Earlier this week, Japanese outlet Leakpress published a report claiming that 150 employees of Nintendo debugging subsidiary Mario Club Co., Ltd. were being laid off across various teams. Fortunately, Nintendo has today released a statement to Eurogamer to set the record straight.
The layoff reports are "untrue," Nintendo's statement clarifies. By the sounds of it, Nintendo has corroborated this information with Mario Club, where no employees have lost their jobs.
It's short and to the point, but here's Nintendo's full statement (via Eurogamer):
We have confirmed with Mario Club Co., Ltd. that the rumoured information in the report is untrue.
The initial Leakpress rumour claimed that Mario Club was laying off its employees in a manner slightly different to the "oidashi beya" — expulsion rooms — that Bandai Namco was accused of using amidst its reported layoffs earlier this month.
Fortunately, as Nintendo's statement clarifies, this isn't true for the subsidiary. Mario Club has assisted Nintendo on several first-party titles in recent years, including Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Princess Peach: Showtime!, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and Luigi's Mansion 2 HD.
While the Mario Club rumours turned out to be false, 2024 continues to be a terrible year for industry layoffs across both large and small teams. Earlier this month, League of Legends developer Riot Games announced its second wave of company layoffs this year, and the entire Surgent Studios team was put on redundancy notice as the Tales of Kenzera: ZAU studio seeks funding for its next project.
If we hear any updates on this story, we'll let you know.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 17
"Mario Club has assisted Nintendo on several first-party titles in recent years"
I'm pretty sure Mario Club assists with most, if not all, of Nintendo's first-party games (and sometimes third-party games which involve Nintendo such as LEGO City Undercover and the Mario & Sonic games), not just the ones from recent years.
EDIT: They also assisted Rare and their games when they were with Nintendo, including Conker's Bad Fur Day, despite the fact it was self-published by Rare and not released in Japan at the time.
Anyway, maybe I'm guessing incorrectly but I cannot imagine a team that's most likely the busiest to afford layoffs.
BUT BUT BUT Reddit said...
I remember when I was young and played Pokemon Yellow, what is the Mario Club can I join? Thought it was a real Club.
I always remember seeing the Super Mario Club near the end of the credits of so many classic games. And I always wanted to join.
The original rumor came from a website that allows people to submit rumors. It was passed off as a report and people ran with it. Check your sources, people. Will only cause trouble if you say things without any truth.
Waiting to hear more just to be completely sure, but really hope the report is untrue like Nintendo's official statement says for the sake of those employees!
... Nevermind (posted my original comment practically at the same time as the one above mine), if it's literally a rumor then I'm taking it with a grain of salt even more and not only hope, but also think that the report is untrue!
Probably someone with a chip on their shoulder that Nintendo is hiring amid a lot of the industry having mass layoffs
Nintendo has investigated themselves and declared themselves not guilty of any wrongdoing.
Well that's good to hear. Even in this landscape of mass layoffs, sometimes we can still get good news.
Well, I'm glad we can finally put this rumor I'm only just now hearing about behind us.
Nintendo, showing some humanity.
Isn't it illegal in Japan to do mass layoffs unless you're able to prove to the government that it's literally the only option to keep the company afloat? Thought I read that somewhere.
@link12684 This place writes up whatever rumor they see as long as it’s Nintendo-related. And then everyone believes it.
Nintendo is really doing great lately. All these other game companies are having layoffs or shutdowns, and Nintendo always has positive news.
I never forget when Nintendo was in a though spot that some big guys lowered their salary.
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/01/iwata_and_miyamoto_both_take_pay_cuts_in_response_to_nintendos_poor_financial_results#:~:text=He's%20not%20the%20only%20one,shoulder%20a%2020%20percent%20reduction.
Genuinely shocked the venerable Leakpress would print a dubious report.
@TheBigK traditional layoffs yes, but they also skirt around that by doing things like not renewing contracts or cancelling projects. The layoff thing and the Nintendo stories paint a rosy picture but there's plenty of unseemly things happening there too.
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