Nintendo Responds To Workers' Rights Complaint

Good thing Xenoblade 3's release date announcement covered for this.

Also wonder if this has anything to do with the closing of the California office.

It is too early to call this situation and odds are we'll find out soonish anyway. Sounds like from Nintendo's side it had nothing to do with unionization, rather it had to do with them leaking company secrets. And knowing how Nintendo does not like leaks this sounds like a reasonable reaction by the company. However, if it does have to do with them not wanting people to unionize then that's another matter.

Just looks like a classic PR statement.

This sounds like Nintendo caught a leaker...and they were bitter about it. Granted, we don't know and to be honest, not really any of my business.

@GrailUK it does sound like that to me too.

Good on them for at least addressing it. How long did it take Activision to address accusations?

More garnishment on this nothingburger. Give me some meat here, I need to know where to direct my futile vitriol.

NSO GameBoy/GameBoy Advance emulators were recently uncovered. Maybe this contractor is the one who leaked those?

Can somebody explain unionizing to me lol 😆. Otherwise, where's the direct to cover this up lol

If Nintendo was "fully committed to providing a welcoming and supportive work environment" they would support unions.

Not a very strong case when your opening point is you got fired.

I hate to be guilty of blind fanboyism, but I doubt Nintendo is at fault here. Kit and Krysta have been very candid on their new YouTube channel about how working for Nintendo isn't all fun and games and can be quite a demanding and stressful job. But, they've had nothing but positive things to say about the actual people themselves who they worked for. I didn't get the impression it was a toxic environment or anything--just hard work.

So I'm guessing whoever got fired was trying to gather confidential information from NOA and got caught? Well guess he/she deserve what's coming then. At an age where info could easily be leak, company takes violation of confidential info seriously.

@BartoxTharglod If it's the same story I'm thinking, then yes, someone had a personal opinion on a sensitive matter and Nintendo probably didn't want their name associated with discussion of that person on social media.

@Slinkoy1 unionizing is defined as "become or cause to become members of a labor union." This has been a growing trend in the industry due to poor job security, high level of outside contractors, poor working conditions like experiencing sexual harassment (look up Activision), large amounts of crunch and abusive bosses (EA, Rockstar, Ubisoft, Naughty Dog and so many others), or even in some cases having to look at disturbing reference material to create realistic depictions of gore to the point some employees were experiencing PTSD like reactions (Netherrealm). So more and more game devs are trying to unionize to protect themselves from these practices.

Nintendo seemed like a company above these complaints which is what makes this accusation disturbing to some fans.

Based on the allegations, this sounds like a teamster who got hired specifically to unionize them and failed to get the necessary votes.

Just more people who think the workplace is supposed to be a playground.

I'm not going to make a desicion here before the facts come out. It feels kinda weird that these would only now be coming out but idk

Judge first, details come later, right Twitter generation?

@mereel Would you like to take your own advice, then? We've heard minimal detail from both sides. If it's premature to judge, it's also premature to apply your prejudices, I think.

The fact that this is a little more than just "the accusations are completely false" and that the statement indicates the contractor leaked information has me curious about where this situation will end up. Not taking sides yet because the information is still really limited, but I have no reasons to believe that this actually isn't just some disgruntled employee and there's a lot more going on behind the scenes at Nintendo of America

I'm going to wait for results of this investigation before I defend Nintendo.

Nintendo giving their side is good for their PR, but multiple people are coming forward to validate the complaints with their own experiences. One perspective doesn't erase the other.

"Innocent until proven guilty" applies to the accusers, too.

“a contractor who was previously terminated for the disclosure of confidential information and for no other reason.”

And there you have it. Broke company rules, got caught and sacked for it, now bro’s mad, so cries “victim”.

What other conspiracies are we coming up with today?

@Wexter thanks for the response, I just couldn’t figure out what it meant so thanks!

@Slinkoy1 At it's basic level, unionizing is a 3rd party that has the sole job of making sure that employees are treated fairly in terms of pay, workplace environment, etc., and often seek out ways that the company can do more for employees. Employees essentially hire them collectively, paying annual fees.
The thing that can be intimidating from a company's perspective, is that they get payed by employees to improve their working conditions, basically meaning that if the union doesn't find ways to do this, employees question why they're paying, and they drop it. So basically, unions will often cost companies more or the risk of strikes happen. Especially at the start of unions, this was necessary cause it was REALLY bad. It still isn't near perfect today, and many companies are well in need of the unions they have.
Now, Nintendo is usually regarded as a cut above most when it comes to how they treat their employees in terms of lifestyle and - more objectively - they have smaller pay gaps between base employees and higher ups. So this is why this story is big, and why it will be interesting to see if other stories come out from other employees that voice a need for unionizing.

"Nintendo is not aware of any attempts to unionize"

Really? None? NO ONE at nintendo has EVER tried to unionize? NONE?

Regardless of the details of this particular case, this statement strains credulity. Every company of nintendo's size and age has had SOMEONE at least TRY to unionize at some point.

I did find it odd this stuff happened after the Gameboy leaks and stuff.

Well let's see the rest of the details in due time

I'm not sure how prevalent this guy's experience is, but it only includes the Reggie era. I saw in a previous comment stream on a related article that it's assumed this is a Doug Bowser problem.

(There's a bit of adult language.)
https://twitter.com/the_boyks/status/1516481592251674632

Hmm the plot thickens

It would be a real downer to discover that Nintendo are on a par with Activision or Ubisoft, and I'm hoping it isn't as bad as that. Time will tell, I suppose.

@BreathingMiit considering the sheer volume of complaints about Activision and Ubisoft and the sheer volume of praises Nintendo gets as an employer re: pay, work-life balance, benefits etc., I'm willing to bet this is a problem with the individual.

That's not to say I'm 100% certain because it's way too early for that.

@BartoxTharglod I remember that incident. Nintendo's official line was that Alison Rapp, the fired employee, was moonlighting as something not in line with their company values (I think it was online modeling of a more risqué nature, if memory serves me correctly).

But Alison Rapp claimed that was really a bunch of people on the Internet (she said it was Gamergate, but Gamergate has said it was people on 8chan) who weren't happy with how some Nintendo games were localized in North America during the Wii U/3DS era (especially Xenoblade Chronicles X and Fire Emblem Fates), and they singled her out as a scapegoat, viciously attacking her and Nintendo, prompting Nintendo to kowtow to the trolls and fire her.

Of course, other allegations have come out against her that paint her in a more problematic light, but whether there is any veracity to those reports remains to be seen, especially considering it was a targeted campaign of harassment, going after not just her, but her family as well, and the nature of the Internet allows for the spread of misinformation and disinformation for the purpose of defamation and slander.

That is not to say that the allegations against her are not true, nor am I saying that she deserved to be fired over them, but merely that people with an agenda will go to extreme lengths to ruin another person's reputation, career, and life, even conjuring up falsehoods out of thin air. It's possible they are true, but it's also possible they aren't. But people will believe what they want to believe, no matter what the facts of the matter are.

Such is the problem with the court of public opinion.

I am all for unionization, so if the fired employee's allegations are true, that is definitely problematic.

On the other hand, leaking confidential information, especially if an NDA was signed and in force, is a serious breach of contract, and necessitates disciplinary measures, up to and including termination of employment.

And that's just on the business side of things. They could also come after him legally, either with civil or even criminal charges.

It will be interesting to see what the result of this case is.

Considering that a big part of Nintendo’s brand is making the executives (especially Reggie back in the day) appear like loveable goofs, this seems particularly icky to me. Hope it’s not true, and Nintendo firing for a breach of NDA sounds about right, but we’ve seen enough stories of companies abusing their employees in this industry for me to really be surprised.

@Not_Soos Of course, considering the highly secretive nature of Nintendo, we don't really know what goes on behind the scenes. Maybe Kit and Krysta genuinely did not have any problems, or they could be saying that so as to not incur Nintendo's wrath.

In my own case, back when I worked for a grocery store, our third store manager (in less than a year) acted like a tyrant to everyone else, but he never acted like a tyrant to me. I only heard about those accounts secondhand.

But he did fire my direct supervisor as retaliation for not cutting hours below a certain threshold (we were already operating as a skeleton crew to begin with), but used a convenient excuse regarding fuzzy details on a holiday sale (as in, candy that wasn't on sale was placed right next to candy that was, with no distinction between the two as to which one was on sale).

When the company's lawyers took my former supervisor to court, she came in with reams of documentation and evidence to support her claim, and the company's lawyers only had their word. The judge ruled in my former supervisor's favor, and she went on to work for a local car dealership, a job that she loves.

But what it boils down to is that we only get miniscule peeks behind the curtain with Nintendo, and the experiences of one or two individuals who were public faces for the company is not representative of the company's workforce as a whole.

Yes, the work can be quite challenging and demanding, but it is possible that the behind-the-scenes environment could be quite toxic. Just look at what happened to the CEO for Nintendo of Russia a few years ago.

Sounds like a storm in a tea cup together with American law.

Aside to that, unions are complete rubbish and do not benefit workers, period.

@AstroTheGamosian

Yeah, I remember the Russia situation, but I think that was an exception rather than the rule. Nintendo seemed to take immediate action, as I recall. I'm not sure if you've been watching the Kit and Krysta podcast, but I don't think they're afraid of "incurring Nintendo's wrath" at all. In Nintendo Minute, they just sorta felt like corporate robots with no personality at all, and I thought they were really cringe. But I'm really enjoying their independent content--they have a LOT of negative things to say about the way Nintendo operates their business, and it's honestly very cathartic, lol. I love to see it. It's like, "Yeah! Take notes, Nintendo!"

None of it is negative about the people working there, though--they've talked about how much they miss Reggie, for example. But they've been very critical from the perspective of fans, talking about things like how stagnant the Mario RPG series has become, how much they dislike certain games, PR disasters, projects they hated being a part of, how Nintendo's headquarters isn't as cool-looking as other gaming companies, how Nintendo has a problem with being too conservative with their IP's,
how glad they were when Smash was over, things Nintendo fans do that annoy them, their fears about the Mario movie being bad, how much pressure there is working for Sakurai considering how he demands perfection...if they really thought the work culture was toxic, they would've said something about it. They really aren't afraid to be completely transparent about their experiences at the company, and again, they had nothing but positive things to say about the people working there and the overall environment.

If you aren't subscribed to their channel, I really recommend it. It's such a refreshing perspective to see former insiders being so brutally honest. They actually have the opportunity to be real people in front of the camera now with personalities. Their chemistry together seems so much better, the jokes are a little edgier while still being family-friendly, and they talk about their favorite games on competing platforms like PlayStation and Xbox. It's really good stuff!

Based on these crumbs of information, it looks like NDAs were broken. It will be interesting to see how this one develops.

@Not_Soos I don't normally listen to podcasts, mostly because I don't like having to watch or listen to anything that's over an hour long (unless it's a movie or a TV show), but I might check them out in the near future.

We will have to wait and see the outcomes of the investigation. If they did indeed leak information and got fired as a result or if there is something more to it.

Another person saying they had a bad experience was also a contractor. It is not uncommon for companies to treat contractors way worse than permanent employees so there could be more to this.

So dude violated his NDA with Nintendo and then tried to scream union so he wouldn’t be fired. Good riddance. People will do anything tor their 15 mins of fame. Then get upset when there are consequences.

@Not_Soos We need more people like you my man.

You'll be not be surprised by how many people who used to work at Nintendo that went through the same thing like those 2 and how having independence to express your own thoughts without feeling restricted about it can quickly change your own perspective towards someone.

"We take matters of employment very seriously."

What about labor rights though? I smell weasel words.

"We are aware of the claim, which was filed with the National Labor Relations Board by a contractor who was previously terminated for the disclosure of confidential information and for no other reason. Nintendo is not aware of any attempts to unionize or related activity and intends to cooperate with the investigation conducted by the NLRB. Nintendo is fully committed to providing a welcoming and supportive work environment for all our employees and contractors. We take matters of employment very seriously."

Also Nintendo: literally has been doing the exact opposite of what was said here since 2018

At this point I even question why their fanboys still blindly defend them despite their horrible corporate practices. Even Nintendo of GERMANY understands where I’m coming from.

For people above asking about unions, I'll offer the different perspective than alot of unions are just as bad at the corps themselves. Lazy workers not getting fired/disciplined cause the union protects them, Having to give a part of your paycheck to the Union, Being coerced into political events, and even being denied certain benefits unless you do exactly as they say.

Unions are really just a cog in the corp machine in this day and age, and have long outlived their usefulness.

I should know, I had to deal with a union for 5 years and eventually couldn't take it anymore.

I must admit, I t’s a little sad how naïve some of you are on here. This is clearly a very carefully worded statement by Nintendo designed only to avoid culpability in any way. Note how Nintendo does not say they would support unions, but more importantly, they don’t explain what the “confidential information” actually is.

This is pretty textbook anti-union speak. It’s very often “company policy” to keep secret information necessary for workers to unionize. It’s entirely possible the contractor was fired for disclosing his wages or how Nintendo negotiates pay internally. And because Nintendo has decided such things are “confidential information,” they fire him under the pretext it has nothing to do with union activity, even though the rules are designed to destroy union efforts.

It’s not like everything Nintendo keeps secret is video game leak related. A lot of it is just competitively motivated, and yes, to maintain power over their workers, but especially contractors who across the industry have much worse working conditions.

Usually contractors are bound to their prime vendor not the company they are actually working at. A contractor trying to unionize is not something I've heard of. Crazy times.

@QueenKittenWrite The weird part here is it's a contractor. They usually don't have collective bargaining rights (that's the whole point of a contract to spell out the terms they signed) and lot of times work for a vendor, not Nintendo. This is all suspect at best and until otherwise proven, I'd say this person is on shaky legal ground. If they have any ground to stand on at all.