When you think of Nintendo of America, the first thing that might come to mind is their well-known Redmond, Washington building, which effectively serves as the headquarters for that branch of the company and is where all the localizations take place. You might not have known that Nintendo also has a number of other buildings dotted around the United States and Canada, which serve as sales and marketing offices. In a sudden decision, however, Nintendo has closed two of those offices--the ones in Toronto, Ontario, and Redwood City, California specifically. The news appears to come as somewhat of a surprise, not just to the public, but also to the employees at those respective Nintendo locations, as an anonymous source at Kotaku claims that the now displaced staff--about 100 former employees--are upset at this decision. According to a statement from Nintendo, some of that staff will be kept on and instead moved to the Redmond and Vancouver locations.

The office closures also come with the resignation of Nintendo of America's SVP of Sales and Marketing, Nick Chavez, a role once held by the current president of NOA, Doug Bowser. An update to Chavez's LinkedIn profile shows that after years of working at Nintendo, he will be moving to Yum! Brands, where he'll be in the sales and marketing department for Kentucky Fried Chicken. With his departure, Devon Pritchard will be the new SVP of Sales and Marketing.

Nintendo of America headquarters are in Redmond, WA, and Vancouver, BC. We are moving more of our employees and operations into those headquarters and will be closing small satellite offices in Toronto, ON, and Redwood City, CA, over time.

Devon Pritchard, Executive Vice President, Business Affairs and Publisher Relations for Nintendo of America (NOA), will assume interim leadership of Sales, Marketing and Communications following the departure of Nick Chavez. Ms. Pritchard will oversee strategy and execution of sales, marketing and communications across the U.S. and Canada.

Source

 

[The Catboy]

That was in Japan, quite a few years ago.

Also, the firings would send necessary people that would have to be (re) hired when the company would eventually recover. Which it did.

Iwata was no saint, he did what was sane at the time, and obviously had a plan to the company's recovery in sight. Paying severance packages at that time would probably hit a very deep financial hole. If the company folded, then it would happen like millions of companies there. People laid off without compensation. He was a good manager, I give him that.

Now,with the globalization, you can find good translators and marketers abroad. Or they will go to Tokyo. No need for an office.

I understand but it's still never fun seeing Nintendo being so not Nintendo. This is more of noticing a pattern of Nintendo's practices changing from a company against many of the practices others were doing, to a company that's now doing the same.

 

[Paolosworld]

Dammit! I shouldn’t have downloaded CluCluLand for the NES rom illegally!

 

[chrisrlink]

this is nintendos payback for the mario party release

was it employee's that leaked the game? if so Nintendo must have a real shitty working enviroment

 

[City]

Ok. Lay off as many employees you need to meet a money line. Then you have so much work (because you cut your staff, remember?) that you have to pay the existing staff overtime to pick up the slack.

NOTE: It’s better when you do this before the holidays. People love it!


‘NOTHER NOTE: Remember, this MUST be done before the start of the 4th quarter!

Also, I think Sony may be hiring.

Or maybe they were overstaffed and the big evil business had to cut the most useless branch they had to not piss off the shareholders after this summer's stocks dip.

It's always funny to see people being armchair lawyers who know nothing about economics.


Also I don't have to remind you that they didn't just shut down the building and good luck. These former employees are getting a huge bonus, together with unemployment. They weren't just kicked out onto the street with nothing.

 

[CeeDee]

Oh so the marketing exec gets to jump ship to KFC, but the low level employees get dumped, good work Ninty

 

[Plazorn]

What buttholes, don’t they even care?

 

[m_babble]

Fuck all employers.

 

[TheZander]

From everything I've read about this nintendo is keeping the properties and supposedly are opening up nintendo land parks in place of the offices.

 

[Hanafuda]

Yet employees are expected to give two weeks notice lmao.

Anywhere I've ever worked, giving two weeks' notice is a surefire way to be told to just pack your stuff and leave now lol.

 

[Tac 21]

I had no idea that Nintendo had an office in Toronto.

neither did I

always thought they were based in vancouver and washington

 

[CinnamonMina]

So, they shut down marketing and localization offices.
Not sure about the marketing aspect, but localizations were barely existing for first party titles.
Possibly we'll get amazing translations like in the NES era, now.

????????????? NES era translation were absolute garbage

 

[Viri]

Dammit! I shouldn’t have downloaded CluCluLand for the NES rom illegally!

Yup, all your fault! Now countless Nintendo employees are going to starve to death. You're going to Hell for pirating!

 

[codezer0]

Iwata literally took pay cuts to prevent anyone from losing their job when Nintendo was struggling. Nintendo isn’t even struggling these days, this was just a dick move from a company drifting further from what everyone used love them for.

Iwata personally cock blocked a lot of the cool stuff Japan was enjoying from showing up anywhere else.

He also kicked Reggie off being CEO of Nintendo of America by going to his racist friends in the Japanese Board, and asking for the job, when he'd not even so much as ever set foot at the Redmond offices. Without Reggie, the Wii wouldn't have exploded in success like it did here; that's basically a given.

I can't see how this wouldn't affect Digipen university, as many of its graduates often did internships to have a foot in the door at the same location.

Granted, I'm also like most who didn't even know that there was a branch in Toronto, what the actual fuck how did nintendo hide that fact for this long?!

Also, Nintendo is sitting on a reserve that would basically let them tank financially for ten straight years before they'd have to alter course.

It's a jerk move all around. Period, end of.

 

[Plasmaster09]

Nintendo's reputation as a company has really gone down in the last few years.
As a Game Developer they still remain somewhat strong but they've really lost care on what's the best thing to do over money.
They even removed the Iwata tribute on the Switch
Just horrible

...The Iwata tribute was an omamori, which are typically burned ritualistically after a year.
The fact it was temporary was actually part of the point there.
You're not wrong about them losing a bit of their 'heart', sadly, but that isn't an example.

 

[Deleted member 546149]

...The Iwata tribute was an omamori, which are typically burned ritualistically after a year.
The fact it was temporary was actually part of the point there.
You're not wrong about them losing a bit of their 'heart', sadly, but that isn't an example.

My mistake, didn't know that

 

[Deleted member 194275]

When I know about mass layoff like this one I feel a pain on my stomach. It is a very nasty face of capitalism.

That said, everything Nintendo did that I liked came from Japan, not from Nintendo of America.
They (NOA) take care of the Brazilian operation, and they do a pretty shitty job here. They did atrocious stuff, unthinkable on homeland USA. We're low tier customers for them I guess.

 

[newo]

Leaving nintendo for KFC? might work

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Considering the current state of NoA compared to the other branches of the company, and their recent acts (wrong or bad "localizations" which are just an excuse to fill characters' dialogues with as much memes as possible, censorship through the roof for no logical reasons), it could be a good thing for Nintendo to do that.

So let's leave it at that.

Isn't the localization group a seperate group from NoA?

 

[weatMod]

"he will be moving to Yum! Brands, where he'll be in the sales and marketing department for Kentucky Fried Chicken."


what the hell is it with yum brands and Nintendo?
Didn't Reggie come from pizza hut?

what is the connection with video games and fast "food" ?

 

[anhminh]

"he will be moving to Yum! Brands, where he'll be in the sales and marketing department for Kentucky Fried Chicken."


what the hell is it with yum brands and Nintendo?
Didn't Reggie come from pizza hut?

what is the connection with video games and fast "food" ?

Kid oriented business.