Wiimarkable Earnings

A few years back there was an article on Red Bull detailing how a series of brilliant steps turned a cough syrup soda into a world-leading energy drink. At the time, their factory employees generated $1 million apiece — a figure that almost makes sense when weighing the cost of mandatory personnel alone. Now Nintendo does one way better.

All of their 3,000 employees will combine this year to produce a cumulative $1.6 million per head—after salaries. (Ironically, Nintendo's figure doesn't include factory employees since they outsource production.) Nintendo's earnings are better than the 2007 reports from Goldman Sachs ($1.24 million per head, pre salaries) and Google ($628,000 per head). And if anything, Nintendo claims their numbers are an underestimate since many of their employee salaries are written off as R&D.

They'd also like you to pick up a Wii if you still have not.