EA CEO Andrew Wilson’s pay rose but once more this yr, although two of the studio’s greatest releases had been flops and regardless of general median worker pay falling.
In accordance with an EA proxy submitting (as noticed by Sport File), Wilson raked in $31 million final yr, together with “money and inventory awards”, as Sport File places it. Wilson’s pay this yr marks a significant enhance over final yr’s, so clearly, EA thinks he is doing one thing proper.
That is although Dragon Age: The Veilguard and EA Sports activities FC 25, two of EA’s tentpole releases final yr, had been monetary disappointments for the corporate, though in equity, March’s Break up Fiction was a reasonably unqualified success.
As Sport File’s Stephen Totilo factors out, Wilson’s payrise additionally occurred in direct distinction to median pay for EA workers, which fell final yr, due to course it did. In 2023, median worker pay was $149,000 each year, however the yr 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 workers’ jobs appear continuously on the road (and nowhere does that seem extra true than at EA), Wilson can nonetheless be getting cash hand over fist on this means.
Sport 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 only a few weeks after the cancellation of EA’s Black Panther recreation, in addition to the shutdown of the studio making stated recreation. One fairly wonders if a few of the cash allotted to Wilson’s bonus could not have gone in direction of saving that venture and the roles related to it, however I suppose I am not a company exec.