As you likely know, the gaming industry isn’t in the best place right now. There are layoffs all over the place, developers are scrambling to try and figure out how to make certain games hits, and gamers are wondering which AAA title will be “not ready at launch” in the future, given recent history. Nintendo has been one of the more stable elements throughout this period, which makes this story about Nintendo of America so interesting. Specifically, certain sites were reporting that The Big N’s US offices were getting rid of about 120 contractors within their testing division.
However, a statement from Nintendo of America, as posted by VGC, seems to clarify what’s going on here. In this case, they are letting some testers go, but it’s because they’re doing a restructuring of their entire testing division. Plus, not everyone will be let go:
“Nintendo of America (NOA) has reorganized its Product Testing functions to drive greater global integration in game development efforts. The changes will also better align NOA with interregional testing procedures and operations. These changes will involve some contractor assignments ending, as well as the creation of a significant number of new full-time employee positions. For all assignments that are ending, the contractors’ agencies, with NOA’s support, will offer severance packages and provide assistance during their transition. For those contractor associates who will be leaving us, we are tremendously grateful for the important contributions they’ve made to our business, and we extend our heartfelt thanks for their hard work and service to Nintendo.”
That alone makes it clear that this set of “layoffs,” if you can even call them that, is different from what’s been happening in the gaming industry as a whole. Many feel that this restructuring is happening to prepare for the Nintendo Switch successor, and The Big N is going to do right by its employees by helping them transition into new roles. Plus, we don’t know how many people are actually being let go or how many might get these new full-time roles.
