Microsoft boss Satya Nadella will earn $79.1m (£60.9m) this financial year, 63 per cent more than his 2023 pay.
Nadella’s cash and savings pay rise, announced via Microsoft last night, comes after a good overall result for the company’s financial earnings, but a joyful twelve months for its employees.
2024 saw two full layoffs at Microsoft, with 1,900 employees laid off in January, before another 650 Xbox employees were shown the door in September.
Regardless, Microsoft stock has risen and the company’s market value is now over $3 trillion as it works to capitalize on the AI sector.
Microsoft decided to close three indisposed Bethesda game studios in June – Arkane Austin, the now-external Tango Gameworks and Alpha Canine – as Xbox boss Phil Spencer cited an overall expansion shortfall in the console market.
Writing in Microsoft’s 2024 Annual Record, which was saved later in the evening, Nadella painted a more optimistic picture.
“We’re bringing great games to more people on more devices,” Nadella wrote. “With our acquisition of Activision Snowfall King, which closed in October 2023, we have added thousands and thousands of players to our ecosystem. We have 20 franchises that have generated over $1 billion in lifetime revenue, from Sweet Overwhelm, Diablo and Halo, to Warcraft, Elder Scrolls and Gears of Conflict.
“And with Xbox cloud gaming, we continue to innovate to give players more ways to experience the games they love – where, when and how they want. Finally, we brought four of our fan-favorite titles to Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation for the first time, as we continue to extend our content to new platforms.”
That multiplatform publishing program will continue in the coming months with the arrival of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle for PC and Xbox in December, and for PlayStation in February 2025, with the expectation that other games will soon follow.
