Nintendo of America is currently in the process of laying off an undisclosed number of contractors who help with testing games and hardware. It’s unclear how many workers will be affected by this but it’s estimated to be over 100 contractors.
In a statement given to Kotaku, a Nintendo spokesperson said, these changes “will involve changes will involve some contractor assignments ending, as well as the creation of a significant number of new full-time employee positions.” The report explains that some contractors working alongside Nintendo of America feel as if they’ve been exploited and underpaid for some time, as they sought full-time employment with the company. Although some testers are being hired and moved out of software testing, the rest will be let go. Nintendo has stated that those impacted will receive severance packages.
The full statement given to Kotaku reads:
“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.”
The report goes on to explain that three contractors speaking to Kotaku noticed a “lull,” during which time no new first-party games had been tested. In addition, none of them had tested the upcoming Switch 2, which was initially suspected to drop during the second half of this year. Due to these cuts, some contractors have voiced concern about being able to adequately test Nintendo’s bigger games.
Unfortunately, layoffs continue to be a trend this year. Just recently, Certain Affinity laid off 25 of its employees and last month, Sony laid off 900 of its employees.
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