Nintendo Shuts Down Offices In California And Toronto

Given the current state of...everything going on in my state of California, I'm actually happy for this.

Now if only Sony did the same.

Funny how when Nintendo shuts down a studio they take the well being of the employees into account (as they are already giving them opportunities in other headquarters). A different approach than a certain other company.

RIP Nintendo

I guess there isn’t a need for these offices? Not else I can see from this move.

@patbacknitro18 What's the other company you're talking about?

@JR150 I live in Cali. Not sure what you mean all states have stuff going on. The right really exaggerates.

@patbacknitro18 I guess? If I lived in CA I wouldn't want to move across the country just for a job, especially if I'm settled in somewhere.

Not really news per se (at least from a typical consumer perspective). This kind restructuring when top execs leave is pretty common even with small companies. Thankfully they're a big enough company to still take care of their employees.

But I'm guessing that SVP prefers KFC's gaming efforts than of Nintendo's. lol

@Valdney
Mostly because all my friends, family, and education degrees are all in Cali. If I move, then I will not be able to go back to visit, given how much less I'll be making in other states. You either stay in Cali and do your best, or move out and start your whole education and social life from scratch. At least that's my case.

KFC hired him to get insider info from Nintendo to make exclusive games for their console.

It's a real console btw, even has 4K ray-tracing.

Was this the marketing team behind the NSO expansion pak?

Interesting. When my joy cons drift, I mail them to the Dynamic Drive building in Toronto. If they close the Toronto office then I assume I'll have to send them all the way to BC, which will be a real pain.

@Kobeskillz
I mostly mean in reference to the fact that Sony Interactive Entertainment (owner of the PlayStation brand) is based in California and has recently adopted censorship-happy policies that Nintendo doesn't follow.

Just today on NintendoLife you can find an article about how a developer made a family-friendly version of a risque game and replaced the women with rabbits likely as a way to spite Sony on PS4/5 while the Switch version has all of the lewd aspects intact. Meanwhile, hyper-violent video games like God of War and Last of Us are okay for PS4/5 somehow.

So yeah, California is terrible and I'm super glad to see Nintendo leave this state and make sure everyone gets new work in other areas without issue.

Hopefully most if not all the employees were relocated and not let go.

Given that digital sales channels slowly take up more and more of the sales proportion, Nintendo will probably only keep 1 big office for the entire country in the future.

@Longondo
I have word from a reliable uncle that Nintendo is filing for bankruptcy as we speak.

Sony moves to California while Nintendo moves away. Good on Nintendo.

@JR150 Now they need to open one in Texas XD

@patbacknitro18 every Company has to consider replacement jobs as part of redundancy.

I wouldn't be so quick to congratulate Nintendo on this... Toronto versus Montreal and California versus Washington State is not a commutable change of office!!

Relocation is a nightmare for most people when you start considering house/mortgage, schools, family and friends.

Most will be forced into redundancy.

Its nice to read that nintendo thinks about its employees. Not every company does that.
And its normal for big companys to close, parts where it costs too much money.

@JR150 Wait so Sony censors things because they're in California? And Nintendo was likely to take on those censorship practices because they had what sounds like a small marketing branch in California? Do you realize how insane you sound?

Is this the Nintendo Life community?Seriously? A bunch of weirdo anti-SJW anti-"woke" (whatever you think that means) types. Some of these comments are honestly embarrassing.

@MrSensical If you have an office in an area like California, you will have lots of people working for your company that is from California, and all those people are in some form of position to pressure change in the company.

Similar things have happened in the past, with Japanese companies opening up offices in the US, and the US mentality starting to take over the whole company.

Probably a good move, covid has seen us communicate and work in different ways.
Some of the local councils and companies in the UK are closing certain offices, moving staff and working from home. It’s saves paying the rent for the buildings that are not required and cuts that cost.

@nocdaes There were no offices in Montteal mentioned.

I hope my uncle who works for Nintendo hasn't been affected by this

@Kobeskillz Have you been outside of Cali? It's actually outside of the ordinary to have homeless people living along sidewalks all across major cities like San Francisco or LA. I'm so glad I finally moved out last year. P.S. I'm not a righty.

@Agriculture pretty much this.

From one side I should not care where a company has it quarters, but after seeing how extreme Sony became after their US branch in California started to decide stuff even for Japan... that is beyond worrying (and it's not only censorship what they started to do, there are enough examples of other things Sonu started to do)

Yet a lot of Devs in Japan will still make PS games, this because from what I heard from few Japanese friends on discord is because:

A: PS is being seen as a mature games platform in japan most of the time, Nintendo tries to be both mature and family friendly.

B: A lot of these Devs are afraid their games stop selling well unless they release a PS version, this mostly the case due to reason 1.

While I as someone that lives in the EU think this doesn't make sense, Japan is Japan and this wouldn't be the first time they make strange decisions.

Talking about me living in Europe, the worst part of Sony their behaviour is that like in most cases, the American branches of all these companies tend to dictate what we (europe) get to see.

If US censors stuff the chances are high we get that too even while we should not.

Maybe WFH made Nintendo realise they don't need as many offices.
Really Sucks for the employees, especially those in Toronto, they either have to move to the other side of Canada or quit. I hope they at least allow them to WFH for a while so they at least get some time to find a new job if they don't want to move.

@Nineteen_Music Says someone unable to debate maturely without resorting to childish insults.

Sounds like normal business. Lots of companies are closing small satellite offices all across the country. It's probably rent related and not specific to CA - office space is a big expense anywhere and working from home has become much more accepted. And most marketing people jump ship frequently to chase new opportunities. Marketing had the highest turnover of any department in every corporate company I've worked with.

But yeah, politics and Nintendo is doomed I guess.

Wouldn't surprise me if Nick Chavez is helping with the making of the KFConsole soon.

Yes, WFH is a thing and these are marketing offices, it makes sense given how expensive rent is in Toronto and California (LA?).

Rent (monthly) in downtown Toronto is up to $50 per sq.ft. with tax, maintenance, and insurance. Depending on building/ exact location.

50 people x 100 rentable sq.ft per person = 5,000 sq.ft. x $50 = $25,000 per month.

If these were development studios, I would be surprised as even with flexible work solutions available, most studios want a presence for in person collaboration.

Going from NoA to KFC is a hell of a career shift!

Anyway, it's not like this was a particularly vital office to Nintendo, as has been pointed out, so I don't know that this represents some grand cultural victory over the Commiefornians or whatever, but I will also reiterate that, even setting aside the way the culture around the Playstation brand has changed, I do hope it stays a primarily Japanese company.

@Ralizah Going from NoA to KFC is a hell of a career shift!

I think Reggie went from Pizza Hut to Nintendo.

@BTB20 my bad, I mean Vancouver - the point still stands though. Everyone applauding Nintendo on this when Toronto and Vancouver are literally opposite sides of one of the largest Countries on the planet ! This isn't like Microsoft moving from Paddington to Reading...!!

When good times go badderer....

@Curbie
Are you trying to tell me that an office being closed in Toronto has nothing to do with California politics? 🤨

Looks to be nothing out of the ordinary...Unless this was the branch who gave kotaku review copies then it could be Nintendo wasn't happy about the "pro-piracy" article and decided to torch everyone.

But hey, it's just a guess.

@Barncak I literally live 5 minutes away from the Toronto office. The entire office complex has been vacant since the pandemic began. Did you and others here forget covid happened? I know some pretend it didn't, but that isn't objective reality.

I honestly can't believe the garbage comments I read here. No, there is reasonably no correlation between California and Toronto. The most logical reason is they're shutting the office as a cost-cutting measure. Like I said, the entire complex has been vacant for 18 months. Those workers can operate remotely. Maybe some will move to the new city.

@nocdaes At least they give the employees the option instead of just kicking them out.

@EVIL-C
r/wooosh

Why we should leave reporting on business to business sites is they would have taken the time to explain what a "satellite" site is.

At a satellite, there in no internal leadership with everyone assigned to work under someone at another office. They exist to make it easier to get talent from some markets or as work sites near places staff often need to travel too.

Closing a satellite in two of the top real-estate markets in the world now that the pandemic has us accustom to working remotely in a no brainer. Even in Japan, where we are still pretty anti-remote working (and where there was no mandated lock down for the pandemic) Tokyo offices that had Osaka satellites and vis versa are shutting them down.

Wow. Some people really have an axe to grind against the state of California. People like to think coastal types are out to get them. This comment section helps prove otherwise. It’s a wealthy state that has so many industries. That’s the reality. Yes, California has some bad laws and bad people. This is true of any state. Some weirdos here are equating censorship in a game to some made up policy that does not exist. Get a grip, this is so sad when people hate on regions due to their own ignorance.

@JR150 Sony moved PlayStation’s headquarters to LA and out of Japan. It’s when particular reason why Nintendo is dominating their home country because they doubled down on it after the news. Sony isn’t going to leave CA any time soon.

It is always sad when jobs leave a local economy. However good on Nintendo for making the most of a bad situation (having to close the offices) and relocating employees.

@JR150 I'm not really a fan of California either, but "Sony's also here and they censor things" is a pretty weak reason to throw it under the bus

Nintendo relocating employees, showcases how much they care for their workers.

@Arkay lol. Cool. Good for you. I’ll stay in perfect weather Cali. Lol.

I had no idea they had an office in Toronto to begin with

@SpaceboyScreams I didn’t say Cali doesn’t have issues. I’m saying every state has issues right or left. The right has done a great job of scaring people into believing Cali is falling apart when in reality every state faces challenges.

@JR150 Are we talking about same Nintendo who censure their first party titles? I wouldn’t use Nintendo as example.

@JR150you cant blame everything on california for sony decision to censor their games and other stuff but i think the main culprit behind this is twitter since all the outrage and wokeness happen to be on twitter majority of the time.

@anzzjam lets not forget some reasons why some companies that leave california because they refuse to pay their fair share of taxes not talking about nintendo but like elon musk plus a few others as well.

As long as this keeps resources close then all the better. Satellite sites isn't the best use of resources.

Honestly, I was born in Vancouver and I didn’t realize the NOC (Nintendo of Canada) headquarters were there until the pandemic started..:

any american happy to see jobs lost from a local economy because of some political boogieman should be ashamed. It’s called the United States people, act like it. For a country that touts how “free” it is, I find it sickening that people are quick to wish ruin and celebrate loss because they don’t like something about someone else. Even worse you are lumping everyone in a state together as if they don’t all have different lives and political viewpoints. They voted their leaders in just like the rest of us and you don’t speak for everyone that lives in your state either. This obsession with red team vs blue team hurts everyone. Come back to reality; these are either your countrymen and you wish them well even if you disagree with their supposedly free-to-have-views or stop pretending and sign up with the rest of the domestic terrorists. And that is even before you get to the fact that last I checked we are all human. This isn’t the dark ages. No one living in a modern society that has the potential (note I said potential) to provide food, water, shelter and relative safety should be wishing harm on anyone. You don’t have to fight for your life to eat and you don’t know a person’s situation so how can you be so depraved as to wish harm of any kind on others? Get over yourself.

@Ryu_Niiyama Well said. People seem to have zero empathy these days. It's frankly alarming. I would never claim to be a saint and I don't love everyone, but come on, people, have some compassion. It's not a political statement to sympathize with your fellow humans.

@BTB20 That's not a choice... it's the law! Employers can't just kick people out.

@anzzjam this is so sad when people hate on regions due to their own ignorance.
This is why the un-united states of america is where we are now. They always seems to politicize because they have nothing better to add. But funny Kali pays for all the tax help - those very same people ask Uncle Sam for. Go figure right????

@SwitchForce Yep, if California ever failed as some wish, our entire country would be screwed. This isn’t even cutting off the nose to spite the face level of stupid. This is like wishing for our country to collapse because of political differences.

@nocdaes This. Plus closing costs, moving costs, selling/rebuying half your possessions at a loss..... Most people other than 18-26 year old just out of school, don't have a place in life young lions, up upper management with enough cash to splash this is impossible. "Relocating to to hq" is a pr friendly way of saying "mass layoff but we want you to quit yourself."

@Ralizah Reggie went from pizza hut to Nintendo..... There's a revolving door secret society with noa and big fast food.....

Bowser's from. P&G.... And so was Reggie!

Some of the comments in this article read like they were straight-up copy-and-pasted from the comment sections of Breitbart or Fox News. Only such partisan brain rot could make people celebrate the potential loss of jobs and livelihoods, but here we are.

Disgraceful.

I can't blame them for getting the heck out of Commiefornia. Good lord, what a peak embarrassment to the union. Aside from that though, the tax rate and cost of rent there is crippling to any business, or human making less than 6 digits.

@Kobeskillz is everyone whose opinion differs to your own "the right"?

@Moistnado "the right" is their go-to scapegoat for anything bad that happens.

What’s happening to Kit and Krysta??

@Kobeskillz cuz it’s expensive as ***** and we get taxed up our ass. Especially lower income. Cali sucks hence why everyone is leaving including businesses. More will continue once the bill banning manufacturer of small engines goes into effect wreaking central calis economy.

lol well this took a bit of a turn, didn’t it?

@Gbdub209 Yeah the problems with California are very far from being minor or similar to that of other states. They are truly leading the country in their own brand of problems they have created and been creating. Heck the state population just recently fell for the first time in recorded history. Clearly things aren't going too well.

Whenever I see people trying to defend it, I assume they must be politically motivated.

@Gbdub209 lol. Everyone hates Cali yet loves it when they move out when they realize the perfect weather they had and virtually everything near by to do. I have friends who moved to Texas you mentioned then say how bored they are and miss Cali.

@Kobeskillz that has n out going to do with what I said. I know lots of people that love it out of Cali. Yeah cali weather is good 100% but that doesn’t weigh out for everyone leavings especially the middle and lower income people getting smashed by taxes. I love the weather too but when it comes to my family and my well being it’s best out of state.

I don't blame them.

@NoTinderLife I completely forgot about that thing. Wasn't it a prank?

@Ryu_Niiyama Well spoken.

@Kobeskillz I just wish Cali would lower their prices and taxes. Its getting difficult to live here.

@Tempestryke can’t argue there.

@Tempestryke Nope, KFC made that thing with Asus. The Nvidia graphics card inside runs so hot that they can heat up chicken in the console.

https://landing.coolermaster.com/kfconsole/

@NoTinderLife That's why I thought it was a prank. Sounds like a recipe for disaster and a console that dies fast.

In hindsight...this seems rather devastating. Nintendo's marketing is bound to change because some people are forced to choose between resignation or relocation.