and I feel like a lot of articles negated that, much like US execs, most Japanese exec compensation is coming in the form of bonuses and stock.
Not saying what Iwata did wasn’t noble compared to US execs, but I think it gets a little circlejerked to the point where people assume his actions were like, completely unprecedented and never before seen in the industry.
The 3ds was not a failure nor was its price cut by almost half.
I didn’t know the 3ds failed
> so they wouldn’t have to lay off any lower employees
It’s a good story, but Iwata’s salary was only about $770,000/year at the time. Given the average salary (for all employees, not just devs) at Nintendo is around $50,000, that pay cut would prevent about 8 people from being laid off.
Once you consider that Nintendo has some 7,000-odd employees, it’s pretty clear this was a symbolic cut more than actual savings.
It was for the Wii U
> so they wouldn’t have to lay off any lower employees:
Even if they fired the entire upper management, it would barely matter for the employee count. In 2011 Nintendo had 5000 employees. This was purely symbolic and PR. Which doesn’t mean it was bad, but don’t bend the facts.
CEOs, they don’t make them like they used to
Yes I remember this is posted once a month with a date between a 2011 and 2014 and sometimes you blame the Wii U instead
I had forgotten how little the 3DS sold at first until this post, funny in the long term most people haven’t thought of it that way at all. But I remember if you bought one at launch, eventually they gave you some kind of reward for paying a bunch more for it. “ambassador certificate” and some free NES games, IIRC. It was barely even a fair deal, but then I feel like most companies would do nothing at all.
I’m in the middle of a leadership development course and had to pick a leader I admire to talk about their influence. I picked Iwata. He was there for Nintendo’s highest highs and lowest lows. He didn’t leave over bad times. He gave up his own wealth to help the company.
Gone too soon.
People are like the next Nintendo just needs to be a better Switch. That could easily kick off the same way as the 3DS did especially if it’s like 350-400 at launch.
Glad that they managed to do a 180° with the 3DS, it has a lot of good games like SF64, Zelda’s, Metroid 2, Kid Ikarus Uprising, the 3 Fire Emblems, Mario’s, Kirbys, RE, MGS, PKMN, Layton, AA, Monster Hunter, Bravely Default and hidden gems like Stella Glow.
I remember the problems of the 3DS were the price, The 3D wasn’t that interesting for a lot of people, the confussing name like the WiiU, even PKMN X was launched after 2 years after the release.
Sadly WiiU wasn’t able to recover, and basically all of the best games – aside from Xeno X and NintendoLand- were ported to Switch or other consoles
I love my 3DS but admittedly didn’t take the plunge till after the price cut. I eventually got a 2DS XL where I still long for the street pass green light every time I travel
Man, I remember being hopeful as fuck that the Wii U was going to get an Ambassador Program just like the 3DS did. Here I am dreaming of Eternal Darkness, Wave Race Blue Storm, Ocarina Master Quest and Chibi Robo like a sucker.
Yet, the 3ds sales were fine. Unless you compare it with wii.
I mean, ps3 didnt sold a lot more.
I’m not surprised, the 3D effect in the 3DS was horrible
US game company CEOs be like “Our company did great this year! Time to celebrate by laying off half the staff and giving myself a 500 million dollar bonus”
And this one reason why I will remain fiercely loyal to Nintendo. People can try to write this off or say that he still made plenty of money (which I’m sure he did) but I respect Iwata for doing this when it would have been just as easy to lay people off. This kind of leadership is rare, or it at least it seems to be rare in the West.
What was his TC?
Steve Jobs famously only had a $1 salary at Apple, doesn’t mean he wasn’t making bank.
He was such a good guy, RIP
The guy made ten times as much as I’ll see in my entire lifetime instead of twenty times as much as I’ll ever see in my lifetime for one year. What a fucking hero.
Nintendo hasn’t been the same since this amazing guy, and genius programmer has passed on.
Of course I do. People mention it at an almost monthly basis.
This, and Miyamoto’s quote, have to be some of the most circlejerked material in the world.
Yes, we remember. What about it? u/SnooConfections5434
That was really honorable. These CEOs in the USA wouldn’t do that
Wow that’s an awesome story! I actually didn’t know that the 3DS was initially a failure?
Definitely was the Wii U, how the hell did ya think the 3ds failed lol
the price was cut by like 50 bucks and the 3ds sold like hotcakes later when those asshole 3rd party devs finally started developing instead of promising games, cancelling games and driving sales even lower.
It’s kind of surprising that the 3DS was initially a failure. It ended up selling really well and has a ton of great games on it.