Puzzle & Dragons developer, Gung Ho, has been criticized for his shareholders, who have complained about the extremely tall salary of their president and the bad yields of their investments.
Strategic Capital, an investment advice firm, has submitted a report on behalf of the company’s shareholders who ask Gung Ho to “their game“, since it highlights a series of problems (thanks Automaton).
The greatest is the salary of President Kazuki Morishita, who received 340 million yen (£ 1.77m) in 2023. That is similar to the total remuneration of Nintendo Shhuntaro Furukawa president (360m yen), and above similar figures in Square Enix, Sony, Capcom ,, Konami and Bandai Namco.
That is even though Gung Ho depends on Mobile Gacha game game & Dragons, its greatest success, for revenue since its launch in 2012, despite the fact that its income has decreased since 2014. In fact, the report says that Gung Ho has cattle less than a tenth of Nintendo profits, despite their presidents they have similar wages.
While the company has launched 20 games since 2012, including the popular IP of Disney and Yo-Kai Watch, the company has not been able to shake its Puzzle & Dragons dependence.
The report estimates that Gung Ho has spent more than 100 billion yen developing new titles, but these have collectively won less than 10 billion yen.
To summarize, then, Gung Ho has only one successful game that gradually fades, has fought to release another success, and is led by a president who takes home an exorbitant salary that far exceeds the company’s profits. And now there is friction between the leaders of the company and the shareholders.
Gung Ho saw a great success with Puzzle & Dragons, a free game puzzle game that was the first mobile game in revenue of $ 1 billion. In Japan, Nintendo even authorized a version of Mario’s theme game for 3DS.
The Strategic Capital report suggests a private reform and a review of the remuneration system. It also establishes that the company has “excessive” cash reserves, which (unlike Nintendo) is seen negatively due to low value.