After the recent layoffs in Microsoft, I keep seeing posts about how amazing Iwata was, but let me remind you something…
Source: https://www.polygon.com/2014/8/29/6083203/nintendo-lay-offs
by Kenkenlegend
Nintendo
After the recent layoffs in Microsoft, I keep seeing posts about how amazing Iwata was, but let me remind you something…
Source: https://www.polygon.com/2014/8/29/6083203/nintendo-lay-offs
by Kenkenlegend
34 Comments
Did Iwata run NoE?
Iwata was the best leader any company in video games ever had.
It sucks that people got laid off. But laying off some temporary workers during a restructuring is not the same as laying off people to make short term profits.
I don’t think he controls the employees of NoE. Plus that’s 320 vs the thousands Microsoft has done every 6 months for the past like 4 years
I remember a few years ago someone said something along the lines of “cutting their own pay is the norm in the games industry” and time and time again I can confidently say “no the hell it is not”
Well true, but Iwata was going through cancer during that time, I’m not entirely sure that was his decision. I think that was more of the board of directors’ thing.
I remember when the 3ds wasn’t doing good, Iwata cut his salary in half to save the employees.
I wish today ceo’s would do that in America, but they won’t.
Nintendo isn’t a charity. If they didn’t make decisions as a business, they wouldn’t exist. Neither would the games exist for you to enjoy. Neither would this sub exist for you to complain and wrongly imply Iwata was a bad guy.
Microsoft laying off thousands? Quick, make a post about why Nintendo is bad!!
C’mon, bro. Iwata was amazing.
320 people is a lot less than 15k
There is a very, very big difference between being a visionary like Iwata and being a suit with a suite.
Iwata was battling cancer at the time, it probably wasn’t his decision.
Let’s not devalue all the good things he did just because a few hundred people got laid off* when he was slowly dying.
*: speaking of, yeah, it’s absolutely terrible that those people got laid off, but those numbers are pitiful compared to the thousands Microsoft did, not because they were restructuring business like NoE, but for profit.
People are bringing up Iwata’s cancer, but honestly, it’s not even the point here. This was in 2014, when Nintendo was going through serious crisis due to the low sales of the WiiU and struggling 3DS sales.
There is nothing to compare with Microsoft, who is laying off 9000 employees in one of its best years to date. This doesn’t mean Nintendo is the perfect company or anything, but this sort of comparison doesn’t make sense.
“Unfortunately our profits for this year were only 12% higher than we expected, so we will need to eliminate 500 employees. Oh, and we are doubling our CEO’s salary”
What’s with this attempt at shitting on Nintendo? Not really a good effort either.
In USA, you don’t get the opportunity to cut your salary in half. The board of directors just fires you and gets someone else and then pays them top dollar to fix the business.
there’s a difference between laying off a couple hundred employees due to restructuring bc of sales decline, and laying off thousands of workers to pivot toward using AI to make games. if you can’t understand that, idk what to say
What is your goal with making this post? Honest question.
Nintendo layed off people when they were in financial trouble. Microsoft is laying off people when they are having record breaking profits.
They are not the same.
bothsidesism is a cancer to public rhetoric. how about you apply some critical thinking to assess if there is actual meaningful equivalence in corporate policy instead of trying to inflame something through insinutation of two leading sentences ending in elipses. it’s so spineless and intellectually dishonest.
I think the problem is Microsoft buying up tons of studios only to close them down. And then laying off a bunch of people while telling them about how strong they are as a company.
130 were permanent NoE employees. The rest were contract workers that didn’t get new contracts
It sucks but not the same as what is happening now.
Every company is always restructuring and laying off people.
Nintendo is not perfect by a long shot. But when it comes to job reliability and pay they are better than most private tech companies
https://thenerdstash.com/while-layoffs-keep-hitting-the-industry-nintendo-retains-98-of-staff-including-78-with-disabilities/
The fact that you’re brining this up in an ominous ‘remember what he did’ way is wild. He laid off 130 full time employees one time vs the tens of thousands that Microsoft is laying off constantly. Simultaneously, Microsoft is applying for visas to import foreign workers and outsourcing a lot of roles as well. Microsoft is literally cancelling AAA games and closing entire studios, but remember that one time Nintendo laid off a few people in Europe?
Not even close to being in the same realm of comparison.
Layoffs happen. It’s business. It can be a healthy thing for the company.
Pretending this is even close to what the bigger companies are doing today must be exhausting.
NOE is not NOJ
I don’t think many people will see this any more, but there is actually a bit more context than what is written in this article. After these lay-offs were announced, a few independent European Nintendo outlets with connections to NoE made articles about how disrespected these workers felt, and just how much these lay-offs hit them. This was a particularly bad move on Nintendo’s part, and Iwata was the person who made the final decision to cut said employees. When asked for a statement from several Nintendo outlets, they didn’t even offer one.
Not really fond of the people trying to downplay what happened here.
Corporation corporate? 🤯
not even close to what’s happening to Microsoft rn.
It’s literally against the law in Japan to lay people off the way Microsoft is doing.
And while they were not laying people off at Nintendo’s headquarters, they did do so around the world in countries not restricted by those laws.
Corporations and their CEOs are not our friends, they do not act in our best interest. This wasn’t some big sacrifice Iwata made out of the goodness of his heart.
Microsoft is outsourcing to H1 cheap labor. It’s just greed. Unless they remove the infestation doing this, nothing good will ever happen.
We don’t read articles that we post ourselves now?
> “As a separate measure, Nintendo of Europe is reorganizing its European Localization Development (ELD) department, where it currently uses a number of temporary agency workers in translation and testing activities, in order to increase flexibility and cost-efficiency in the long-term,”
They laid off temp staff, not permanent workers like Microsoft did.
I’m sure Nintendo has used restructuring to rid off workers but it’s not on the article you referenced.
Nintendo was going through a crisis at the time. Laying off only 130 people in such a scenario is hard to compare to Xbox laying off nearly 20,000
The difference is Microsoft is doing fine. No need for Uncle Phil to take a pay cut (not that he would do anything except take a golden parachute and retire). Microsoft just wants to use a.i. and cheap labor from India to maintain their large projects going forward. They are an embarrassment of their own choosing.