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Why does Nintendo have so few employees?

_leech_ said:
If they had more employees, they'd have to use money. Therefore, few employees.
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1906
"Henry you should hire more people."

"What? If we had more employees at Ford, we's have to use money. Therefore, few employees!"
 
Sony and MS handle a ton more than just video games, compared to Nintendo. Apple, they do a shit ton too, but not video games.
 
AniHawk said:
Well if Henry Ford is so smart, then how come he's dead?
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Cuz he totally hated on the Jews, and they placed a Worldwide Jewish Guilt Conspiracy curse against him. So he died. ^_^
 
Plus, arguably they don't need thousands of people to think up new and exciting intelectual properties, since they have Miyamoto to do that for them and they mainly use the ones they already have over and over again.

No, but really, when you are so established in many sectors of the industry (and indeed mainly for only a relative small amount of franchises as well), I can understand you don't need as much people.

It's a bit out of proportions though since Sony and Microsoft do many other things and Electronic Arts pumps out many more games each year and is an American company thus it's CEO's require HUGE salaries and MEGA bonusses which I guess. :)
 
I don't see what's wrong with ~3000 for Nintendo when you consider what they have compared to the other companies. EA has many studios all over the world (many which they have bought, but they do count when you say "EA" now), and the rest of the companies you listed are not just video game companies.
 
1906
"Henry you should hire more people."

"What? If we had more employees at Ford, we's have to use money. Therefore, few employees!"
Click to expand...

Well guess what, 100 years later Ford is having massive lay offs. Looks like he shouldn't have hired all those people after all!
 
malek4980 said:
1906
"Henry you should hire more people."

"What? If we had more employees at Ford, we's have to use money. Therefore, few employees!"
Click to expand...

Heh, given how Ford went and apparently hired TOO MANY people in recent years, and is now the bearer (along with GM) of more human resource bloat than any other corporation in the known universe, I think it's more a testament to Nintendo than anything.

They've always kept a low staff count, always compensated them averagely, and always stored up their wealth rather than blew it on fancy rec centers and chefs. Nothing wrong with frugality. In fact, conservative economics is the only sure-fire way to keep a business going perpetually.

It's when a young owner gets IPO stars in his eyes that the overspeculation and imminent death of a company is set into stone.
 
Kobold said:
No, but really, when you are so established in many sectors of the industry (and indeed mainly for only a relative small amount of franchises as well), I can understand you don't need as much people.
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Only a small number of franchises? Just off the top of my head, I can think of Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Animal Crossing, Wario, Donkey Kong, Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Pokemon, Kirby, Earthbound/Mother, Smash Brothers, Star Fox, F-Zero... that seems like quite a lot of franchises to me, certainly more established name franchises than I can think of out of EA, Sony, or even Square Enix (though again, just with off the top of my head stuff, SE is close).
 
ethelred said:
Only a small number of franchises? Just off the top of my head, I can think of Mario, Metroid, Zelda, Animal Crossing, Wario, Donkey Kong, Fire Emblem, Advance Wars, Pokemon, Kirby, Earthbound/Mother, Smash Brothers, Star Fox, F-Zero... that seems like quite a lot of franchises to me, certainly more established name franchises than I can think of out of EA, Sony, or even Square Enix (though again, just with off the top of my head stuff, SE is close).
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Are you kidding me? EA is franchise country to the max..

Madden/NBA Live/the rest of EA Sports
Burnout
SSX
NBA Street
Bond
LotR
Harry Potter
Sim City
Sims
Command & Conquer
Medal of Honor

etc etc etc.
 
Mejilan said:
Improper basis for comparison, and thus, not a valid sense of scale.
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Not at all. As a sense of scale towards other prominent tech corporations. Do the math in relation to revenues and the point still stands.
 
Kobold said:
Plus, arguably they don't need thousands of people to think up new and exciting intelectual properties, since they have Miyamoto to do that for them and they mainly use the ones they already have over and over again.

No, but really, when you are so established in many sectors of the industry (and indeed mainly for only a relative small amount of franchises as well), I can understand you don't need as much people.

It's a bit out of proportions though since Sony and Microsoft do many other things and Electronic Arts pumps out many more games each year and is an American company thus it's CEO's require HUGE salaries and MEGA bonusses which I guess. :)
Click to expand...

But they do need people. Not because Sony or MS or Apple have more but because they can't seem to adequately support the number of platforms they have on the go. When they were going full tilt with the GC, the GBA suffered for games. Then when things were going good for the GBA, it was the GC's turn to suffer. Now they are putting most of their weight behind the DS, the GBA has been pretty much killed stone dead as far as first party games goes, and the GC is having a long, drawn out death, with only the promise of Zelda giving the system any signs of life.
 
I dont think thats NOA. the NOA building in Redmond only has about 1000-ish people if I remember what I was told when I was there. What other property does Nintendo employee people at in the USA? I know the Nintendo World Store and the warehouse near Redmond, and however many retail reps they have.
 
Polari said:
Not at all. As a sense of scale towards other prominent tech corporations. Do the math in relation to revenues and the point still stands.
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Wrong. Comparing revenues for companies (especially employee counts) that don't have even remotely matching business profiles is pointless.
 
Die Squirrel Die said:
But they do need people. Not because Sony or MS or Apple have more but because they can't seem to adequately support the number of platforms they have on the go. When they were going full tilt with the GC, the GBA suffered for games. Then when things were going good for the GBA, it was the GC's turn to suffer. Now they are putting most of their weight behind the DS, the GBA has been pretty much killed stone dead as far as first party games goes, and the GC is having a long, drawn out death, with only the promise of Zelda giving the system any signs of life.
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Exactly. Right now that's there biggest problem: they just don't have the software to support all their platforms. Especially in the case of the Gamecube, where third parties aren't going to do it for them and it's been one of major problems for the GBA "third pillar" concept - the number of high-quality Nintendo developed games released on the GBA since the DS can be counted on one hand.
 
Mejilan said:
Wrong. Comparing revenues for companies (especially employee counts) that don't have even remotely matching business profiles is pointless.
Click to expand...

"Remotely matching?" hardly. Nintendo sells hardware and software, like all the other companies on the list bar EA. Look, I've admitted it's not the best comparison and that's because IT WAS JUST TO GIVE A GENERAL IDEA OF THE EMPLOYEE COUNTS OF OTHER TECH COMPANIES. That's all. I wasn't suggesting that because Apple has 15,000 employees, Nintendo should have.

The fact remains for a company of its size, Nintendo has a relatively small number of employees.
 
Polari said:
"Remotely matching?" hardly. Nintendo sells hardware and software, like all the other companies on the list bar EA. Look, I've admitted it's not the best comparison and that's because IT WAS JUST TO GIVE A GENERAL IDEA OF THE EMPLOYEE COUNTS OF OTHER TECH COMPANIES. That's all. I wasn't suggesting that because Apple has 15,000 employees, Nintendo should have.

The fact remains for a company of its size, Nintendo has a relatively small number of employees.
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Except Sony doesn't just handle console hardware and software, but also has a music label, a couple of music studios, and has their claws in myriad other industries such as digital cameras, portable music players (lol), portable dvd players, home theaters, SD and HD TVs, and who knows what else that I'm missing.

Likewise Microsoft's bread and butter is in the computer world, not the console one, which is but a recent (and not profitable) offshoot. I won't even bother with Apple.

Had you compared Nintendo to MS' Xbox division and Sony Computer Entertainment (or whatever) in regards to revenue and employee counts, we'd have something to talk about here. Nintendo simply is NOT a "tech" company in the way the rest you posted are. They simply make video game hardware and software (and dabble in the expected offshoot licensing of successful franchises).
 
Nintendo in case you didn't figure it out already isn't like other companies.

They're built still on Yamauchi's business foundations which is to have a smaller, more agile work force.

Having a smaller work force also means (common sense) fewer employees to have to pay ... which means more profit.
 
junkwaffle said:
It's well known Nintendo recruits aggressively from Nagasaki University.

nintendoemployee.jpg


(I officially hate myself)
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:lol :lol :lol

(i hate you too)
 
Oooh... Nagasaki. Yeah, my bad, I get it now. Damn junk, that was a bit low! I'm going to hell too for laughing. :/
 
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