Have you ever wonderd how much videogame executives make or how rich the "filthy rich" ones are? Well, post should answer that once and for all (thanks to CNBC).
Shown below is the 12 richest people in gaming. Yeah, these guys are rolling in the dough from our videogame-addiction. We've outlined each one and briefly state how they amassed their fortune.
So, without further ado, here's the dirty dozen of the gaming industry.
Mark Pincus (Zynga)
While Zynga's shares has been taking a beating as of late, Pincus is lucky then that he owns a large chunk of both Zynga — and Facebook! Forbes estimated his net worth to be at $1.2 billion. But now that Facebook has gone public, you can add another $115 million to that sum.
Mike Morhaime (Blizzard)
Better known as the president of Blizzard, Morhaime might not be the highest paid exec in the industry, but his severance package stipulated in his contract is twice that of Activision CEO Bobby Kotick — just think how much time you'd have to farm in order to see that much money virtually!
Sam and Dan Houser (Rockstar Games)
Who knew developing a game where you looted, killed and stole cars would net you this much legitimate money?! The Houser brothers are the ringleaders in Rockstar Games — makers of Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead and more — have signed multi-year deals with Take-Two Interactive. While their financial dealings were never made public, it's known that Sam bought Truman Capote's previous New York home for a pretty $12.5 million.
Jason Jones (Bungie)
Co-founder of the studio that put Halo on the map, Jones is known to avoid the public eye. Of course, the fact that Bungie has sold more than 40 million copies of Halo games since 2001 should hide him quite nicely.
Jason West and Vince Zampella (Respawn Entertainment)
The former heads of Infinity Ward are credited for making the modern FPS genre the gargantuan financial beast that it is today. They came out as winners in their Activision lawsuit — though financial terms were not revealed. It's speculated that it's worth more than a McDonald's Happy Meal and should be a good addition to the millions they already have from previous bonuses from past FPS successes.
Hiroshi Yamauchi (Nintendo)
The former CEO of Nintendo before he retired after a staggering 55 years of service in 2005; Yamauchi was once the third-richest man in Japan. Now? He's "only" the 11th richest man in Japan. He is stil the largest individual shareholder for Nintendo. Oh, and he also owns a majority stake in the Seattle Mariners, too!
Bobby Kotick (Activision)
One of the most well-known and most-despised CEOs in videogamedom, the Activision CEO's earnings from 2010 jumped from $5.6 million to $8.3 million last year — a healthy 46 percent increase! Now you know where your Call of Duty money goes.
Richard Garriott (Portalarium)
Creator of the Ultima RPG series, Garriott is known to be an advocate of spaceflight and has reportedly paid $30 million in 2008 for a 12-day journey to the International Space Station.
Don Mattrick (Microsoft)
Mattrick, former Worldwide studios boss at EA, cashed in his stock options for $21 million before leaving the company to be president of Microsoft's Interactive Entertainment Business.
Gabe Newell (Valve)
Co-founder of Valve Software and emperor of digital distribution service Steam. His estimated net worth is at a hefty $1.5 billion — and they're expecting it to go up even higher!
What do you think? Do you hate any of them yet even without due reason? If you told me 15 years ago that someone working in the videogames industry would be worth more than a billion dollars, I would have slapped you silly untl you woke up.
Well, we're awake now and it seems the industry is so big nowadays that filthy-rich bastards are everywhere now.
What should theese execs do with all their money? I propose buying their own country and calling it Gamelandia.
