Nintendo Says It's "Actively Investigating" Most Recent Misconduct Claims

Good that everyone now has cameras on their phones to film this stuff and report it.

At least they're trying to be take it seriously and being transparent about doing so. You can't say the same for Activision Blizzard, which tried to sweep it under the rug until it got too big for them to ignore anymore.

While I hope these allegations are not true, if they are, I hope Nintendo's HR Department comes down hard on the perpetrators, up to and including termination of employment, blacklisting from the industry, and (depending on the allegations) referral to the police for criminal activity.

Look Doug, I know I shouldn't judge you on your name, but even the real Bowser cared more about his own minions. This is more PR than HR to me. Also, wasn't some of the problem employees were/are part of HR? Clean up before you show off; end your relationship with Aston Carter.

Well, they better do something about it if the allegations are true but the problem with a lot of these investigations is they often lead to nowhere.

@IronMan30 Bill Hicks 4 Life.
🤘❤️🤘

@Godlike_Virus oh yeah, I can listen to his stuff all day.

Wasn't part of the problem that employees didn't feel safe contacting HR? Or they were told to "be less outspoken" which basically means endure the harassment. This doesn't acknowledge the structural problems that allowed this to happen.

The problem with these statements is that for legal reasons, we rarely get any word on if something actually happened, so it can be easy to assume that they're doing nothing at all.

I believe the allegations were referring to events from 10 years ago so who knows if the employees are still around.

Happened on Reggie's watch

@NatiaAdamo This is a serious real world topic about harassment allegations that may or may not be true and you're bringing up a fictional character in a whimsical fantasy game that doesn't exist all while making some sort of comparison that makes no sense because said fictional character doesn't exist.

Cringe.

I love Nintendo but I have no doubt that NoA will do their best to hush up the case

@AstroTheGamosian HR is there too protect tbe company. If they were proactive enough, things like this wouldn't happen. Its always reactive because it isnt a priority.

Bit ridiculous of him to say that HR are there for employees when one of the key takeaways from this whole affair is that the victims didn’t feel like HR were there for them at all.

NOA has made the news quite a few times in a year. Might be time for Kyoto to send over some house cleaning. I mean, I get it, they only care about their Japanese employees over there. However, NL has done it too, all it takes is a few articles to say “Nintendo” and forget to mention which division.

Nintendo Co, just send in the clean up crew and gut Nintendo of America in their HR, managerial and executive levels.

Nice to know that they are looking into it. If there’s misconduct, then it needs to be taken care of.

It makes me sad. Get your act together. Crack the hell down on it.

Wait I thought kotaku made it up. Oh wait

Well at least they didn’t ignore it.

@progx Yes, sounds like Japan needs to reign NOA in. I doubt gentlemen like Shigeru Miyamoto would be impressed with parts of NOA being run like a frat house.

@NatiaAdamo "even the real Bowser cared more about his minions".
Get a load of this guy.

@Clyde_Radcliffe it has been ran this way since the 1990s. Reggie did mention some red flags, I'm pretty sure they kept him boxed in. Especially, since he claims, he didn't know about any of these things going on.

I don't think it's Miyamoto or Sakurai, but I wonder how Furukawa would want to see the Nintendo brand be portrayed this way. NOA gets too much freedom compared to NOE or any of the other branches.

Never believe corporations who say HR teams are here to support you. Never. Their only duty is to protector the employer from potential liabilities.

It's a shame that no one saw read the second part of my comment. I offered a suggestion on how to make things better, yet you guys dunk on me for a Mario & Luigi reference.

My point is, Nintendo needs to drop their current contractor since its causing harm to not only real life people, but also the family friendly nature of Nintendo's brand and even name. I just hope NoJ actually allows the changes to happen.

Has anyone tried putting all the NoA employees from 10 years ago in a pond to see if they float?

EDIT: In all seriousness, the complaint was made, Nintendo is aware, let's be calm and let due process play out. People in here are all pitchforks and torches before anything from a decade-old allegation has even been confirmed.

That's putting the onus on the employee really.

Considering that HR seem to be part of the problem here, a genuine root-and-branch externally-lead investigation into these allegations should be forthcoming, either to put this to rest as heresay, or to reset the corporate culture.

From Bowser's message:

• No mention of whistleblowing (shielding of colleagues engaged in abusive behaviour, etc)
• No mention of wellbeing resources
• No mention of a "speaking out" policy

You know, standard stuff in the modern workplace.

@Chocobo_Shepherd,

Any article like this always gets the torches and pitchforks out in full force.

They are lying to try and get these very real accusations thrown away but they won't Nintendo needs to be sued and fined

@RickRau5 That is the case most of the time, yes. But it is possible that HR wasn't even made aware of these allegations, due to fear of retaliation in the workplace.

In fact, there have been moments where I've spoken with HR at my old job about problems with team leads creating a hostile working environment for me, and HR (who was supposed to keep my name anonymous when investigating the matter) mentioned my name directly to those leads.

The leads came up to me soon after, chewed me out in front of everyone, and called me a coward to my face for not complaining directly to them. And then they would assign me to tasks that I hated, and forced me to do it all by myself, even when there were other people who had the same position as me in the company who could do the tasks, but got better ones than me.

So basically, I was retaliated against for going to HR to complain about a hostile working environment.

It is that fear of retaliation that keeps a lot of people from going to HR to solve a problem with a coworker or superior. This is why we need labor unions, even in the video game industry. And not just a union on paper, where it's there, but ineffective, due to the contract being toothless; I mean a strong union with a contract that has teeth and is rigorously enforced.

@AstroTheGamosian,

Without a doubt, most HR departments are there for the companies protection not the employee, they are there to limit a companies liability when complaints occur, and to show an illusion of being there for the workers etc etc...

Having investigated ourselves, we have concluded we did nothing wrong.

@DiggleDog - that's the UK govt

Well, At Least they are aware and are investigating. i guess will see what happens here.

HR is paid by the company. Their job is to to protect the company from its employees. A union’s job is to protect the employees from the company. They need a union.

Do Kotaku journalists want justice for a genuine grievance, or tantalizing headlines based on hearsay? Are there no reliable regulatory bodies, or is everything trial by internet mob?

@johnvboy The crazy thing to me is how people can have so little empathy that they can't imagine how they would want to be treated if someone accused them of something.

@Moistnado Absolutely brilliantly said. This is everything.

@Chocobo_Shepherd,

Exactly, as with most articles like this their is little to no context, or indeed any other side to the story for that matter, it's a simple case of trial by media, and it must be all true and the accused guilty, no smoke without fire and all that.

This of course could all turn out to be the case, but not until the due process has been followed, and applied as is seen fit... but of course the emotional bingo cards are played, so anyone not joining the pitchfork brigade, or asking any questions are automatically siding with the accused and Nintendo. When as you say both sides need some understanding, until of course we know the full story.

Of course other cases/stories are brought up, as some sort of proof of a industry/ worldwide epidemic of this sort of thing being the norm, and of course no progress at all to women's rights (if you are even allowed to use that term anymore), when in fact things have improved, as is inevitable over time as attitudes change, but of course to admit any of that would lessen the need to fight for the cause, so the everything is just getting worse mantra, must be followed at all times.

@DiggleDog Activision, is that you?

Misconduct at NoA?
MS acquisition incoming.

@RareFan lol, you didn't actually look into this story did you.

I know a lot of people don't actually read the story and just assume the worst based on the sensational headlines so I'll drop a video link going over the story as it breaks down what actually happened.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bFhv1gXFrc

@nessisonett You didn't read the story did you?

@johnvboy applause.gif

@IronMan30 these internal investigations are always about preventing lawsuits and protecting senior management. If the evidence is too overwhelming to deny outright, they pin the blame on some expendable “bad apples” in middle management.

But they will always, always find that nobody in the C-suite was involved or complicit in any way.

@Moistnado Well there are definitely no reliable regulatory bodies. It's America.