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Discussion Kotaku: Big Shakeup At Nintendo Testing Center Ahead Of Switch 2

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frog

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Nintendo of America is restructuring the small army of contractors that helps test its games and hardware in its Washington state headquarters, the company confirmed to Kotaku. According to four current and former contractors, the result is a massive downsizing that comes amid layoffs across the rest of the video game industry and after the Mario maker reportedly delayed the launch of a “Switch 2" successor until 2025.
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It’s not immediately clear how many total employees will be let go or not have their contracts renewed. According to four current and former employees, the restructuring could affect over 100 contractors, and most of those being converted to full-time status appear to be getting moved out of software testing. This would be the first mass layoff at Nintendo since even larger-scale cuts across competitors in the console space like Sony and Microsoft earlier this year, though it doesn’t appear to impact e shift also comes during a recent “lull” in Nintendo of America’s testing department, three contractors told Kotaku. They said there had been no new major first-party games in the testing pipeline, and none of them were aware of anyone having hands-on time with the upcoming Switch 2, despite previous hopes that it would arrive as early as the second half of 2024. They also weren’t sure how Nintendo of America could continue to test massive games like last year’s The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which was praised for its technical performance and lack of bugs, with the new cuts. Nintendo declined to comment on the status of its testing pipeline.
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kotaku.com

Big Shakeup At Nintendo Testing Center Ahead Of Switch 2

Nintendo of America lays off some contractors while converting others to full-time employees
kotaku.com kotaku.com
 
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Seems like most of these game tester are sadly not getting renewed, meanwhile the other half will become full fledge employees. Not the usual layoff of randomly firing people.

And with the switch 2 on the horizon, there’s no real value of renewing contractors as of right now. Maybe the full fledge employees will be the main team of game testers, instead of the contractors.

Hopefully all those employees will be able to get different contracts from different company, since game tester are sadly seen as lesser value in the game industry, despite them being one of the most important aspect of the industry.
 
They said there had been no new major first-party games in the testing pipeline [...]
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I know there's really nothing to infer or say that isn't expected, but nevertheless I wonder if they mean no major first-party titles that are a well known established IP (allowing for F-Zero or Custom Robo or Golden Sun to make a comeback), or if they mean no full price titles, period.

Either way, I think the only thing this does confirm is that Donkey Kong isn't coming back this year and is most certainly being saved for Switch 2
 
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I don't know how much stock I'd put in some of these comments, particularly in regards to any apparent knowledge of projects coming into the testing pipeline. I was a contractor in NOA product testing previously, and at least back then, contractors had next to no knowledge of any projects outside of what was currently in test. You wouldn't even know what game you were to test on an assignment until the first day of the assignment.

And yeah, this isn't a layoff. NOA contractor testers were always project to project. The fact that they're converting roughly half of the contracts to full-time as part of this restructure is a positive. It's a shame that they aren't doing it for all, but a lot of contractors would bomb out after one project because they just either weren't good testers or, like...sane.
 
Gonna be real with y'all. The whole Switch 2 angle of this article feels forced for the sake of clicks. The news is that some contracts are ending and some are being converted to full-time positions. That's all there is to it.
 
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