February 10, 2023
Despite a slight decrease in profit and a lower outlook for the coming year, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has promised to raise employee wages.
The move reflects Furukawa’s commitment to Nintendo’s workforce’s well-being, demonstrating the company’s commitment to its employees even in times of financial uncertainty. The announcement was made during a recent earnings call, during which Furukawa discussed the company’s future plans. “It’s critical for our long-term growth to secure our workforce,” he added.
The raise comes after Japan’s prime minister, Fumio Kishida, instructed Japanese companies to pay their employees more money after the country’s inflation reached its highest level since 1981. Nintendo then implemented a 10% pay increase for its employees.
The pay increases were also announced during an earnings presentation that included some disappointing news. Despite the fact that the recently released Pokémon Scarlet and Violet games were the fastest-selling in the company’s history, with over 20 million sold, Switch sales fell. As a result, Nintendo has announced that it will make less money than previously planned during its current fiscal year.
This appears to be a surprising move in light of recent actions by Western tech CEOs. While Switch hardware and game sales remain strong, Nintendo’s net sales and profits are down, and hardware sales are down sharply for the second year in a row. Nintendo blamed its poor performance on supply issues and exchange rates, and its stock price fell 7.5% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the most in over a year.
The sources for this piece include an article in GlobalNews.
