EA CEO Andrew Wilson’s pay rose but once more this 12 months, even if two of the studio’s greatest releases had been flops and regardless of general median worker pay falling.
Based on an EA proxy submitting (as noticed by Recreation File), Wilson raked in $31 million final 12 months, together with “money and inventory awards”, as Recreation File places it. Wilson’s pay this 12 months marks a significant improve over final 12 months’s, so clearly, EA thinks he is doing one thing proper.
That is even if Dragon Age: The Veilguard and EA Sports activities FC 25, two of EA’s tentpole releases final 12 months, had been monetary disappointments for the corporate, though in equity, March’s Break up Fiction was a reasonably unqualified success.
As Recreation File’s Stephen Totilo factors out, Wilson’s payrise additionally occurred in direct distinction to median pay for EA staff, which fell final 12 months, due to course it did. In 2023, median worker pay was $149,000 every year, however the 12 months after, that determine had fallen to $117,000.
Nonetheless, as Totilo says, EA’s metrics for worker pay are considerably obfuscated, which makes their reporting somewhat imprecise.
The determine refers to “the identical median worker” as the corporate utilized in earlier years to report the aforementioned determine, which is barely complicated phrasing, and the overall additionally consists of bonuses and inventory grants, as Wilson’s does.
Nonetheless, it is somewhat galling that in an trade the place staff’ jobs appear consistently on the road (and nowhere does that seem extra true than at EA), Wilson can nonetheless be being profitable hand over fist on this manner.
Recreation File’s chart demonstrating simply how a lot larger Wilson’s pay is than the median worker determine is fairly alarming, and it is price taking a look at if you wish to really feel indignant (and why would not you?).
Information of Wilson’s payrise additionally comes just some weeks after the cancellation of EA’s Black Panther recreation, in addition to the shutdown of the studio making mentioned recreation. One reasonably wonders if among the cash allotted to Wilson’s bonus could not have gone in direction of saving that challenge and the roles related to it, however I assume I am not a company exec.
