Nintendo of America has always been a company very keen on its image, but for a few weeks, testimonials from former employees have been distorting the perfect picture we can make of it. While Reggie Fils-Aimé is fully promoting his new book, we were able to get some information about his feelings about the situation.
Image credit: Nintendo
It’s never someone else’s fault
Many media outlets, such as Kotaku, highlight the story of former or new service providers pointing the finger at business conditions set by Nintendo of America. This comes after a complaint filed by a former provider accusing the company of various things, In particular to prevent employees from union.
What is particularly criticized is Nintendo of America’s contract system, which employs several hundred service providers, ranging from customer service to laboratory, and which thus includes many of the company’s divisions. This service provider status will be held indefinitely, by requiring employees to take two months off between each contract renewal. However, according to testimonials again, contract employees do exactly the same work as permanent employees. So we’re hanging on the long-term possibility that you’ll be permanently hired by Nintendo of America, but the famous Sesame never arrived.
Ce système crée alors une hiérarchie sociale à deux étages, dans lequel les employés sous contrat sont sous-payés, disposant de peu d’avantages, tout en subissant un manque de respect de la part de certain employersés un qui eux on, the society. In addition to the pressure some people may feel, for the instability and perspective in their work.
So it was only natural to ask Reggie Fils-Aimé, the former president of Nintendo of America, how the company treats its employees. This is what the Washington Post did in an interview when it promoted his book:
I know I’ve succeeded in creating a healthy company culture, and what is being described certainly doesn’t sound like a healthy one.
He adds:
Reading the stories and reports, I realized that this is not the Nintendo I had left.
He also explained that between 2006 and 2019, when he was president of Nintendo of America, he held regular lunches with his employees, where contractors were free to sign up and share. According to Kotaku, and information from a previous provider, these lunches were known, but he had never heard that it was possible to share. He and the other contract employees didn’t even have the badges required to enter Nintendo of America’s central building.
In another interview with IGN this time, Reggie Fils-Aimé once again made it clear that this is not the culture of the company he founded 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 this isn’t the culture I left behind at all 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 reported by Kotaku, he is no longer giving interviews related to working conditions at Nintendo of America. So we must wait for an official position on the part of American society.
