Nintendo of America has always been a company that is very careful regarding its image, but for a few weeks testimonials from former employees have come to taint the idyllic picture that we might make of it. While Reggie Fils-Aimé is in full promotion of his new book, we were able to have some information on his feelings regarding the situation.
Image credit: Nintendo
It’s never someone else’s fault
Several media, such as Kotaku, highlight the story of former or recent service providers who point the finger at the working conditions established by Nintendo of America. This follows a complaint launched by a former provider which accuses the company of various things, in particular to have prevented employees from uniting.
What is criticized is in particular Nintendo of America’s contract system, which employs several hundred service providers, ranging from customer service to the tester, which therefore includes several departments of the company. This provider status would be maintained indefinitely, by requiring employees to take two months of vacation between each contract renewal. Yet, once more according to the testimonies, contract employees do exactly the same work as permanent employees. We thus dangle the long-term possibility of being permanently hired by Nintendo of America, but the famous sesame never arrives.
This system then creates a two-tier social hierarchy, in which contract employees are underpaid, with few benefits, while suffering a lack of respect from certain employees who have a permanent contract in the society. In addition to the pressure that some people may feel, to have a lack of stability and perspective in their work.
It was therefore only natural to ask Reggie Fils-Aimé, the former president of Nintendo of America, how the company treats its employees. And this is what the Washington Post did in an interview, when promoting his book:
I know I’ve been successful in creating a healthy company culture, and what’s being described certainly doesn’t sound like a healthy culture.
He also adds:
Reading the stories and reports, I realized that this is not the Nintendo I left.
He also clarified that between 2006 and 2019, while he was the head of Nintendo of America, he held regular lunches with his employees, for which contractors were free to register and participate. According to Kotaku, and information from a former provider, these lunches were known, but he never heard that it was possible to participate. He and other contract employees didn’t even have the required badges to enter Nintendo of America’s central building.
In another interview granted to IGN this time, Reggie Fils-Aimé once once more clears up that this is not the corporate culture he established at Nintendo of America.
It has always been a positive part of our culture to hire some of the best contract employees in the business. This split between contract employees and full-time employees — all I can say is that’s not at all the culture I left behind when I retired from Nintendo.
Reggie Fils-Aimé is currently on a press tour to promote his book “Disrupting the Game: From the Bronx to the Top of Nintendo”. However, as Kotaku reports, he no longer grants interviews regarding working conditions at Nintendo of America. We must therefore wait for an official position on the part of American society.
