Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, is set to earn a staggering $79.1 million (£60.9 million) this financial year, which is a 63 percent increase from his pay last year (reported by Eurogamer). This big jump in his salary comes after Microsoft reported good financial results, but it’s been a rough year for many of its employees.
In 2024, Microsoft has had to let go of a lot of staff. In January, they laid off 1,900 workers, and in September, another 650 employees from the Xbox division were also let go. Despite these layoffs, Microsoft’s stock prices have risen, and the company’s value is now over $3 trillion, largely due to its focus on artificial intelligence (AI).
This past June, Microsoft closed three gaming studios under the Bethesda brand, including Arkane Austin and Tango Gameworks. Phil Spencer, the head of Xbox, mentioned that the console gaming market hasn’t seen much growth, which contributed to the studio closures.
However, in the 2024 Annual Report released recently, Nadella painted a more positive picture of the company’s future. He said, “We are bringing great games to more people on more devices.”
He highlighted that with Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard King, which was completed in October 2023, they have added hundreds of millions of players to their gaming ecosystem. Now, they have 20 gaming franchises that have each made over $1 billion, including popular titles like Candy Crush, Diablo, Halo, and Warcraft.
Nadella also talked about Xbox cloud gaming, which offers gamers new ways to play their favorite games whenever and wherever they want. Microsoft has started releasing some popular games on other platforms too. For example, titles that fans love will soon be available on the Nintendo Switch and Sony PlayStation.
The upcoming game Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will launch on PC and Xbox in December, followed by its release on PlayStation in February 2025, with more games expected to follow.
Image: CNBC
