Nintendo of America has revealed that it’s making a series of layoffs within its testing departments amid a slow first-party release schedule. It hasn’t been confirmed how many employees will be affected, but early estimates suggest as many as 100 testers will be dismissed from the company, including ‘testers with over 10 years of experience’.
Inevitable
It seems as though almost every major company operating in the gaming space has made layoffs or restructured in some way in the last year. It has been a trying eighteen months for the industry, with close to 20,000 workers being made redundant since the start of 2023. We’ve seen studios close and projects get cancelled as companies wrestle with dwindling investments, more expensive development cycles, and drastic changes in consumer habits.
In a statement released to Kotaku, Nintendo of America explained what was happening with this round of layoffs:
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.
Before Nintendo issued the statement, Kotaku spoke to a series of contractors – both former and current – who explained that contractors in general feel ‘undervalued and underpaid’ at Nintendo. It has been said that Nintendo will be providing severance packages to those impacted by the layoffs, but again, it hasn’t been confirmed how many employees will be dismissed.
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