Nintendo CEO once halved his salary to prevent layoffs, and it worked—why that’s so uncommon today

As sweeping rounds of layoffs rock the tech, media and finance industries in 2024, some video game fans are thinking about former Nintendo CEO Satoru Iwata.

Iwata ran the Kyoto, Japan-based video game company from 2002 until his death in 2015. In 2013, Nintendo released the Wii U console as a successor to the mega-popular Wii. It was a commercial failure, pushing the company into years of losses. READ MORE