GungHo, the Japanese studio behind cellular gacha hit Puzzle & Dragons, has refuted claims its president receives too excessive a wage – on par with that of Nintendo’s boss.
Initially of the month, GungHo got here underneath fireplace from its shareholders when a proposal was submitted requesting it “up its recreation”. It highlighted quite a lot of points, not least of all of the wage of its president Kazuki Morishita, who receives an identical remuneration to Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa, regardless of the studio failing to provide a success recreation past Puzzle & Dragons.
Now, the GungHo board of administrators has opposed the entire proposals made by its shareholders (thanks Automaton), claiming they misunderstand the “extremely aggressive” cellular recreation market.
GungHo has responded to every of the proposals in a prolonged authorized doc, even questioning its readability and legality.
The response states the argument from shareholders towards Morishita “is predicated on misunderstanding and fails to recognise the function that President Morishita has performed in reaching the Firm’s development, whereas main the Firm’s enterprise as its de facto founder for over 20 years.”
Persevering with to defend Morishita, the assertion reads: “President Morishita has all the time taken the lead as consultant director and president of the Firm and has labored with the Firm’s workers to create thrilling video games with out compromise and with ardour to launch the Firm’s company philosophy of delivering ‘pleasure and surprise’, which has resulted within the Firm reaching steady and secure revenues for over 10 years.”
Morishita was additionally chargeable for bringing Ragnarok On-line to Japan and has continued to direct improvement of Puzzle & Dragons, the corporate’s greatest hit.
Furthermore, whereas Puzzle & Dragons has seen a lower in its income, GungHo’s response states the argument from shareholders “doesn’t take note of the circumstances and actuality of smartphone video games”, which it says is “extremely aggressive, with numerous titles being launched consistently”. Even hit video games solely final for a couple of months at a time.
“Contemplating the above,” the response reads, “as President Morishita is presently an irreplaceable determine within the Firm as a recreation improvement firm, the Board of Administrators believes that the extent of his base remuneration is sufficiently cheap.”
Shareholders accused GungHo of getting a single however progressively fading hit recreation, of struggling to launch one other success, and of overpaying its president in consequence. Clearly friction between firm leaders and shareholders is about to proceed.
