Nintendo last week announced that they would be slashing the price of the newly-released Nintendo 3DS, and with purchases not to their expectations, company president Satoru Iwata said that he takes full responsibility for poor sales.
Since the news broke that the 3DS will be sold at a much lower rate than when released, Nintendo’s stock plummeted 12 per cent.
“I am aware that realising 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,” Iwata said.
In light of these developments, the company president said that he will slash his own salary in half. “Iwata previously earned $2 million (£1.2m) a year, with top designer Shigeru Miyamoto on $1.2 million (£736,000),” Eurogamer wrote. Representative directors will also take a pay decrease, with their salaries dropping by 30 per cent, while other directors lose 20 per cent.
“(We have) concluded that, for Nintendo 3DS to expand enough to become the successor of Nintendo DS, we have to take a drastic approach,” Iwata said.
In a highly-unusual move, the Nintendo 3DS will now be sold at a loss to the company.
Charlie Fripp – Consumer Tech editor
