Iwata cuts own salary in half

Nintendo president Saturo Iwata has announced that he and other key executives are to significantly slash their wages.

Kotaku reports that in asplendidly Japanese piece of news, Iwata himself will dock his pay cheque by 50 per cent. Other Nintendo directors have agreed to a 30 per cent cut while assorted key execs will receive a 20 per cent reduction.

The move comes in the wake of the shock 3DS price cut announced yesterday. In the wake of the news Nintendo’s share price tumbled overnight.

Iwata is believed to earn around $2m a year and design lead Shigeru Miyamoto $1.2m.

As well as accepting responsibility for the current situation, Iwata also stressed that part of the reason for the surprise move on the 3DS price was the company’s experience with GameCube.

That machine failed to rival offering such as the PS2 and, in many regions, was even outsold by console newcomer the Xbox. Iwata believes that this was in part due to Nintendo’s failure to move early enough on its RRP – a mistake he doesn’t intend to repeat.