Nintendohas announced that it’s giving its employees a 10% raise. The news comes amid industry-wide layoffs at several major publishers, including Electronic Arts, Microsoft, and Take-Two. The announcement was made during an earnings briefing whereNintendoalso announced an unexpected slump in console sales.
The news contrasts with the recent actions of another major publisher, France-based Ubisoft. A lack of raises to keep pace with global inflation that has raised the cost of living led to40 Ubisoft employees staging a walkout protest. Large publishers across the industry have been cutting jobs in response to rising costs tied to inflation. The budget cuts have also led to the cancelation of several projects from a variety of publishers, both announced and previously unannounced. A recent example would be Respawn Entertainment’s announced cancelation of theApex Legendssingle-player game. Similarly, Respawn’s parent company, Electronic Arts, canceled a mobile entry of itsBattlefieldfranchise, and the developer creating it was shuttered.
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Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa explained that the raises were part of a commitment to the long-term growth of the company and its workforce. This comes soon after Japan’s prime minister Fumio Kishida urged Japanese-based companies to offer employees raises in response to a worldwide rise in the cost of living. The news is especially surprising given that within the same briefing, Nintendo announced that it had failed to make its expected sales targets. Nintendo initially projected the Switch to sell 19 million units. The final tally fell 1 million units short. Nintendo missed their projected operating profit forecast by 102 billion yen. Despite the slump, total sales of theNintendo Switch have eclipsed those of the PS4.
Sales of the Switch fell during the nine-month period covered by the briefing, ending in December 2022. Software sales were also down,with the exception ofPokemon ScarletandViolet, which have blown away expectations, having sold 20 million units worldwide and are the fastest-selling games in Nintendo history. Declining software sales were directly linked to declining hardware sales, which were themselves a result of an extended shortage of the components required to manufacture Switch consoles.
Nintendo did not specify if the raises would apply to workers in its Nintendo of America offices or any of its contract workers. Though, gaming news site Kotaku spoke with workers from Nintendo of America headquarters in Redmond, Washington, who said their hourly rates have recently taken a significant jump. That comes after Nintendo employees alleged that Nintendo of America’s staffing company was used as a proxy to retaliate against employees asking for raises orwho openly advocated for unionization.
