Warhammer Boss Questions Whether His Own Bonus Is Good For The Company

Games Workshop, the company behind the media behemoth Warhammer, just reported its best financial year ever, partially due to the runaway success of Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2. It’s been a record year for the company, with potentially more success on the horizon, with an Amazon television series in production, and several upcoming games.

The long-time chief executive of the company, Kevin Rountree, was paid a total of £4.4 million ($5.9 million), which included a bonus of £2.2 million ($2.9 million) under a new remuneration scheme that’s tied to share-based awards, something that’s typical in publicly-traded companies.

In the company’s annual report, Rountree openly questioned whether this new scheme would be a positive for Games Workshop or not (nice spot, MSN).

Good For Me? Yes, Good For The Company? Perhaps

“The new policy is a big change, time will tell whether it improves Games Workshop’s performance and whether it is the right change for Games Workshop,” Rountree writes. “The remuneration committee will monitor outcomes. I will do everything I can, with their support, to ensure our decisions continue to be focused on doing what is right for Games Workshop and our long-term success, not on short-term gains.”

A large portion of Rountree’s bonus comes from a one-off ‘Restricted Share Award’, which Kate Marsh, chair of the remuneration committee, acknowledges the implications of.

“The Committee recognises that such one-off awards can attract shareholder scrutiny, but given the context behind the CEO’s tenure and the forward-looking, retentive element of the RSA, we felt such an award was appropriate given the above overall compensation benchmarking,” she writes.

The success of Games Workshop would indicate that Rountree is performing well in his role. However, it’s humorous for someone to ponder whether their massive payout will increase their performance or decrease it.

Regardless, Games Workshop appears to be going from strength to strength as Warhammer continues to peak in popularity.

The company has been making a massive push into video games over the past few years, and there’s no sign this strategy is slowing down as Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy, Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus 2 and Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun 2 are all in production.