Yeah I saw that. So Activision are the new baddies of the games industry, what with their over pricing antics, dropping great games and the twat in charge of it all earning 200% his wage in bonuses. Did these guys not learn anything from EA?
jeeeeze. That's ridiculous. What would you do with 14 million dollars a year?
What wouldn't you do?
Obviously this guy is going to need a small island and some pretty beefy defenses for when the angry mob shows up, but he has some time to prepare, they're pretty busy these days. Hopefully he is pretty deep into tower defense games?
I don't think its too cool to single him out like that. But then again you can't have a witch hunt without a pile of witches to burn. $5 says this was all on the up and up and perfectly acceptable in his "circle".
Meh not surprising. CEOs and guys like this make shit tons of cash.
Try looking at athletes salaries. Those guys are insanely over paid.
i wouldn't say athletes are TOO overpaid...athletic careers as athletes don't last too horribly long... they get a lot of intense wear and tear on their body... an average football player will last about 3.5 seasons... then they have to figure out how to either make the sport into a long lasting career or be safe with their money long enough to not get a real job.... some get super stupid and fall into a drug lifestyle losing all their winnings.... but, the amount they do make is insane... i agree.... or when they bitch about how much they make... that gets just down right stupid.... this dude however will rake in the cash for God knows how long...
my 2 cents.
If the company were in shambles and doing bad, this would sound about as bad as some of you feel about this. I feel his compensation is in line with the well earned success of the company. It does no good for us to covet and cause stress for our selves. I don't think we can say his job is easy. His job probably entails delegation and managment on a massive scale, plus dealing with infestors on a daily basis. He's likely traveling constantly and who knows how many fires he deals with keeping the company structure strong. His reward seems justified to me.
Instead of loathing, i would try and work for one of Activisions high earning branches like Infinity Ward or blizzard. They likely reward there employees with reasonable bonuses.
Or as another option you could go to school for bizness and become the future exec of a company like he did and make the same millions. I don't know how he got to where he is and what school he went to but something tells me he's reasonably intelligent for what ever he did to get where he is.
I say congrats to him. He worked to get to this point. I don't necessarily know what you do with 14 million a year but I'm sure he's got plenty of higher payed celeb role models to look to for guidance.
haha. It's hardly singling him out. I'm just amazed that someone can make that much money. I can't even imagine that. I know he works hard and he has done awesome for activision. It's not like this was just handed to him, that kind of money comes with extreme success. Good for him. Maybe he'll do something nice with a portion of his success.
Mjeh. I just hate him because if comes off as a total asshole. I mean... he actually said that they want to EXPLOIT their popular brands on an annual basis? I mean seriously ^^ Not only do they act like jerks, they throw it in people's faces and slap them around with it ^^
Maybe he'll do something nice with a portion of his success.
It would be nice if he contributed to charity and I'm sure he does or might.
But, I think lucky for us (united states) we are lucky the financial success of an individual is not tethered to the public's ability to control what one does with there success. That's the best part of a free market. Freedom to do what you want with what you earn.
That is an absurd amount of money. I don't know what things are like that far up the corporate ladder and I'm not the kind of person who thinks million-per-year salaries are always undeserved, but it's hard to believe that he deserves that much compensation considering some of the stuff he's said to the press.
That said, hopefully the development teams more directly responsible for this success received very impressive bonuses as well.
Who cares about deserves. The market determines that he deserves that much because he recieves that much. Athletes get paid huge amounts because owners deam them worth that much. It's the same with this guy.
to be in forbes is a status thing , so i am sure he willfully provides the info so he has something to talk about on his martini lunches.. " did you see how much i made in forbes?, how bout some head later?"
Activision is a huge company. 14 mill seams fairly reasonable.
How is 15 million a year reasonable? at most a million a year is more than anyone honestly deserves to get paid and even then I think that's way too high a number. No matter the size of the company, if the ceo is making 15 million and the lowest employees are living paycheck to paycheck, there's something wrong.
Adam: this information is typically made available to shareholders and the like.
If it's a publicly traded company the information is available to stockholders and I think also the public at large. That's how the salaries of Exxon execs, Tyco, etc. were divulged. If it's a private company the information isn't required to be released. I'm not a stock broker but that's how I understand it.
Guys, it takes a lot of effort to greenlight a game. Don't be so harsh. Think about it, here's a guy saddled with the responsibility of deciding whether or not to make another Call of Duty game. I don't think any of you would be able to make a call that challenging.
"According to Business Week, the average CEO of a major corporation made 42 times the average hourly worker's pay in 1980. By 1990 that had almost doubled to 85 times. In 2000, the average CEO salary reached an unbelievable 531 times that of the average hourly worker. "
"According to Business Week, the average CEO of a major corporation made 42 times the average hourly worker's pay in 1980. By 1990 that had almost doubled to 85 times. In 2000, the average CEO salary reached an unbelievable 531 times that of the average hourly worker. "
Yeah. And the price of food's gone up, the price of living in general.
I'm not one to bitch but it's sort of just true that things are imbalanced somewhere.
Mixed feelings about this, I mean some CEO's and other exec. types got there because of who their parent/s are, not particularly what they are capable of or what they have accomplished, now that's annoying:poly127:
On the other hand if this guy worked his way to the top and learnt to be a quick thinker then he probably deserves it.
For me if I was receiving that kind of money I would plow it back into the business in the form of payrises, new technology & security, not coke, hookers and those long cigars
Mixed feelings about this, I mean some CEO's and other exec. types got there because of who their parent/s are, not particularly what they are capable of or what they have accomplished, now that's annoying:poly127:
On the other hand if this guy worked his way to the top and learnt to be a quick thinker then he probably deserves it.
For me if I was receiving that kind of money I would plow it back into the business in the form of payrises, new technology & security, not coke, hookers and those long cigars
you could still do all of that and have some left over for coke hookers and cigars
now lets say if any of you had the chance to be him would you turn it down?
At first I was floored by the bonus, but when you look at how successful they are at whoring out guitar hero, it seems logical to give the guy behind the red octane purchase a few million to help him sleep at night.
I am not surprised at all, considering how much Activision makes. And when you look at his base Salary, it's less than a million. It's just that when they do well they can make up arbitrary bonus amounts to make themselves richer. We also don't know how much he does give back. Or how much has has given in the past. I'm not really bothered by this, but bothered by the fact that the developers should be getting paid more. The money is clearly there but the publishers and studio execs decide how much to hand out.
For a long time companies rushed to light mountains of cash on fire in front of these guys when they are interviewing for these positions. This small pile wouldn't please many of the Gods. Besides now that its public someone is likely to come along and undercut him, or so the theory goes.
If the shareholders are fat and happy no one is going to end up on the street.
now lets say if any of you had the chance to be him would you turn it down?
I know I wouldnt...
I wouldn't turn it down, but I would also be a little more generous in spreading the monetary love.
When we're talking about THAT MUCH money, there is just no reason for one person to keep all of that. If I were in that position, I would re-invest a sizeable chunk of that cashola into bonuses for those employees under me. If there were a team of employees who had done especially well for the company that year, I would single them out with considerable bonuses, making an example to the rest of the employees.
Having such an astronomical salary is nice, but at some point it just becomes redundant. Re-investing into your employee's is a great way to build company loyalty and boost your own popularity within the organization. Accepting a pay cut in order to pay your employees more is a very significant gesture, and will make prospective hires that much more eager to work for your company.
Replies
Where's the stabby stab emoticon?
hookers and blow
Try looking at athletes saleries. Those guys are insanely over paid.
Obviously this guy is going to need a small island and some pretty beefy defenses for when the angry mob shows up, but he has some time to prepare, they're pretty busy these days. Hopefully he is pretty deep into tower defense games?
I don't think its too cool to single him out like that. But then again you can't have a witch hunt without a pile of witches to burn. $5 says this was all on the up and up and perfectly acceptable in his "circle".
i wouldn't say athletes are TOO overpaid...athletic careers as athletes don't last too horribly long... they get a lot of intense wear and tear on their body... an average football player will last about 3.5 seasons... then they have to figure out how to either make the sport into a long lasting career or be safe with their money long enough to not get a real job.... some get super stupid and fall into a drug lifestyle losing all their winnings.... but, the amount they do make is insane... i agree.... or when they bitch about how much they make... that gets just down right stupid.... this dude however will rake in the cash for God knows how long...
If the company were in shambles and doing bad, this would sound about as bad as some of you feel about this. I feel his compensation is in line with the well earned success of the company. It does no good for us to covet and cause stress for our selves. I don't think we can say his job is easy. His job probably entails delegation and managment on a massive scale, plus dealing with infestors on a daily basis. He's likely traveling constantly and who knows how many fires he deals with keeping the company structure strong. His reward seems justified to me.
Instead of loathing, i would try and work for one of Activisions high earning branches like Infinity Ward or blizzard. They likely reward there employees with reasonable bonuses.
Or as another option you could go to school for bizness and become the future exec of a company like he did and make the same millions.
I say congrats to him. He worked to get to this point. I don't necessarily know what you do with 14 million a year but I'm sure he's got plenty of higher payed celeb role models to look to for guidance.
It would be nice if he contributed to charity and I'm sure he does or might.
But, I think lucky for us (united states) we are lucky the financial success of an individual is not tethered to the public's ability to control what one does with there success. That's the best part of a free market. Freedom to do what you want with what you earn.
Wow.
He can use dollar bills to keep his fireplace alight.
That said, hopefully the development teams more directly responsible for this success received very impressive bonuses as well.
EDIT: I am writing really poorly atm...
How is 15 million a year reasonable? at most a million a year is more than anyone honestly deserves to get paid and even then I think that's way too high a number. No matter the size of the company, if the ceo is making 15 million and the lowest employees are living paycheck to paycheck, there's something wrong.
Adam: this information is typically made available to shareholders and the like.
[Keg beat me to it]
now that is fucked.
I'm not one to bitch but it's sort of just true that things are imbalanced somewhere.
On the other hand if this guy worked his way to the top and learnt to be a quick thinker then he probably deserves it.
For me if I was receiving that kind of money I would plow it back into the business in the form of payrises, new technology & security, not coke, hookers and those long cigars
you could still do all of that and have some left over for coke hookers and cigars
now lets say if any of you had the chance to be him would you turn it down?
I know I wouldnt...
If the shareholders are fat and happy no one is going to end up on the street.
I wouldn't turn it down, but I would also be a little more generous in spreading the monetary love.
When we're talking about THAT MUCH money, there is just no reason for one person to keep all of that. If I were in that position, I would re-invest a sizeable chunk of that cashola into bonuses for those employees under me. If there were a team of employees who had done especially well for the company that year, I would single them out with considerable bonuses, making an example to the rest of the employees.
Having such an astronomical salary is nice, but at some point it just becomes redundant. Re-investing into your employee's is a great way to build company loyalty and boost your own popularity within the organization. Accepting a pay cut in order to pay your employees more is a very significant gesture, and will make prospective hires that much more eager to work for your company.
Thing is, each email he deletes will earn him money. Just spending time makes him money! :P
I take that as an understatement for anyone making more than 1 million a year which should be the cut off for everyone...
Think he is?
No.