Saturday, July 30, 2011
Nintendo president takes 50% pay cut - By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
Iwata, board of directors volunteer to trim salaries to show accountability for poor financials as predecessor Yamauchi loses $300 million in stock value.
Nintendo is taking drastic measures this week after a poor financial report prompted the company to cut the price of the 3DS by one-third just months after the machine hit store shelves. In an investor briefing today, company president Satoru Iwata told shareholders that management was taking accountability for the performance in the form of some significant pay cuts.
As the president of the company, Iwata is reducing his base pay by 50 percent, with the board of directors taking cuts between 20 percent and 30 percent. All of the executives stand to lose even more given that their year-end bonuses are dependent on the company's profits. Iwata gave no indication how long the base pay cuts would remain in effect.
"It is quite unusual for us to change the price in less than half a year from a product’s launch," Iwata told investors. "I am aware that realizing both the short-term and the mid-to-long-term profits is one of my responsibilities as part of the management. I feel greatly accountable for having to make the markdown shortly after the launch, for having damaged our consumers' trust, for having made a significant impact upon the financial forecasts, for the annual dividend now being expected to be significantly less than originally expected and for now forecasting that there will be no interim dividend."
It's not just the current management feeling the pinch of Nintendo's poor performance of late. Bloomberg News reports that former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi stood to lose as much as $300 million after yesterday's news sent Nintendo shares down 12 percent. As of March 31, Yamauchi was the single largest shareholder of Nintendo, owning 10 percent of the company. If his holdings in the company hadn't changed before yesterday, Yamauchi would have lost ¥24.2 billion, or $312 million.- By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
As the president of the company, Iwata is reducing his base pay by 50 percent, with the board of directors taking cuts between 20 percent and 30 percent. All of the executives stand to lose even more given that their year-end bonuses are dependent on the company's profits. Iwata gave no indication how long the base pay cuts would remain in effect.
"It is quite unusual for us to change the price in less than half a year from a product’s launch," Iwata told investors. "I am aware that realizing both the short-term and the mid-to-long-term profits is one of my responsibilities as part of the management. I feel greatly accountable for having to make the markdown shortly after the launch, for having damaged our consumers' trust, for having made a significant impact upon the financial forecasts, for the annual dividend now being expected to be significantly less than originally expected and for now forecasting that there will be no interim dividend."
It's not just the current management feeling the pinch of Nintendo's poor performance of late. Bloomberg News reports that former Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi stood to lose as much as $300 million after yesterday's news sent Nintendo shares down 12 percent. As of March 31, Yamauchi was the single largest shareholder of Nintendo, owning 10 percent of the company. If his holdings in the company hadn't changed before yesterday, Yamauchi would have lost ¥24.2 billion, or $312 million.- By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
PS3, PSP best-selling systems of June quarter - By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
Sony's console and handheld each move 1.8 million units from April through June; Xbox 360 trails with 1.7 million units sold as Wii adds an extra 1.56 million to installed base.
The console wars are being fiercely contested, but the latest round in the hardware fight has gone to Sony. The quarterly financial filings of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have provided some insight into the battle, revealing that the PlayStation 3 and the PSP were the best-selling systems of the previous quarter, albeit by a slim margin.
Each company provided sales figures for the three months ended June 30 in their most recent filings, with Sony noting that the PS3 and PSP (which enjoyed a February price drop to $130) each added 1.8 million new systems to their installed bases. Microsoft wasn't far behind, with the Xbox 360 selling 1.7 million systems for the quarter.
Nintendo's platoon of platforms followed, with the Wii notching an extra 1.56 million systems sold, and the DS/DSi family of portables (excluding the 3DS) combining for 1.44 million systems sold. The 3DS brought up the rear with 710,000 systems sold, but that number is expected to pick up once Nintendo drops the system's price from $250 to $170, starting August 12.
While Sony's systems wound up at the same number, they came at it from opposite directions. The PS3's sales dropped significantly from the same period last year, when it sold 2.4 million systems. The three-month stretch (which included the PlayStation Network data breach and outage) was the worst sales performance for PS3 hardware in the past two years. On the other hand, the PSP saw a spike in sales, jumping up from 1.2 million systems sold for the same period the year before and posting its best non-holiday quarter system sales since July-September of 2009.
While the PSP rose and the PS3 declined on the hardware front, the two systems flip-flopped when it came to software. Sony reported 26.1 million PS3 games during the quarter, up from 24.8 million for the same period the year before. Meanwhile, the PSP saw its worst quarter of software sales in over two years, moving just 6.6 million copies.
Nintendo's hardware picture was particularly off, as sales of both the DS family of systems and the Wii were down in the neighborhood of 50 percent year-over-year. The company sold 3.15 million DS systems in the April-June quarter last year, and 3.04 million Wiis.
Nintendo's software sales were significantly higher than Sony's, but still down compared to the previous year. The company reported 12.13 million DS games sold, down from 22.42 million for the same period the year before. Wii software sales were also down sharply to 13.44 million, less than half the 28.17 million sold during the previous year's April-June quarter. As for the 3DS, Nintendo reported 4.53 million games sold for the handheld.
The Xbox 360 was also up year-over-year, as its 1.7 million systems sold topped the 1.5 million Microsoft sold the year before. Microsoft did not reveal software sales figures for the quarter.- By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
The console wars are being fiercely contested, but the latest round in the hardware fight has gone to Sony. The quarterly financial filings of Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft have provided some insight into the battle, revealing that the PlayStation 3 and the PSP were the best-selling systems of the previous quarter, albeit by a slim margin.
Each company provided sales figures for the three months ended June 30 in their most recent filings, with Sony noting that the PS3 and PSP (which enjoyed a February price drop to $130) each added 1.8 million new systems to their installed bases. Microsoft wasn't far behind, with the Xbox 360 selling 1.7 million systems for the quarter.
Nintendo's platoon of platforms followed, with the Wii notching an extra 1.56 million systems sold, and the DS/DSi family of portables (excluding the 3DS) combining for 1.44 million systems sold. The 3DS brought up the rear with 710,000 systems sold, but that number is expected to pick up once Nintendo drops the system's price from $250 to $170, starting August 12.
While Sony's systems wound up at the same number, they came at it from opposite directions. The PS3's sales dropped significantly from the same period last year, when it sold 2.4 million systems. The three-month stretch (which included the PlayStation Network data breach and outage) was the worst sales performance for PS3 hardware in the past two years. On the other hand, the PSP saw a spike in sales, jumping up from 1.2 million systems sold for the same period the year before and posting its best non-holiday quarter system sales since July-September of 2009.
While the PSP rose and the PS3 declined on the hardware front, the two systems flip-flopped when it came to software. Sony reported 26.1 million PS3 games during the quarter, up from 24.8 million for the same period the year before. Meanwhile, the PSP saw its worst quarter of software sales in over two years, moving just 6.6 million copies.
Nintendo's hardware picture was particularly off, as sales of both the DS family of systems and the Wii were down in the neighborhood of 50 percent year-over-year. The company sold 3.15 million DS systems in the April-June quarter last year, and 3.04 million Wiis.
Nintendo's software sales were significantly higher than Sony's, but still down compared to the previous year. The company reported 12.13 million DS games sold, down from 22.42 million for the same period the year before. Wii software sales were also down sharply to 13.44 million, less than half the 28.17 million sold during the previous year's April-June quarter. As for the 3DS, Nintendo reported 4.53 million games sold for the handheld.
The Xbox 360 was also up year-over-year, as its 1.7 million systems sold topped the 1.5 million Microsoft sold the year before. Microsoft did not reveal software sales figures for the quarter.- By Brendan Sinclair, GameSpot
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
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