Fired Nintendo Worker Comes Forward With An Account Of Their Dismissal

Just have a feeling that this comment section will not end well.

You're a contractor and an easily replaceable position. You have to know better than to directly ask the company president a question like that.

I have nothing positive to say about the "two-tiered" company trend of the US. My company stopped giving pensions just before I joined. So, everyone else had pensions, except me and the new hires. Then they moved part of the company to mexico. Then sold off my part. Then I lost health insurance. All this, and the company wasn't even struggling. Total bs.

overly protective Nintendo fans pulling mental gymnastics to defend this behavior in 3...2...1...

Who knew that all this time Mario the Plumber was fighting mega corporate head Bowser for a livable wage and to end the commodification of time and labor?

And I’m all for it!

Are contract workers now considered employees? Thought that was the entire point of being in contract work...?

Either way, knowing your position and the rather touchy nature of the company contracting you, why would you pose such a dangerously loaded question at the head of said company?

What an odd article and turn of events, really.

@Unapologetic I think I need better mental gymnastics just to understand what I read in the article. As far as I understand... someone got fired for doing a thing, but said firing might not have been fair because things have details and stuff? Okay, never mind, got it.

I hope he wins. I support unionization and I support this man. He did nothing wrong as far as I can tell. Do better Nintendo.

Recruitment firms are such a scam. They take a little off the top, and the company gets to fire people without question and pay them lower wages.

As I sit here dealing with repossessions, I think to myself: "How bad could it possibly be at Nintendo to need to unionize?" But I guess even a 'dream job' from the outside could be miserable from the inside. The idea of testing Nintendo games seems like a dream.

@Browny "contracters" = no full time benefits. It's like being a temp.

@WoomyNNYes sadly its not US only, i had the same ***** in Austria.
i agreed to work for them, they promised that after around 9 months people shift over to be a direct employee, but even after 1 1/2 years nothing happened and asking about it was unwatned.

in my eyes only the s***tiest companies do such things and my love for nintedo pretty much died after all the crap they've been doing the last few years
what a shame
no king rules forever

What I would have to say about this is...if this person knew per contract that they were not to talk about anything they were working on and they tweeted about it anyway, then yes...they broke contract and were terminated for it. No matter that Clifton THOUGHT they were fired for another reason. That's personal opinion/feelings, not fact. The reason for their dismissal was given to them. So how is this a controversy then?

@KevinP Game testing shouldn't be seen as a dream job. It involves a lot of repetitious game play, constant notation of what you did, replicating bugs you find, etc. It's not like, you get to play through a game and let the devs know what you thought about it. It's more like, jump on this rock a thousand times and let us know if you clipped through the world.

@Highlar ok champ, what did he say? general bla bla with no real infos whatsoever?

Sour grapes from someone who thought they were more important than they are. Did Nintendo recognise the office janitors on the Smash credits??

@strollin_stu I can’t complain… for real.

@Lunatic002 That's not the point. What else had they been tweeting about? Could people following them be able to use that tweet as reference for others? It sounds like the facts are that Clifton did something they KNEW they were not supposed to do, and paid the price for it. That should not be something leading to a big controversy like this. It reads more as "disgruntled employee got fired but didn't agree with the firing" than anything else.

@Browny no your right they are contractors which the contract can be cut by any time.

Yep grunt work sucks and bosses are arseholes. This is always true. It’s a shame.

I feel for the guy but strongly suspect all these "downer question" and such were but HR's biased catalysts on top of the tweet precedent rather than vice versa. Especially since we're talking Nintendo here - their attitude to info disclosure of various proportions is known to be volatile.

@Unapologetic well, they're already beaten to the punch by other fanheads who can't tell basic skepticism and/or lack of empathy from some mythical "corporate worship".😏 Trust me, both factions are a sight to bring popcorn to.

Siding with the contractor.
Even if he did actually get fired for that tweet nothing in there is CONFIDENTIAL!
You can't infer anything from that tweet other than that someone made a mistake!
Furthermore that unionizing question is literally just asking for an opinion.
Poor form NoA...

@RubyCarbuncle Unless the article has been edited in the last 10 minutes, it says above.

Why do people post every single thought they have on social media? 99 times out of 100 things you post on social media will more likely hurt you than help you. It's a cancer on society.

So a) leaking Nintendo info (doesn’t matter that it is minor); NDA was likely signed meaning KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT about work. Period. So sounds like a valid termination.
B) not a direct Nintendo employee; you don’t put the client on the spot like that as you could jeopardize the contract. Meaning you get all your coworkers fired too if the contract gets dissolved. If you have a question ask your actual employer.
C) not every company has or supports unions and you know the terms of your employment when you sign your employment contract. If you wanna renegotiate that, there are ways to do that. Trying to put the client on the spot is not one of those ways.
D) NoA is a subsidiary; there is only so much culture change that is gonna happen without Nintendo of Japan’s input. So all this person did was ask a question at an inappropriate time to the wrong person. First thing you do on a job is learn not only the chain of command but the chain of communication which are not always the same thing. This isn’t some small family business where you hang out with the ceo for lunch.
E) a job owes you nothing beyond what is in your contract. Just as you owe the job what you agreed in your contract. This is not a funhouse or your friend…it’s a place of employment.
F) most employment in The US is At Will.

I get it, the workplace atmosphere in America is usually not in the employee’s favor, but there are ways to express your concerns and if not then you and that company aren’t a good fit. There are plenty of other jobs out there. Also people need to actually read their employment contract.

So he never worked for Nintendo, he was a contractor from a different company. He has no story.

He wasn't fired from Nintendo, He was fired from the company that hired him which allocated work for Nintendo...

Clickbait at is finest

Yeap he's not a Nintendo employee, he's an Aston Carter employee. He has no rights to reveal confidential information about the client he's working with. If Nintendo feel he had violated any rights in his contract, then they had the rights to let him go. It's Aston Carter's responsibility to find him a new job.

Such entitled behavior right here. A mere contractor acting highty and mighty that even full time employees can't even comprehend on doing that without repercussions. Go figure.

He's a contracted worker who screwed up and was rightfully let go.

@Unapologetic,

Last time I checked, it was not a crime to have a counter viewpoint, whichever side you fall on.

@Rika_Yoshitake,

Nintendo life with a clickbait misleading article, shame on you for even considering the mere possibility of such a thing.

In NoA, Bowser says “so long” to you.

@RubyCarbuncle The question this guy asked is quoted in the article.

@Ryu_Niiyama
Fantastic breakdown, thanks for the contribution!

People need to understand that this idea or mentality that leniency should always be preferred is simply not the way the world works. Especially not in terms of business. Clear cut, oftentimes strict rules and enforcement are the standard.

Your place of employment, or in this case, the company that has contracted your employer, is NOT your friend.

@Bass_X0
Best darn comment. Kudos, friend.

I dunno, I worked QA in video games and saying literally anything about what you're working on publicly is a fireable offense so just take the L and move on, it's literally in the NDA you have to sign.

They can do what they like. If that defence is good enough for Twitter & Facebook, it's good enough for Nintendo.

I'm a contractor and the 1st rule is you don't rock the boat. You have least rights than a perm and it's very easy to let you go. I'm sure there is more to this story and even if there isn't, Nintendo can let someone go / give notice, as long as they don't breach the terms of the contract.

1. He wasn’t a Nintendo employee in the first place.

2. If you are playtesting a game and then leak info about said game, don’t be surprised if you are fired. It is your choice to leak info, don’t cry when you face consequences for your actions.

@Ryu_Niiyama THIS

Perfectly stated. It kinda gets under my skin when articles are published where the terminated party is victimized and the client/company is villainized.

Sure, corporations are concerned with the bottom line, but co-employment can be a huge issue and lead to the dismantling of both the vendor and client if it gets out of hand.

Having worked staffing and been on both sides of the HR fence, this guy made a huge mistake with tweeting anything. If you are bound by an NDA, you do not take to social media with even the vaguest observations of your current project.

As for the unionization inquiry, you never ask the client about it. That right there is a trigger for co-employment and is a fireable offense for most organizations; especially given the loaded (but understandable) nature of the question.

@dartmonkey you should update the title. This person was a contractor not a direct employee. There is a difference. And not stating that that difference upfront slants the tone of the article in a biased manner.

That's why we have the National Relations labor board. Collects all these complaints, finds a pattern, proves with evidence and proceeds to take action. If all this is proven false then nothing comes of it and the contractor(s) are sadly out of luck.

Former contractor could be withholding info to appear in a more positive light. He could as someone put it have "sour grapes". He could also be telling the truth and he was unjustly fired from that headhunter agency. I will wait for the NLRB to render a decision.

@Edu23XWiiU I pretty sure Nintendolife just used "their" because they don't know to person's gender. Mackenzie can be used form both men and women.

@Browny @PanFriedSoup I was educated quite thoroughly on employment etiquette and protocol from an early age. And I am always shocked (even though I shouldn’t be) at how many unrealistic expectations people have from how “worklife” is supposed to be vs actually taking the best explanation (and weapon) if needed which is your employment contract and the company/HR handbook (along with keeping an accurate written documentation of incidents that violate those) and using that to frame accurate expectations. It’s like being handed a game manual and refusing to read it to go mash buttons and then get mad when you get a game over.

@Unapologetic You're totally right! Nobody should ever question anything. They should just take everyone's claims as 100% fact, so long as they confirm their personal feelings on the matter.

@Unapologetic No need for mental gymnastics. I was a contractor for 20 years, you should NEVER ask your CUSTOMER (Nintendo) a question like this. It was his contracting company that fired him, not Nintendo, and that's because it put his company in an awkward position.

As for yourself, you seem to have the most cliche comment in the entire thread.

That tweet definitely seems like something that could get you fired, but I could also see it being from the union question. I also do think it's fair for Nintendo to fire someone over that. If people have the right to unionize then companies should have the right to defend agaist them.

@Ryu_Niiyama
Well how would they get clicks if they titled it “ contractor fired from contracting company, over leaking information about a Nintendo game.”

@blindsquarel lmao, via a straight forward honest and unbiased title I would hope. I’m assuming it is an honest mistake since the author cites Spain in his profile as his location. If it isn’t updated after being pointed out, then yeah it’s click bait.

@ThePizzaCheese
Just want to say that it wasn’t Nintendo who fired him, but whatever contracting company he worked for.

First of all you are a contractor so Nintendo is not your employer, Nintendo is the employer of your employer. They literally have nothing to do with you.
Second I lost any and all consideration of any claim that was made when they stated they had suicidal thoughts after being denied to have their name put on the Smash credits. I mean Really? That is sorry to say it but if that’s the case you should have been seeing a therapist long before. So I’m reality you are lashing out because you didn’t get your way. You also tweeted about a project you were working on regardless of if any information detailing it was giving or not you still did it which is against any non disclosure form that you signed. In a ND you cannot talk about whatever it is at all and that includes even making the statement that you did. All you could have legally said was I am working on something for Nintendo. That is it literally.
This whole thing will go nowhere including all the other complaints as well because they are all contractors and do not actually work for Nintendo.

I wish people would stop dragging us into that stuff and solve those problems where they should: either at their meetings or at court.

Really tired of all that stupid drama. Every day someone else has some ***** to complain about.

Imagine making an obscenely obvious breach of your contract which even a child could understand why it's wrong, getting fired for it, making up a conspiracy theory as an alternative explanation because you don't want to admit that you blew it, and then having people write articles defending you. Must feel good to get away with stuff.

Full support to the organization of the working class

@BloodNinja Begs the question, why on Earth are you here?
Ninja Approved.

(suggestion for editing this article: no using the words "their" and "they" as singular pronouns in this article)

Honestly sounds like BS to me. Guy revealed nintendo had a buggy build, I don't blame nintendo for not liking that, and I think that does break NDA.

Why would anyone name their child Mackenzie?

@Mario500, completely agree. I read that sentence about the tweet 10 times and could not understand why that contract company would let someone else read their tweet and what that would have to do with having the contracter fired. Very confusing writing.

That contracter was employed and paid by the contract firm he worked for. And subsequently fired by that contract firm for inproper behaviour at their client which is Nintendo. I still have no idea how this could be Nintendo's wrongdoing or how Nintendo needs to the topic of this article.

@WoomyNNYes
That's the case just about every field. Federal research firms like NASA hire disposable contractors instead of public servants. Universities try to load up on adjunct professors instead of tenure-track people.
Even retail wants to hire seasonal employees rather than long-term people.

Sounds like a rightful termination of a squirrelly entitled employee. Imagine trying to attatch your name to a CEO from a Q and A! You're lucky if you ever see them of the board. They don't want you to BE fired. They want you to run and climb. CEOs are hard-working (and hard-headed). You know "how many of you" they see come and go? Until you're up the echelon a little further, you're nothing to them. If somebody is dumb enough to spill the company beans, they will cut you off like a hangnail. I've seen it a dozen times. Don't breach a contract and expect a bread reward.

Side note, calling people 'they' in an article is vague when taking it in. Why not just use the claimant's last name like the papers always have?

I think we all saw this coming the moment they hired a man literally named Bowser to run the American division.

I can't wait till the next NOE president, Frank Ganondorf, is hired.

@nukatha True that. So do airports and Technical positions. Entrants come in on contract, wait for years for a perminant position.

Seems highly questionable- but I hope everyone involved ends up in a good position.

@McBurn

That is completely fair- usually we only get 1/10th of the facts and people just to conclusions- It is mostly nonsensical.

@Browny It kind of isn't odd. Unionization questions are much more common lately and there is nothing stating the meeting was public. Bowser's predecessor commented on unions during his tenure iirc, and definitely has after leaving.

What is far more odd is that the lawyers would take the time to say anything. If they hadn't, this would be on no one's radar.

@kingbk a thousand times this. That tweet was nothing that couldn't have been in a "how's your day?" chat over dinner or coffee and no one would've noticed. Instead, it's a mundane thought put in permanent form for anyone to see and, in that form, it has consequences like being justification to fire someone who then asked a touchy question.

I support unionization in all industries but the topic of this article is just a dumpster fire. Keep ordinary thoughts in your head and this wouldn't have happened.

She clearly violated the terms by tweeting that out, and it’s absolutely unnecessary to tweet it out, if she’s willing to chase clout or brag in such a public forum about her position or about the work going on, who knows what she says to people privately. Its a huge red flag and risk. Very stupid of her

As far as her question to Bowser, she’s asking him/Nintendo which is the wrong place to even direct that question. It SHOULD go to the firm that should hire her, as that is her real employer, not Nintendo. Secondly, even issues like this with Nintendo is really supposed to be directed to Nintendo Japan not NoA.

Being fired for the question would be messed up, but her tweet is the clear and obvious violation that would lead to firing of someone so low on the totem pole, unimportant and replaceable disclosing any private information about a company highly concerned about leaks

@PoorGeno They didn't "spill the company beans," necessarily, but what are you suggesting? That employees and contractors shouldn't say when a company is mistreating or taking advantage of employees? You are suggesting that is a dumb thing to do?

Contract work is the worst. I did it for a couple of years and was let go for far less. I brought a thumb drive in so I could listen to music while processing backup tapes on a late night shift. The next day the staffing agency called and said I didn't have to come in anymore. You're hired help and every contract I've been under gives them unlimited levity where they can let you go for sneezing in the wrong direction. It's unfortunate for this person but those actions are way out of line when you're in a contracting position, they made the mistake of acting like a Nintendo employee.

@blindsquarel Are you sure? The fact that Nintendo provided a reason for the dismissal suggests they were at least partly involved in the decision.

@bigpale Ganondorf is his first name though, his last name is Dragmire 😋

@theGamerPad yeah. A lot of the game industry need to unionize to protect themselves from crunch (it's bad), sexual harassment and seeing disturbing material for reference when making games (why I've not bought Mortal Kombat XI). But you don't ask your customer (Nintendo) about it. That's beyond dumb! You talk to your company and they might and I mean MIGHT discuss it with the customer. But, the lack of unions is why you have a job as a contractor. Because unioned employees hate your guts and will treat you like ***** more often then not. Some will refuse to even speak to you without first their boss telling them they have to. Unions are a double edged sword in that regard.

As for why they got fired it was obviously the tweet with how secretive Nintendo is. I'm sure even Sakurai needed to get his Smash tweets vetted before posting. It's how this works! The company vets your tweet before you say anything online about them. Did people forget about the Captain Rainbow controversy from a few years back with Chris Pranger? How he appeared on a podcast and blabbed about Nintendo Treehouse secrets without approval? He was way higher up the food chain than a random third party contractor.

Nintendo has always been incredibly protective of its internal events. There have been a number of people fired for making any comments about the process, and that tweet absolutely could violate an NDA and result in a firing.

While I support unions when they ask for better wages or better working conditions, many will protect terrible employees even to the detriment of other employees.

1. Rebel rouser causes issues and shows disdain for the company he works for.
2. Company decides it's not worth it for that company to be employed any longer.
3. Rebel rouser is shocked that he is no longer employed there.
4. Rebel rouser complains on the internet and tries to trash whoever he was working for.

There is a truth that I did not unfortunately learn early enough in my career, don't work for people that you don't want to work for. You do have a choice, if you don't want to work there, then don't work there.

@ChickenJoe (Love Surf's Up btw) You sure cut to the chase. Abuse of an employee by a company is in my case a strawman argument: I'm not here to suggest a contractor of company do a thing; every place I contract has the information available--they want to adust or remove abuse, trust me. It is and should be reported, following the worker's report to immediate management, notwithstanding a COI.
I worked for a group last year where the tech was breaking daily---daily. The support staff was on it like lightning to ensure production stayed up. When something was fully borked, you'd hear an explosion, hear about an injury, or you'd get post reminding you that counselors were on the insurance. We had locations where if you stepped in the wrong place, you were fired, because we had places where if you stepped in the wrong place you would be disfigured or fatally wounded. I met the CEO at an all-staff physical. He was a machine himself. I spoke one sentence for every 100 he said. At the most. Out of respect. Answered all his questions about me. With prompt answers. I was promoted to just under the top position of a pivotal department where there had been mistakes made before. That CEO was my new boss' boss. They were explicit that no information on company production be mantioned outside the compound bar none. Even from loved ones. We were paid well for silence, which I am proud to have kept. It wasn't because of the deaths. Everyone in the company town knows about those. It was because of the competition. Never ever tell people what your company is doing to succeed. This person in the article did talk. Worse, on the internet. Contractees you cannot trust are worthless. This was absolutely the fault of the employee, and the employee is too enitled and arrogant to see. Our social titles among our peers and leadership are under constant negotiation. You are what you say and do, and all you are is the value you provide to other people. If one can't deal that, then one has no business being on contract. TL;DR, don't vent status or procedures online, cope by gaming to relax instead. You're on NL, so I know you follow my meaning, friend. Thanks for the reply. Have a good one.

Clickbait to rile up the Ninty haters. This sounds like a non story

@Danrenfroe2016 You've got it. Freedom of employment. Well said.

This isn't really an article... it's a speculation blog post at best. A contract worker also isn't fired, their contract is ended... the whole reason corporations use them is so they don't have to deal with actual terminations/benefits costs/etc. They aren't an employee of the company they are contracted with, they are an employee of the staffing firm.

And with this, your contract can end for pretty much any reason they want with no notice.

This post doesn't mention if the tester in question was the one who posed the question to Bowser, giving themselves the direct scrutiny.

But they definitely posted a criticizing comment on social media about a game in development. Even if it was vague, it implied the developers didn't know what they were doing. That's a no no in that position and they were let go.

Any smart person who wants to move up is going to try to kiss ass or simply do what they're told. Non-article here.

I'm so glad NintendoLife took the time today to remind everyone how super pro-unionization they are!

@ThePizzaCheese
Others have already explained this much better than I could, but in short, he was not a Nintendo employee nd he made a mistake that cost him his job.

@blindsquarel Yes I realize both those things, I'm just saying Nintendo was probably involved in the dismissal as well.

Doug Bowser brought the EA mentality of how to manage a video game company. A true villain that makes justice to his name.

This article is a perfect example of why singular "speaker chooses" pronouns exist in English. I had to triple-read some of it, replacing words in my head as I went.

@GrailUK You joined this site in 2015, and haven't figured out that the writers publish non-Nintendo articles, weekly?

From what I read it was the staffing/contracting company not Nintendo that fired the employee. Staffing companies hate the word union because they are already paying the employee a third of what they're getting from the main company.

So they leaked information, got sacked, went crying to news outlet and now demanding an apology from a company they never worked for?

The only proof you need that a company is never on your side is if they refuse any concerted efforts to ensure employee compensation and quality of life. I've been playing Nintendo since the original console, but I owe it no loyalty. A company isn't even a thing; it's a concept really. The people who help keep the concept extant deserve better job security and quality. If Bowser is so sensitive that a question about unions leads to shady tactics, he and any involved should lose their jobs immediately. A captain drunk on power will never drive the ship anywhere good.

@Bass_X0 So long, gay worker.

In all seriousness, I believe it should be a known fact by now that even a vague post (I'm not gonna say tweet as that can really be applied to any social media) can be considered a teaser these days, that's why it's probably best to not combine your job and social media.

who is this 'they'.. the contractor company? confusing..

just use the name of the person or group if journalism can't make any sense

@Unapologetic You were two comments too late, despite being comment number 5.

@dartmonkey Were they a contractor or weren't they? Because your own article uses the term contractor. So which was wrong, the article or the headline?

@strollin_stu Correct. They are not your friends. They're your employer, and as is the case in virtually every job on the planet, they tell you up front what you can and can't do and that if you violate your employment contract they will fire you. Who's actually struggling to understand this concept besides people that have never had a job?

I'm not going to comment on the details of this person's firing but I will comment on the use of singular they pronouns in the article: Thank you. Normally, this kind of thing is so normal you don't need to point it out, but apparently this is still controversial in video game fandoms based on the five or six outraged posts above who have pointed out the use of it. I was surprised enough to make what might be my first comment in many years. So, thank you for standing your ground with your style guide.

@ChakraStomps ignore him, he's clearly baiting for attention and validation. Not the first time either.
On topic: So this contractor got mad for being fired for leaking info? And plays the victim? Good riddance I say.

@dartmonkey it isn’t a semantic debate (and I noticed you didn’t use the words interchangeably in the actual article which suggests you are aware of the difference) because this person was not employed by Nintendo (and thus wasn’t directly fired by Nintendo). And would have a different employment agreement (made with the actual company that hired this person and thus also different legal protection) and of course would have had a different communication chain than an actual employee of Nintendo. If this went to a labor board hearing and this person said that they were a Nintendo employee the case would be rejected because they aren’t and a ruling couldn’t be made as if they were one. They would be assessed as a contractor and via their relationship with their actual employer. If someone called Nintendo of America HR looking for a reference about this person the caller would be directed to their actual employer. Words have meaning. And honesty and accuracy is important in all aspects of work. However it’s your article and your name on it, so do as you will.

I ask myself… why is this person sharing anything on Twitter about what they’re working on, or asking Doug Bowser such questions? I thought this was a game testing position, not a news reporter position. Adhere to the contracts, just do your job as you’re told, especially if you know you’re expendable. The professional world isn’t pretty or easy, but in order to survive in it… one must be professional.

A loaded question about unions in a forum? He’s not gonna answer that. Not to you. And not where it can be screenshot and put on Twitter, along with your leaked gameplay footage. Probably had him seeing as red as your footage. Once Nintendo has Virtual Boy vision on you, you’re toast. Probably.

@Ryu_Niiyama Exactly - this person is employed AT the unnamed contractor agency. Their employer handed them a contract with Nintendo. It's like how most office buildings don't hire janitors and facilities staff directly, they hire contracted workers from a janitorial firm.

This exact topic is where NintendoLife needs to improve imo. They're misrepresenting these accounts repeatedly - purposefully or not, I have no idea - every single time they revisit it.

@BAN they played themselves. Nintendo Bad! Hang on a sec they broke NDA. Break NDA face the consequences, don’t make out you’re hard done by when you basically spilt the beans when you weren’t supposed to…

This..is...news? Someone got fired. Woopdie do.

@Petrisha howdy, quick note, the contractor employment company is Aston Carter, I didn’t write it out because most of my responses apply for any contractor/client relationships in the US.

I know we are supposed to give gaming media a “pass” but I find that to be unfair. All journalism can be legitimate and trustworthy if the work is put in.

@BloodNinja I'm not him... But I think it has been your general attitude the past few months that got his Jimmy's twisted. You've been coming off as arrogant and dismissive, along with hyperbolic when you enter a comment section with "I threw out my Switch" and "all Nintendo's exclusives are horrible." It makes you look like you're making a hot take for a reaction not discussion.

I don't care if you're playing Nintendo games or playing on Switch; not my business. But, when you come to a Nintendo fan-site just to spew hot takes and cr** on a company you're going to get these reactions. Speaking of which... Why bother using NintendoLife? You'd probably be better served on Push Square or Eurogamer if you're just looking for news on Playstation or PC games. What's the point coming to a site that caters to Switch news if you don't use a Switch?

I dunno, I can believe they were fired for that tweet. Nintendo is very secretive and doesn't like things even vaguely being spoken of.

@strollin_stu No company is your friend. At best it’s a professional relationship where group A buys thing and group B sells thing. Differences is companies can hide it better then other companies

@Ryu_Niiyama heyo, fully agreed, and by extension giving any professional a "pass" is unfair - it's an opportunity to reflect and improve and I would like to think a professional culture should be encouraging of that.

@Wexter When people are this negative towards me over opinions I have over Nintendo as a corporation, of course I will respond in a dismissive manner. Too much fanboyism permeates this site. It's blind and it's toxic and frankly, I'm not that interested. Pot calling kettle black, honestly.

I honestly don't need your feedback.

An attack on Nintendo in a chat forum is not an attack on your person. Severe brand loyalty can make it seem so, though.

@BloodNinja My "advise" was not advise it was an observation. Plus you never answered my question why you're on this site if you dislike the company so much. I generally detest Sony (lots of reasons not Playstation related), but I don't go to Push Square and say 'I've not bought a PS4/PS5 game in over a year because my PC does it better." It comes off as very rude and disrespectful to the fans of the system and to the general users of the site (plus comes off as snobbish as not everyone can afford that kind of rig).

It's your tone and attitude that's the problem and it's equally toxic as the "fanboys" you claim to have issues with. Just my two cents as I don't take umbrage with you personally just pointing out you're going to have a hard time on a Nintendo fan-site when you just come here to drop hot takes and be a general a** to others for no real good reason.

Not Ninja approved behavior you've been displaying.

Im a contractor in sales and have no rights rules or anything really but I make good money and knew going in what the terms were. I support better protection and whatnot in the gaming industry because there is alot of this type of abuse but honestly that was dumb on his part, work place politics will always matter, which is why some people pull ahead and others don't, as much as things change you can't change people and being a people person will always get you further if climbing the corporate ladder is your thing.. I personally hate it all and started my own business. Corporations suck and Nintendo is a corporation

@Wexter Weird response. I'm not attacking your person, but I enjoy talking smack about Nintendo because they're a garbage company. You don't have to defend them; they'll be just fine. No need to make chat forums personal.

@BloodNinja not defending them at all in this situation. Just pointing out you're kinda being very disrespectful to other users with yoir recent behavior. There are ways to be critical without the hyperbol.

@BloodNinja … why are you here? This is “Nintendo Life.” Just kinda seeking attention?

@BloodNinja I'm not trying to police things. Just generally don't like senior users being rude to other people for no real reasons. I find it generally childish. I don't care if you bad mouth Nintendo, but trolling other users is where I personally draw the line at unacceptable behavior. It's not Nintendo you're impacting with this behavior, but other people's enjoyment of this site and willingness to join the conversation.

Not surprised that you guys will blame the victim of Nintendo. It's what you always do. It may surprise you but Nintendo is just as bad a company as an other video game related one.

You guys drink the Kool aid.

@lordzand he didn't work at Nintendo. He was fired for leaking confidential information jeopardizing the contract with the company he actually worked with. If I bad mouthed my client or shared confidential information on Twitter, I'd probably also get fired by my boss as it ruins the relationship between companies.

@Wexter you can twist things around all you like. It's what always happens here when Nintendo does anything even slightly sinister.

Also maybe you should stop trying to gatekeep the comments. Your opinion isn't any more valid than anyone else's.

Also just fyi but the company that you are contracted with can get you fired. Just because they weren't a permanent employee doesn't mean that Nintendo didn't make the decision.

And the fact they even use contractors in this way is shady asf.

@Ryu_Niiyama Very well put, on all points. People are just really caught up in the popular mantra right now that all corporations are evil, and they’ll do or ignore anything necessary to prove it.

@Rika_Yoshitake Yeah, but where is the fun in pointing that out? Facts are such a downer...

@BloodNinja You lost me at toxic... such an overused word that it has become toxic in nature.

@Mr_Nutz Oh please. I have a lot of respect for her for standing up for what's right. Imagine siding with a corporation over workers' rights.

@Browny Contract work is great if you like EI.

The singular use of "they" here sure mucks things up.

@Browny Pretty sure contract or not, everyone deserves the same level of respect. And that was a fair question. Glad someone had the guts to ask it.

What I find bizarre is how people will defend anything Nintendo does.

In the world we live in, it'll be decades before corporations become the so-called "social" driven organizations that younger generations desire. Nintendo is still a business, and throughout the industry, it's no surprise that they are the most strict of all, even outside of Japan.

Reggie didn't establish the rules of how Nintendo of America should operate. He was the exception to that rule, because he went above and beyond to give the marketing side of Nintendo a real, independent identity. But that's a whole different discussion. My point is that whatever good we believe Nintendo to be, it probably isn't true, nor are we going to see change anytime soon.

Well this was a rollercoaster. Can’t wait for the next controversial article 🍿

Interesting because ALL of the executives have contracts.

@mrMike Just put BloodlNinja on ignore. Dude is nothing but a sad dude seeking attention. It's easier to not give them attention

You can really tell this is a Nintendo-centric website. Just like Mario loves jumping, so does this comment section love jumping to conclusions.

My take, similar to others, is that this may have been a non-disclosure issue. If it is, as much as the guy downplays it, it's not for him to decide what is a minor breach of confidence and what's not. That's for the NDA to decide, which leads to the next possibility.

As a contractor, a contract was in place. Signing it means abiding by its terms, so if one of those terms was indeed broken, then an end to the contractual relationship is in order.

I agree with many commenters here that Nintendo did nothing wrong by having Clifton fired. He signed an NDA and broke it, simple as that.

However, I'd like to point out that contract work is often abused by corporations, both large and small. It's a plague that permeates throughout most industries in which employees have few rights and are easily replaceable for any reason whatsoever.

Unionization is the only practical countermeasure employees have against being abused by their employers, aside from going to court which very few people do because it's such a long and costly process.

In most countries of Europe, unionization is standard practice for large firms and industries as a whole. The USA could learn a thing or two from the EU in how to protect human rights and basic human dignity.

I've worked contract placement through agencies in the past often for years.
Im not here to defend the practice in general at all but its common and its definitely a way to have you work somewhere but have less of well everything compared to a permanent full time employee of the company including job security.
But when you are on these temporary outsourced contracts etc why would you rock the boat like that by tweeting whatever and asking the head of it questions Its really just shooting yourself in the foot, if you are seen as a problem you won't be renewed when fixed terms passed. Thats just the way it is

@strollin_stu If I ever come across a situation like that again, I'll think of the toy drive next time! Thanks for that idea

@Wexter i used to work in QA at Zenimax/Bethesda. I know all about the crunches and bs

So a guy who got fired tells his side of the story? I mean it’s interesting and all but I wouldn’t be jumping on any bandwagons because of the inherent bias that should make anyone be completely skeptical about the ‘facts’ of this story. If he has an issue, lawyer up and fight it. Nintendo has nothing to gain by responding to this as the court of public opinion, at least at this individual employee scale, will probably not be enough pressure to drive change

nintendo died with iwata, we're left with this microtransaction filled lazy greedy '''''games'''''' so suits like this can go home with millions , ***** this im going back to new vegas

Nothing like a bit of constructive dismissal to divide opinion.

Although I think the worst thing here is the fact the we are actually even discussing it, stupid internet giving it a platform!! And as for the away fans standing in the home end, your not welcome!

@PoorGeno "CEOs are hard-working (and hard-headed)."

LOL. I'm sure Bobby Kotick totally deserve the million dollar bonuses he gave himself, and not the employees he fired for making Crash Bandicoot 4 a success.

Umm... that tweet is a very understandable reason to fire someone. It implies incompetence, directly attacks other employees and makes Nintendo look bad. If the contractor thinks it wasn't that and it was actually something else. All that shows is that Nintendo had MULTIPLE reasons to fire them

@strollin_stu completely agree. Not defending Nintendo if they are union busting... But the former contractor in question does not seem to understand the specific reasons they were fired which was probably breaching their NDA and overstepping relationships with the client. These are all big no-nos in contract work.

@theGamerPad my condolences friend. I used to work for Apple Inc. so I can understand the level crunch and mandatory overtime does to people. It's awful.

@Fonsettboy I agree completely.
Especially what you say about unions.
Looking from the outside in, it seems like in the US workers trying to unionize is seen almost as some kind of attack against the company.
Even people who would profit from being in a union ask questions like "why do they need to unionize?".
When in reality, unions are simply there to protect you. They should just be standard practice, no matter the circumstance. And in fact, they are normal in a lot of places.

I don't know about his Twitter comment.
I am a software dev myself and mistakes happen. He is essentially publicly making fun of the one who did the mistake, even anonymously that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
I mean imagine you are making a mistake at work and one of your colleagues twitters " haha, someone at our company did X stupid thing ".

Would I want someone fired for that? No.
But it is an eyebrow raiser.

@GalvanizedGamer You sound like a career victim. Most of the users here are workers in some form, yet if you’d read any of the well reasoned comments above you’d realise that people don’t ALWAYS have to take the side of the worker, because sometimes -shock- workers can be at fault. Workers can also be lazy and incompetent at times, and when they get fired do they come out and admit “Yes, it was my incompetence that got me fired.” No, they paint themselves as a victim. For workers to truly have rights they can’t be unfireable, because that benefits nobody.

These companies have a responsibility, Bowser has a responsibility to ALL of his employees, and therefore has to uphold the standards and success of his organisation.

I’m not saying NOA are definitely right in this case but the FACTS above suggest they had sufficient justification, otherwise wait for the verdict.

Unquestionable shilling/loyalty for individual workers is just as bad as doing it for a company.

Holy heck, this article was tough to read with the use of "they and "their" in place of the person's gender...I had to re-read certain parts 3-4 times haha

I think with the amount of bad news recently with regards to the way Nintendo of America operates, it's another one to add to the pile of game companies that operate terribly along with Konami, EA and Rockstar (Nintendo of Europe and Japan are cool though)

@GrailUK I've been wondering that for ages...

@Alaninho Given the recent numerous allegations against Nintendo, yeah I'm inclined to side with the worker here.

@LXP8 English is becoming corrupt these days unfortunately. This usage of "they" makes for very awkward and ambiguous reading.

@dartmonkey I think people would be more happy with the use of "contractor" or even "Aston Carter employee who worked with NoA." But that last one is a mouthful. I think people just have issues with the implied idea they worked directly at Nintendo when they were a third party contractor.

I honestly don't care as people should be reading the body. But, the "inaccurate" headline could lead to uninformed comments.

When I started working at the company I am at now, I was hired through an agency as a contract employee. Everyone else in the department that I worked with for 6 months was a full time employee hired directly by the company. That in no way made me an employee of the company in any sense. After my 6 months was up, they then made me an offer to work there as an employee, and at that time, I actually became an employee of the company.

It doesn't matter who he worked alongside or what his job duties were. The headline is more than inaccurate, it's completely wrong.

@Pigeon
How were they treated poorly?

They broke the terms of their NDA publicly, which is reason enough to be sacked. Them overstepping their bounds and asking a question of the boss of the company that contracted them about a sensitive subject is something else entirely, and they've stated it's their belief that was the reason for their termination. Which I feel would be hard to prove.

Being fired for breach of contract is not being treated poorly. It's a fair, expected and reasonable outcome for a poorly made decision.

@Ryu_Niiyama It's called acting your wage and quiet quitting.

@AstraeaV what? I don’t understand your response. I think you tagged me by mistake.

We had an intern that “Myspaced” about who was at the recording studio and what they were working on. What a jackass.

Let me get this straight... a contracted play tester tried to troll the president of the company during a meeting in front of hundreds of other employees, and is upset that they got let go. Is that about right?

People these days are just so pathetic.

I work in HR and while i have always said that my work is to hire people not to fire people, i have come to the conclusion that being an employee is not for everyone, to the smart a*** like this Clifort guy who ask those questions, there's always the entrepreneur way of earn a living, for all the others who ask the rules follow them and get to climb the ladder, more power to them. Going to sign a contract? Read it, honor it or get the boot. Healthy work environment its a very dificult thing to achive, and we work very hard to get there, organizations don't need this kind of smart a*** behavior.

@strollin_stu Until pay day...

@EriXz Oh, that's not going to end well for you. Suggesting personal responsibility these days, is going to get you tarred and feathered.

@Kirgo Making off-the-cuff comments about your work on Twitter, is going to get you fired from most places and the very least not help you progress. Leave your personal social media page for your personal life. Just my recommendation.

@strollin_stu Obviously. Companies are running a business, and sometime crap things happen. Kind of how reality works. It's not a dismissal of the things Companies do, but these things do happen so it blows my mind that people always seem so shocked. Besides, when are you ever going to read something good about a business? Good things don't get views. Far as I'm concerned, y'all are just guinea pigs on a wheel.

Typical corporate behavior of the untouchable wealthy. While this is very far from the worst the world job market has displayed, it is still complete BS and these corporations think that their employees are just another number.

Wow what a boring read

At Nintendo Japan, the CEO takes a pay cut when the company struggles, at NOA you get fired for asking a question. Shame.

@GalvanizedGamer I’ll take more notice when they become more than allegations then.

Seems pretty clear to me the reason he’s no longer working at NOA as a play tester. Dude was hired to play test certain games, and was tweeting about his work daily… why you’re all buying his conspiracy version that it was due a Q&A he answered a while back?🤣

I know it’s the way this “news” is written, everybody to the comment section!! To discus the angle he came up with his lawyer looking for a better settlement.

I guarantee the person in question is lying. I was a playtester at their Redmond, WA facility for over a year and they take things like tweets with ANY information about the game deadly serious. You sign over a 100 page NDA before you even walk through the first set of doors stating that any social media posts about ANYTHING involving a game for up to 2 years after it's release is subject to termination and possible legal action taken. They also do not possess a single space in any of the 4 buildings on campus to house "hundreds of employees" at once. At most, the conference rooms hold 50-75 people comfortably. The "red badge culture" is a real thing but most of those individuals have done a great deal of work and put in loads of effort to get those positions on the testing side. There are also blue and gold badges and the absence of those in the story is further proof that the individual in question does not have enough experience at the company to be so self important as to assume they were fired because they asked a "tough" question. They can downsize on a project at any given time and if you haven't been meeting expectations or doing the bare minimum of what they ask, which by the way is very easy to do, you are the first one let go when things change. I've seen people walked out of the building for accidentally putting their 3ds in their pocket when they stand up, as you would your personal device. I've also witnessed people get sued for taking their 3ds.into the bathroom to take pictures and send them to friends and relatives.

@Rambler The tweet about the game is so vague though. It's not like they dropped the title or anything. But you're right, it may have been enough to get the person fired.

@Unapologetic who are you arguing with crazy?

Unionization is one if the reasons companies move to China and have products manufactured by slaves that and they can compete in the market easier cause they can offer their products for a lower price than a company that makes their products in America. Off-shoring should be made illegal. American companies should have to make their products in America. We could ease up on regulations and it wouldn't cost them more to make the products here in America and you wouldn't be contributing to slavery in a foreign nation. Those regulations aren't doing any good if they can just move out of the country and make the product then ship it back here so what's the point in doing it? It's stupid

@ThePizzaCheese they could just put "he/she". Their makes it sound like they're talking about two people, and it makes them look stupid.

@Edu23XWiiU I wouldn't say it makes them look stupid, but yeah, it can be kinda confusing. He/she has fallen out of popularity, the sigular "they" is becoming very common when gender is unknown. Heck, you even just used it in you last comment and didn't even notice.

@PKDuckman Exception Fallacy. Although I'll admit he sounds like a [something inconsequential which rhymes with something obscene, inferring the latter]. In a fair world we'd have more of a means for removing people from hierarchies who remove disproportionate value from others.

@FoxMcMuffin Hi! Do you need something?

The downside of unionization means that a staff reduction will likely follow, foreign outsourcing increases, and then fewer domestic people will get hired or contracted in order to offset the significant increase of wage per worker. It's the same as when minimum wage suddenly went up to some arbitrarily high number in service industries; less people were hired, and order kiosks became a common thing. Be careful what you wish for. Getting credit as a tester for a game is nothing compared to the credible stories of testing experience that you can tell about in future job interviews.

@Daveftw88 Welll *****! Thanks for the info. I had suspicions that this was the case (very strict NDAs), but I'm glad someone who formerly worked at the Redmond campus confirmed it. Sad to hear how loose Nintendo can be with terminations (like someone accidentally putting a testing 3DS in their pocket), but not surprised.

Thanks for the info!

The gender neutral pronouns in thus article male me believe that terminated contractor is probably the type of person who is easily offended, will always play the victim, and who will blame everyone else for their own failings.

If NL had even a shred of journalistic integrity, the headline would read, "Nintendo Contractor" instead of "Nintendo Worker" - and why even bother changing it from 'employee' to 'worker' when both of those words are more often than not used interchangeably? I guess the clicks are more important than giving an accurate and balanced reporting on the facts of the (non) story.

@PoorGeno It doesn't change the fact that the average pay rate for CEOs rose by 1322% since 1978. Are you suggesting that they are doing working 1322% harder? LOL

@PKDuckman Obviously, they're not. In the Bayonetta 3 article, Hellena was offered $4-12K depending on the source for voice acting a third game in a $450M IP. The CEO or someone is getting overpaid. Must be, if the main character is getting snubbed. Split a thousand ways, profit should be almost half a Mil. Probably weren't 600 people on that project. A CEO woth plates to spin should be making 3x-5x more than an entry level. Giive or take. My opinion is that salary-class jobs like CEO that take up more of your life, should grant more pay. Not 13x more (like you were saying). We agree on that, yeah? I think CEOs are supposed to represent a company, but the overpaid ones loose touch with the plight of the working employees when they have a totally different (high-pay) life styles. Worst ones are the ones who think they're that much better than the other workers.