Nintendo president shoulders company losses, halves own pay

After suffering its first-ever quarterly loss due to poor sales of the Nintendo 3DS 3-D handheld gaming device, the firm’s president Satoru Iwata has taken a 50-percent pay cut. Iwata put the blame squarely on his shoulders as he addressed shareholders and explained the decision to cut prices on the 3DS, which suffered from a low number of games. He also indicated some high-level executives will take 30- and 20-percent pay cuts, too, Digital Trends reported. Nintendo’s financial reports recorded an operating loss of Y37.7 billion for the April-June quarter, giving the company its first quarterly loss since 2003. Itawa repeatedly stressed building up the 3DS library of games to turn things around, even as he indicated that the company has no plans to release Nintendo 3DS games on other platforms. He also said that, while the 3DS itself cannot be profitable at the reduced price from $250 to $170 in the U.S., the cost of producing the units is likely to go down as demand goes up. A separate story on TechCrunch said that Iwata’s action was rare and described his action as stepping up in “an awesome way." “When companies go through a rough patch, it’s pretty rare to see the big man upstairs step up in an awesome way," it said. — TJD, GMA News