Interim EA executive gets $1.03 million salary

Executive chairman Larry Probst receives seven-figure compensation while publisher searches for John Riccitiello replacement.

Electronic Arts will pay executive chairman Larry Probst an annual salary of $1.03 million while the Battlefield and FIFA publisher seeks a replacement for John Riccitiello, who resigned as CEO last month.

[Prcko]

sooooo....
there is my money

[Sideras]

EA filth.

[SKUD]

Sounds cheap compared to the money they spend making bad games.

[GABRIEL1030]

This is the reason that games are very expensive and the also because Battlefield 4 is a copy/paste of B3, they dont want expend money in researching and development only in cover their expensive salaries. =(

[ApolloTheBoss]

I bet this guy never played a video game in his entire life. How the hell can these bigwigs work for this company if they're not gamers?

[NastyLeftHook0]

the gaming industry is moving ahead of the movie industry in terms of profits.

[Hufandpuf]

Because they spend more time rising through the ranks of buisness and communication rather than playing games.

[Murad]

Well you have to remember, developers are the ones who love the game, CEO scum, or in general, this douche bag ruins every game because they believe gaming is all about business. I can't wait to start my own gaming company that will NOT hire a single douche bag from any college of business.

[Yodagamer]

If recent actions this last gen are anything to go by ea is a business first then game devs. They have brought in so many things that make them money and in some cases hurt their games. Real racing 3 and simscity being the most recent.

[abzdine]

i actually dont think it's that high for an EA CEO

[Software_Lover]

I can honestly live with that. If all execs made no more than 1-1.5 million a year that would be great. But that is just not the case.

What really gets me are the f'n bonuses that equal to the net worth of a small country. That is where the ludicrousness (word?) comes in to play.

[dcbronco]

Nobody should be making that kind of money unless they actually create something. These clowns don't do anything but use their financial resources to exploit talent and use talented people. Why should any CEO be making that kind of money when most of them are completely incapable of doing the things that actually create the revenue. I've seen a few episodes of undercover boss and the majority of what I've seen was some clown that has no idea "how the sausage is made".

Corporate CEOs are only good for suppressing wages, exploiting people and using tax loopholes. Add bribing worthless congressman for preferential treatment. The few good CEOs are outweighed by the bad by tens of thousands to one.

[_-EDMIX-_]

I think you know very little of how business works. You don't get money just cause you feel you deserve it.

He makes a lot of money cause the moves he made help EA make money....thats it. Is he a developer? No, is he making games every day? No, but by god he is one of the spokes in the wheel that keep it going.

This is capitizm at its finest and if you don't like it, either leave the country or bury your head under a rock. Mind you, I agree with how you feel. The world just doesn't work that way.

If it was up to me, publishers would work FOR developers not the other way around. They are the ones that are braking their backs to make these games...but then again....who's paying them?

Its not as simple as it looks.

[ApolloAdams]

What??

A CEO is someone who can put together land, labor and capital together.

Your statement breaks many basic laws like supply and demand and human capital and profit. You seem really angry about this topic really and I don't understand. It makes a lot to get anywhere near where he is and he only makes 1 million. You sound like an extremist anti big business person which is fine but a little too outlandish.

[dcbronco]

@_-EDMIX-_

Obviously you know little about business. You buy into the lies that too many fall for. He just became CEO so nothing he has done is the cause for that amount. EA has twice been listed as one of the worse companies in the world. Including last year. Their last CEO was forced to resign. Doesn't sound like he knew what he was doing.

Leave the country or bury my head? You sound like a true American. I'm sure you're all "yeah Constitution", until what someone says doesn't fit what you like. Capitalism doesn't work. Not pure capitalism. Never has and never will. People are just ignorant of all of the things behind closed doors and the personalized corporate laws that favor a few. People needed to look at the laws more closely. There are far more special favors being written into law then you and others believe. It doesn't take talent to bride a worthless senator. They all come in making normal salaries and leave millionaires on their salaries a people still don't get it. But they still give themselves raises while freezing the wages of the average worker.

http://economix.blogs.nytim...

Our government and most of our corporations are jokes. You should learn a little more about it. And most companies didn't earn their money fairly so of course they have the capital to run a business. GE made several billion in profits a couple of years ago and paid zero in taxes because of special laws written just for them by the trash they paid to write them. I admit I could learn more about business, but I know a good amount and know that big corporation are very corrupt.

@ApolloAdams

Actually I'm not angry about it at all. I'm not an extremist. Don't get caught up in labeling things. It the easiest way to get tricked into believing lies. But i definitely have a problem with the system the way it is. It is purposely geared to keep the status quo in place. Laws are made to keep individuals and small companies with new ideas out.

I'll give you a simple example. Over twenty years ago a bill passed that that would make laws be written in simple enough language for the average joe to understand. But the language never came to be. Because the last thing congress wants is for the average person to actually be able to understand their rights or all of the corporate handouts being given to their friends.

I don't mind big business at all. I just want a company to actually earn their position. Not secretly collude with each other to keep outsiders out. I'm not sure how anyone that actually knows business history could support the system as it is. The History channel show on the men that made America was actually honest about some of the dishonest things that were done to put many of the major players in power that remain today.

Look at the way the government went after MS for anti-trust for doing things every major corporation does. And the real reason was because at the time MS had no lobbyist in Washington paying bribes to congressmen.

Many of the Founding Fathers saw this coming and spoke on it. Yet "Americans" love to support it.

[roshi1987]

I think almost everyone here is just clueless about all things related to the real world (ie: business)

Seriously, 1M for a ceo salary? Anyone ever look up other CEO salaries? Ohhhhh they make me sooooo mad! /s

[Reborn]

Quite normal for a CEO.

Its the additional bonus that are nuts.

[FarCryLover182]

1 million? That's pretty low for a CEO.

[Tultras]

The guy works for EA. EA doesn't DEVELOP the games.

Also, they are perfectly entitled to any x amount of salary, assuming you aren't in their position, you cannot possibly know about the kind of situation they work in, just because the company is considered Greedy does not mean that every single person should be maligned along with it.

I love how you all imply that game developers should be your slaves, shaping and making games just for you, they're greedy? Don't buy the game.

[PooEgg]

Now you see why EAs games need lots of DLC and microtransactions. Gamers need to pay this guys over inflated salary. I am sorry, but 'NOBODY' deserves such a high salary. This is a prime example of what is really wrong in the world.

[hazelamy]

sadly, this one's probably not an april fools joke.

[cyclindk]

Hmm, he's getting ripped, I wouldn't have accepted a dime under twelve, or I would have said shove it.

Measly 1.03 mil..

[aLucidMind]

Nobody needs to be making that much in a year. To put this in perspective, let's say you have no debt. You will be able to pay every one of your basic bills (cable/internet, food, insurance, etc) for 40 years with just $1,000,000. If you really think you need to make that much in one year then that's just a pathetic level of greed. I'm all for people being paid what they deserve, but nobody DESERVES anywhere near this much.

The cap should be $3,000,000 per 60 years; that's plenty more than what anybody NEEDS (and let's face it, if you need this much then you've nobody to blame but yourself) and should be all anyone wants as that's a little over $4,100 per month.

[PooEgg]

Yep, I also think we need a salary Cap for CEOs.

In other news the CEO of Walmart makes more in 1 hour then many of his employees make in 1 year.

That is what America has become, a place where companies claim that they cannot afford to give raises, and they cannot afford to hire enough workers, while their CEOs and Executives take home millions in pay, and more in bonuses. Deals with the devil I suppose, just hope they pay for it in the end.

I guess gaming shouldn't be excluded from this type of greed, but it makes me crazy when we always hear people defending EA and claiming that they need to charge more in order to survive. I don't buy it.

[aLucidMind]

I honestly feel wages should be evenly distributed between all citizens. If you look at the numbers, it is a fact that pooling all 302 million US citizens' income from their jobs together and evenly distributing it will basically give each person roughly $40,000 per year. But I'm not naive enough to think that this wouldn't have problems of its own or actually be done. But I also feel a person should be paid what they're worth.

A sales associate may be paid minimum wage, but the math shows that a person must make $20 per hour after taxes in order to achieve financial security and all evidence proves these companies are more than able to afford it. It should be that if you're getting paid the current minimum wage of $7.25, then that's because you're literally just leeching off the payroll while other associates are doing all the work and getting $20 per hour (aka "the cost of living", aka "what the minimum wage SHOULD be"). But the only way to do THIS would be to also cap CEOs earnings to a reasonable amount, since not doing that will result in prices of goods raising just as much and basically winding up nullifying the solution.

[PooEgg]

I agree, sadly the people in power in our government have all accepted bribes (aka campaign donations) by the same companies who are taking advantage of their employees, so unless someone grows a conscience I don't suspect things will change anytime soon.

The only thing we can do is avoid using the services of companies who are the worst offenders, and sometimes that is downright difficult to do.