Why Nintendo Workers Are Complaining of Mistreatment
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- čas přidán 15. 07. 2024
- Nintendo of America workers are, apparently, not having a great time. The company behind Mario, Zelda, Splatoon, and Kirby is, according to reports, not a great place to work, and contractors who are often denied permanent employment opportunities are speaking out.
In a recent video on the delay to Nintendo's shining star of an upcoming game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 (or whatever it actually ends up being called) we quoted Doug Bowser in saying that it's important for Nintendo employees to have a good work-life balance and not get pushed too far.
Turns out not everyone agrees with Bowser that Nintendo staff are treated with care. According to reports, even full-time, permanent Nintendo employees - the so-called red badge staff members - are feeling the pressure brought on by a management system that refuses to hire enough permanent staff to meet needs.
We don't want to speculate too wildly about what's going on behind closed doors at Nintendo, so all we'll be doing in this video is quoting directly from Nintendo workers or former workers, as well as reports from credible news outlets that have interviewed these disgruntled workers. We fully admit that this is only one side of the story, but we feel that it's important to amplify these accounts of workplace mistreatment.
Lots of love,
BretonStripes and Kotor
Sources for this video:
www.ign.com/articles/nintendo...
kotaku.com/nintendo-america-s...
www.ign.com/articles/2019/06/...
• Reggie Fils-Aimé discu...
www.ign.com/videos/our-bodies...
www.axios.com/2022/05/12/nint... - Hry
I feel bad for all those uncles.
I get that reference
🗿
Nintendo's happy facade is a shadow of this stupid and stressful work program. A shame, especially when I enjoy most of the products that they put out.
Yeah. The same thing goes for SEGA.
@Coochie Kong Oh yeah, because workers don't deserve to be paid for their efforts. Gross.
@Coochie Kong Ah yes because thinking people need to be paid for the work they do is exactly the same as being a shill. You're gross.
@@hypnospaceoutlaw3376 So what does Sega do?
Remember, Mario is just red Mickey.
This honestly came a surprise to me. Despite their balant anti consumer practice I still thought Nintendo at least treated their employees well.
Guess I was too naive
To be fair, I don't think even Nintendo knows how to solve this issue, now that Satoru Iwata and Reggie Fils-Aime are gone.
"anti-consumer" 🤦🏿♀️ goodness freaking gracious
@@houragents5490 where's the lie lmao
Nintendo is a Japanese company and overworking their employees and differental treatment among them is common in Japanese leader ship Reggie was just a figurehead all the decision was made in Japan NOA just follow the orders unlike the SNES/N64 era where NOA actually had independent leadership from Japan.
Same I feel ya the same way I feel bad for the employees.
Nintendo has never really treated employees that great. The only real hold overs are those that have been there an extremely long time. Those few tend to get better treatment and so forth. Beyond that... the constant flow of articles from former employees paints a grim picture. Kinda like with Disney really, a pretty face upfront but a slave whip behind the curtain.
Finally an actual smart person!
@Deji The Crybaby What's the matter? Also "you?" Have we met before?
@Deji The Crybaby what kid? I'm 22 years old and know accurate information.
Are you referring to Harman Smith?
@Deji The Crybaby you used to be called Comedy Short Sniffer. I'll admit that it is a cool name. Sorry for your losses though
@Deji The Crybaby short answer yes, but the only difference is I don't go around telling people saying Nintendo's better than PlayStation and Xbox. That's something Harman Smith does. The Truth is: Rather than defending the company against their poor actions and their broken DMCA bot. I just defend them against the people that use Iwata's death as a weapon against Nintendo in a disgusting and disturbing way that Disturbed a bunch of innocent people online. Keep in mind I'm also PC and Xbox. I also defend Nickelodeon and RWBY as well. Steven, the creator of SpongeBob death was used against the SpongeBob spin-offs. RWBY creators death was also used as well. The truth is we don't forgive the companies for the bad stuff they do to us, but we do defend them against the people that are using Dead CEOs against them. Also, if you think I'm a joke, I'm one of those respectful fans that don't simp for them. I even wrote a letter to Nintendo myself as proof that they still listen to backlash and are on both sides. (Yes, I actually did write a letter to Nintendo and made a video about it) I respected developers manners and the creators of the company, but I don't forgive their broken DMCA bots or their bad actions
The sad reality is… this is just most companies in general…
To be honest reports of Japanese workers ,and video game employees world wide have had reports of horrible condition for ages especially now with the internet, Heck even Nintendo's badge system and employees bouncing off one another for help had been talked about beforehand. I knew it was possibly bad the entire time, guess I just didn't wanna believe it.
It's a little sad that it seems that King Bowser treats his employees better than Doug Bowser does.
What about the Nintendo hacker Gary Bowser?
I'm glad that Copyright-Hungry Nintendo is getting the brunt of it now.
This is unacceptable
The moral of the story: treat people respectfully, like how you want other people to respectfully treat you.
Yep. Suffer More, Nintendo.
Agreed
@@setsers1 yep
Every AAA studio (and even some indie studios) does this. Why? Because abusing workers to be a cheap-skate is profitable for them. It's the part of their cost-cutting measures.
Really, the only thing that saves game devs from workplace abuse is being an indie dev. Working alone or with a small team with 3-5 people makes the project more manageable and allows all of you to follow a flexible development schedule and have a flexible release window.
I, too, am thinking about starting out as an indie because of the horror stories coming out from all of the AAA companies. Even Nintendo and SEGA are not immune to this.
lesson nintendo and most of the world will never learn or always forget
When Americans learn what working at a Japanese company is like
Yep this’s why I might work for Sega instead of Nintendo one day
@@thedraftingax5963 Before the complaints happened I was thinking about working for Nintendo or Sega as a play tester but hearing what happened at Nintendo I think I'm just gonna stick to Sega.
@@thedraftingax5963 Sega is also a Japanese company.
Oh it's pretty bad all over
What about Indie gaming?
Glad to know Nintendo gives their employees the same respect they give their fans.
Would you say the same thing about Disney? 🤨
@@1992disney No.
@@googamp32 Then why are you a Disney shill to begin with, if you're willing to admit that Disney treats both their employees and fans so shamefully but willing to defend the company at the same time? Doesn't that seem hypocritical? 🤔
@@Valkyomi Disney hasn't been so great since the past decade, tbh.
@@1992disney I didn't admit anything like that. When I said that "Nintendo gives their employees the same respect they give their fans", I was merely commenting on the fact that Nintendo sues their fans for doing anything with their IP that they don't like, and puts out crap like Sword and Shield and the Origami King. Disney wasn't even part of this conversation. This isn't hypocritical, at all.
That actually sounds like most Corporate American companies and workers anymore. It's not just Nintendo or Japan. Full time jobs in the US are rare outside of highly competitive secondary degree STEM jobs. Most everything is contract based or part time, and there are few jobs providing health benefits anymore. Wages may be rising but opportunities for permanent work is scarce. Inflation is also making it difficult to commit to in person work due to rising gas prices, and the bottleneck of goods and workers to produce them leading to scarcity. You may get payed well for contract jobs, you better snag up another contract quickly. No company is perfect and maybe Nintendo will finally go through the reforms they need.
I did a research paper about Nintendo in my Entertainment Business class at college. This video is informative because I did not know Nintendo had a difficult working culture.
I don't think this is a story just specifically on Nintendo. The contractor vs employee situation seems to be similar to a few jobs I've had.
I've worked this kind of job before too. Always fun when management emails out a reminder for a company event, and then half an hour later sends a second email reminding contractors that they should ignore the first email because they're not invited...
@@VideoGameStoryTime Haha I'd show up anyway and be all "what second email? That sounds like management's problem, not mine"
now this reminds me of when people said that the people that worked at sega and worked on sonic generations and unleashed left to work for Nintendo instead.
I wonder what's gonna happen to them?
That was 15 years ago why would that even matter now
@@Mirage475 Nah, it very much does.
I’m worried that the world of video game job culture will soon start to become unbearable. It was bad enough that this was happening to Blizzard Activision, I don’t want Nintendo to turn into Disney.
You mean se#%al harassment land where women are r#%e 24/7 in activision Blizzard or its a woke world in disney where its nothing but fake woke politics which is not making both left or the right happy
If nintendo becomes both activision Blizzard and disney at the same time
That is going to be a even more of an epic fail train wreak then both companies at the same time
Nintendo is Disney
Buy Indies Made by the true Artists themselves , it is What I do
Allegedly it's way better to work at Nintendo of Japan than Nintendo of America, but then the producer of Splatoon came out saying that Miyamoto rarely praises his work and usually says it's bad.
Well I guess it wasn’t Miyamotos cup of tea.
Usually when Nintendo is mentioned, SEGA is yet to follow. SEGA is hardly better with their employees, they’re too laid back and the salary is messy
SEGA has been in news for years about employees. But there report it is way better since 2017
That's Why Indies are MADE!
& I thought that Nintendo was the gold standard in employe treatment for video game development but like the worst of video game companies they treat employees like straight trash
Yet the fan boys will always put Nintendo on this pedestal like they can do no wrong. I can almost guarantee there will be someone in the comments trying to defend or deflect this. I follow many Nintendo focused channels and none of them have spoke about this.
"as Bowser would have us believe"
I still can't get over *Bowser*
Seeing how much Bowser's minions seem to adore him in the RPG games the kidnapping turtle dragon is a better boss then Doug Bowser.
You hired Bowser to run your company.
You get what's coming to you.
Good one, but it's been like that since Reggie.
In Nintendo lore Doug bowser and bowser are different
Wasn't Doug an EA directive before working at Nintendo?
What?
Yes
Indeed
That explains almost everything
I mean, this is literally every major company, I don’t know what kind of fantasy people are expecting, but this is corporate culture, none of this unexpected.
I wonder if hallabs (kirby devs) are also treated like this behind the curtains
Well there is a reason Bowser is so bad.
Ironically, Koopa’s actually a decent boss.
sounds like something every company does, almost like we need laws to prevent companies from abusing workers
This is what happens when you make a villain run the company.
Did you even watch the video? This was happening during Reggie’s time too
Any more details in the union-busting stuff that was mentioned?
We didn't go into further details on this because not all the information is public, the short version is that a contractor was dismissed, the worker claims that this was in part because they had spoken out about unionising, Nintendo claims that the worker was fired for leaking upcoming game secrets.
You can read more here: gamerant.com/nintendo-denies-union-busting-accusations/
@@VideoGameStoryTime I would've been nice if you waited until all the information was out before making a hit piece like this
@@houragents5490 This isn't a "hit piece". Though yeah it would have been nice if that one element wasn't mentioned until more information came out. The rest of it covers stuff people have documented
Moral of the story:
Working for any corporation will treat you like a number rather than a human
High productivity leads to higher expectations
Thank you for sharing this insight
Honestly while genuinely frustrating, its for the best that employee didn't receive treatment at the on site clinic. I doubt Dr. Mario really took the hypocratic oath...
Uncles everywhere are getting abused at work.
Most tech companies in America are abusing contract workers for profits. It’s not specific to Nintendo at all lmao
I remember someone once said "Nintendo is EA but with better PR."
Wow, sounds like wherever you go in the game industry your gonna face at least a few unfair challenges along the way, sure this video only mentioned Nintendo but it’s easy to look at other companies and their practices being odd towards their employees every now and then, it depends on the higher ups and how they think things should go, since yeah the higher ups do switch (heh) around every now and then, reminds me of the expression of “pick your poison”
How will things be for Nintendo by December?
I’m sick and tired of people like you all saying that Nintendo is a bad company, yes they’ve made some mistakes, but everyone makes mistakes, I want to work at Nintendo one day, so I’m done with everyone talking trash about Nintendo, and how much they hate it when their fan work gets DMCA, they just don’t want people ruining their amazing work
I agree with you and you can continue to achieve that future! I want this Nintendo hate to be gone as well! I'm glad I can find people like you who know the truth and understand
@@M64bros thanks for the support bro! I’m glad someone else agrees with me!
Seems like a business that respects it’s employees doesn’t exist.
It sucks when as writers and editors at big companies.
Never work for your heroes.
Good to know, i wanted to work on Sega someday anyways lol
But i fell bad for the employees tho
Same
SEGA's workplace isn't so great either. It's been reported that the staff is given outdated technology to work with, and their salary system is unusually messy.
@@Dollaran dang :\
Don’t bring SEGA into this, they are hardly better, they are too laid back
Lmao sega is trash too
Instead of saying "So long gay Bowser" we'll be saying "So long le Raggie".
This just proves my suspicions from before: Nintendo is just the Disney of video games.
Tbh I always forget Doug Bowser exsists till he gets brought up idk why
well looks like my unreachable dream became even harder to get to
Thank you for the silly drawings between the quotes. Luigi was my fav
Thanks for the vid
Talk about rank difference…
Oh hell no, we better not get Nintendo turned into K*nami
No wonder fans never thought of working there and fixing their failing franchises. (That’s directly at you Pokémon fans)
rip to all the uncles that works at nintendo
oh
Sussybanka
As expected from japanese companies
I'm mixed on this On one hand I see where everyone is mad sad or down right disgusted by these claims and actions but on the other I still want to work and make games for them rather it be working at Retro or some other departments I want to make games for people I want to be like Reggie and Satoru Iwata I want to bring joy wonder kindness family fun to all no matter who you are no matter how different you maybe you have the right to play and enjoy video games from special needs people to the elderly I may have autism but I'm not letting it get in my way and neither is this thank you and if some of you think different then that's ok just don't go full attack mode it's not healthy Also I love this channel and it's animation stories they're great
Liuigi eyes pop out
Mario look cute at Nintendo work
The everyone in the word: segregation is wrong
Nintendo: what is segregation?
Bowser did work for EA....
3:27 the place where a transgender woman is adressed could have used bowsette insted of peach. ; )
Damn, Sega really is doing what Nintendon’t
Honestly this company sounds amazing! Where do i sign up? Gold badge all day baby!!!
That whole badges thing needs to be remove that’s some school bucks nonsense type garbage
Nintendo has been mistreating people since the early days of the Nintendo DS. If you want to see the one good work environment they had...look to their NES and SNES days.
You know, I should be surprised seeing how it's Nintendo and with all of the good games they've given us along with the whole family friendly angle they go with but in the end their just like any other company out there.
Everything is business first trying to make as much money as possible even if it means treating your workers like cogs in a machine. They start breaking down then just replace them with someone else. It's how all companies work and as much as we'd like that to change to companies being nicer and treating their staff not like a family/team but as an equal.
But in the end Nintendo chose greed over everything while still pretending to be this family friendly company despite all of the former workers saying otherwise and those who are still working would rather keep their job and have to avoid speaking the truth.
Which is always weird to me because companies who treat their employees better have the opportunity to make more money. Happy workers are happy consumers, after all.
@@BJGvideos But sadly we live in a world where treating your employees like a human being and giving them a livable wage along with other benefits isn't something these companies want. They want money, they crave to have as much money as possible even if it means resorting to practices that are otherwise unethical and will stop at nothing to get what they want.
@@YokomichiSilver But that's what I'm saying. They'd have more money than they do now if they treated people better. No mistreatment means no boycotts, it means positive word of mouth, and so on. So they're costing themselves money in their quest for more money. It's self-defeating.
@@BJGvideos If Nintendo has the money to have a theme park be built using their IP's then they can afford to mistreat their workers. As dark as that sounds it would take something bigger than all of this in order to really blow up in Nintendo's face. Not to mention Nintendo of America is completely different from Nintendo of Japan. NoA could perhaps be the better company following the rules within the United State but when it comes to NoJ their rules aren't all that great. I mean they did make the word Karoshi (death by overwork) which would be either at the employees own hands or their body just gives out.
We'd be asking an entire country to change their work environment that has been set for hundreds of years in the hopes that they treat their employees like a decent human being. It's not going to happen in either of our time and the chances of it actually happening don't look great.
@@YokomichiSilver Why people don't stand up for themselves is beyond me. We could have a great world society by now if people were rational and did what made sense.
4:25 Reggie..
This surprised me till she said Nintendo „USA“… of course 😑
Lucky they dealt things by other game companies, and Nintendo.
Over 100 year old international Japanese run corporation having an unhealthy work environment?
WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAT?!!!
Here before Nintendo falsely strikes this video to keep their cruelty from coming out
As usual, profits over people.
well yeah. large companies always run on cheap labor on the bottom
i have no idea why anyone thought any company OF AMERICA was into unionization and employer benefits and all that
Yeah Doug b was a bad choice
Not gonna lie I would love to work for Nintendo I would Love to develop the next Mario game
Blue Badges are their way to avoid giving full time employees what they're owed.
For the people saying "SEGA does what Nintendon't. Work at SEGA", tell me this...
What difference does it make if I work at SEGA instead of Nintendo?
Worse pay. Believe me.
Can you do playground games next?
workers have nothing to lose but their chains
People working at Nintendo of America are just mere sales persons. So not really a dream job.
Contractors are not employees
here something, work for sega
SEGA is hardly better, they’re too laid back and salary is usually messy
Sounds like the stereotypical company culture of a successful Japanese corporation, aight.
These issues are common in other industries as well but people/media only seems to care when it happens within the gaming industry
Because the average Japanese link between the source and the sourcing company are Douches!
It was all downhill after Iwata died…
What I don't understand about this or any other circumstance where this happens is why it often takes so long for mistreated employees to speak up. You all got social media--USE it. If your bosses are corrupt or whatever, SAY SOMETHING. Talk to the other employees, talk to your bosses, and tell people what happened. Don't sit on it for years and expect it to change. And if you're really getting the short end of the stick, why are you still working for them? Workers have the majority of the power because nothing happens without them, but they don't USE it, instead falling for the lie that they can be easily replaced and thus have no power at all.
Oh yeah, don't cross picket lines. Don't take jobs that other people are protesting. Don't LET them be easily replaced. Don't be part of the problem.
I took Reggie's remark more to mean that things had changed since he was in charge, not that he was refuting them.
What did you expect with Bowser as president?
And the worst thing BOWSER WORKED AT EA GAMES. It all is coming
I don't like the soulless narration.
I'm gonna say this: you deserve the treatment you allow your employer to dole out to you. I can't feel sorry for any of these temporary Nintendo workers. They allowed Nintendo to treat them like they're nothing. I BLAME the people who work at Nintendo, because it's the people who work there that create and maintain an exploitative work culture.
Nintendo doesn't like it's fans, it doesn't like its employees. Does Nintendo like anyone who isn't money?
Soon as Sterling finds out about this, they’re gonna be pissed enough to swear off video games forever.
(Or maybe just too disillusioned to care.)
It doesn't surprise me finding out how rotten Nintendo is, more and more.
wow, it's almost as if a capitalist organization would be incentivised to not give a damn about its workers, who would have thought.
nintendo is terrible, I've been saying it for years.
Put "Nintendo of America" in your click bait title and thumbnail because Nintendo and Nintendo of America are too different unrelated companies from parallel universe. All the negative things you ever heard about Nintendo are actually about Nintendo of America and this branch continues to build a bad rep for the actual company.