Nintendo Employees Worth $1.6 Million Each

Nintendo, riding high on the profits of its hardware and games sales, has a new statistic that was impressive until yesterday's Wall Street meltdown: Nintendo generates profits to the tune of $1.6 million per employee, a number over 30 percent higher than that of investment bank Goldman Sachs.

Goldman Sachs generated profits of $1.24 million per employee in 2007, its best year on record. The Financial Times, who estimated Nintendo's worth, puts that number in perspective by pegging stock market darling Google at $626,000 per employee.

That's not to say that Nintendo employees drive sports cars, however. Even Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo's design guru responsible for Mario, Zelda, and the Wii, is a humble "salaryman" with a dog and a garden instead of a yacht and a Ferrari. "We are not experiencing success," said a Nintendo employee to the Financial Times, "just increased overtime."