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Discussion Kotaku: Sources: Nintendo Shutters California Office

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kotaku.com

Nintendo Shutters California And Toronto Offices

Employees are displaced following the closure of two of Nintendo's few North American locations
kotaku.com kotaku.com

Nintendo closed its California office today, displacing roughly 100 employees, sources tell Kotaku.

The Redwood City location was one of three main offices for Nintendo of America, which is headquartered in Redmond, Washington.
 
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Sounds like a fluid situation so I'm going to hold off judgement for the moment but I hope Nintendo helps everyone either relocate or land on their feet.
 
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Wonder if this is the start of a wider trend. Got to be lots of companies out there wondering if all their locations are needed now people have worked online/from home.
 
Gashead said:
Wonder if this is the start of a wider trend. Got to be lots of companies out there wondering if all their locations are needed now people have worked online/from home.
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Yep, this is happening everywhere. Going to assume those that can't do their work from home were offered relocation.
 
This is shit; at the very least I hope they offered them positions within the company and relocation assistance.
 
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I believe that office handles marketing and retail store relations no?

I can only assume they either 1, physical offices are becoming less needed or Covid took a real hit to them.
 
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Displaced usually means relocated. They would say the workers were laid off if they were confirmed to have been let go. Hopefully we get clarification soon.
 
Considering the SVP of Sales & Marketing posted the same day that he got a job with KFC, the impression I get is that he was looking for other work, found it and peaced out, but his departure left Nintendo seeing less and less reasons to continue operating an office in SoCal (Redwood Shores, specifically), which it was situated in since 2007. That's expensive real estate.

Like others, my hope is that this will lead to the team having a work-from-home situation or optional relocation.
 
displaced usually means laid off every time i've seen it in use
 
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I hope this just means the office was closed and not that the employees were all let go. I know a lot of companies are doing that, the big corporation I work for has also shuttered a bunch of locations
 
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evilmonkey said:
Displaced usually means relocated. They would say the workers were laid off if they were confirmed to have been let go. Hopefully we get clarification soon.
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Nah, displaced in HR parlance means fired or laid off. It sounds like these folks were just outright let go.
 
Terrell said:
That's expensive real estate.
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As a non American that always bugged me. Silicon valley and all the nonsense is shoved in one corner of the country but America is so big you have to fly anywhere anyway so why not just choose some cheaper more rural place to set up shop? Your workers are stuck inside all day it's not like anyone is making the most of California's weather. A 4 hour flight to LA and NY is better than an 8 hour flight from one to the other.
 
Gashead said:
As a non American that always bugged me. Silicon valley and all the nonsense is shoved in one corner of the country but America is so big you have to fly anywhere anyway so why not just choose some cheaper more rural place to set up shop? Your workers are stuck inside all day it's not like anyone is making the most of California's weather. A 4 hour flight to LA and NY is better than an 8 hour flight from one to the other.
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I will say, it was probably a convenient location for them to use as home base during E3 planning when that was still a huge deal. But everyone but Microsoft seems to be abandoning ship on that after the security breach that led to press harassment and thanks to COVID rendering it pretty close to useless for the past 2 years.
 
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Gashead said:
As a non American that always bugged me. Silicon valley and all the nonsense is shoved in one corner of the country but America is so big you have to fly anywhere anyway so why not just choose some cheaper more rural place to set up shop? Your workers are stuck inside all day it's not like anyone is making the most of California's weather. A 4 hour flight to LA and NY is better than an 8 hour flight from one to the other.
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Aside from convinced location, because status quo, this is a big country with a lot of great cities and villages and townships.

And as a foreigner living here, the amount of disdain I see for anything not being one of the major cities is just always shocking to me. A whole separate conversation from another thread, but i see too many people wishing small cities and towns would just die off.

This day and age especially, work should be able to be down from anywhere.
 
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Gashead said:
As a non American that always bugged me. Silicon valley and all the nonsense is shoved in one corner of the country but America is so big you have to fly anywhere anyway so why not just choose some cheaper more rural place to set up shop? Your workers are stuck inside all day it's not like anyone is making the most of California's weather. A 4 hour flight to LA and NY is better than an 8 hour flight from one to the other.
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Same reason you don't build a grocery store in the middle of the desert
 
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Gashead said:
As a non American that always bugged me. Silicon valley and all the nonsense is shoved in one corner of the country but America is so big you have to fly anywhere anyway so why not just choose some cheaper more rural place to set up shop? Your workers are stuck inside all day it's not like anyone is making the most of California's weather. A 4 hour flight to LA and NY is better than an 8 hour flight from one to the other.
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Because that's where the expertise is. People with a tech background work there because that's where the tech companies are. You can set your tech company up wherever you like, but good luck hiring people who live there already / want to live there with the relevant experience. This applies to every country, not just America.
 
storres said:
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Oh holy crap, the Toronto sales office, as well. This is starting to sound more like a major restructuring of their sales, marketing and retail services operation. Relocation talk is promising, though. Let's hope Nintendo is helping foot the bill to make it happen for those who want it.
 
Terrell said:
Oh holy crap, the Toronto sales office, as well. This is starting to sound more like a major restructuring of their sales, marketing and retail services operation.
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Yep, but I don't understand. Their marketing teams seem to have knocked it out of the park this last few years... Hopefully someone can clarify/ give insight to their plans.
 
At least it sounds like some employees got to relocate and keep their jobs, still sucks for any who didn’t.
 
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Hope those employees land on their feet. Not used to seeing this kind of business news regarding Nintendo. Wonder if it's a restructuring of NoA?
 
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storres said:
Yep, but I don't understand. Their marketing teams seem to have knocked it out of the park this last few years... Hopefully someone can clarify/ give insight to their plans.
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Given that employees are being given the opportunity to move into HQs in Redmond and Vancouver, seems like they want the teams to be more readily accessible to management. These satellite offices were a Reggie initiative, so I imagine that these locations were pitched as a sort of strategic advantage and were not living up to that promise when they could have been at HQ from the start. So they're course-correcting. Which really sucks for the people on the team that can't or won't relocate or aren't able to remotely keep their jobs.

EDIT: The other possibility, considering the SVP is out, is that sales & marketing were successful in spite of their efforts instead of because of them and the SVP and his teams not being directly on-hand at HQ was becoming a problem. Considering the SVP is the only one who is for sure off Nintendo's payroll, this also seems possible.

EDIT 2: It's worth a reminder that current NoA president was head of sales & marketing during the Switch's first year or so, when their marketing was (IMO) at its most effective. Post-launch and following Doug Bowser's promotion, Nintendo advertisement was kinda sparse to non-existent in the advertising spaces where my eyes frequently were. For example, their ad penetration in on-demand TV network apps here in Canada wasn't there AT ALL, but I'd regularly see PlayStation and Xbox in those spaces.
 
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If they are closing both offices it seems more like a reconstruction/reconsolidation rather than just closing the office and letting the employees go. Plus Kotaku updated their article with this

Nintendo of America headquarters are in Redmond, WA, and Vancouver, BC. We are moving more of our employees and operations into those headquarters and will be closing small satellite offices in Toronto, ON, and Redwood City, CA, over time.

Devon Pritchard, Executive Vice President, Business Affairs and Publisher Relations for Nintendo of America (NOA), will assume interim leadership of Sales, Marketing and Communications following the departure of Nick Chavez. Ms. Pritchard will oversee strategy and execution of sales, marketing and communications across the U.S. and Canada.
 
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Phantoon said:
Because that's where the expertise is. People with a tech background work there because that's where the tech companies are. You can set your tech company up wherever you like, but good luck hiring people who live there already / want to live there with the relevant experience. This applies to every country, not just America.
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Which is a silly notion IMO and it causes more long term damage in pricing people not in that field out of affordable housing.

In general, more companies should diversify their locations across the country. But I say this a non American. I have no issue moving anywhere in this country for a great job if I can’t do it remotely. Lots of great areas across the whole U.S.
 
Clix said:
Which is a silly notion IMO and it causes more long term damage in pricing people not in that field out of affordable housing.

In general, more companies should diversify their locations across the country. But I say this a non American. I have no issue moving anywhere in this country for a great job if I can’t do it remotely. Lots of great areas across the whole U.S.
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You can not compare lifestyle between big cities and small areas.



On topic: I hope everyone the best. Weird to see this news coming from Nintendo. Having that said, lets wait and see.
 
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Terrell said:
Oh holy crap, the Toronto sales office, as well. This is starting to sound more like a major restructuring of their sales, marketing and retail services operation. Relocation talk is promising, though. Let's hope Nintendo is helping foot the bill to make it happen for those who want it.
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Heart-breaking as I tried to find the Toronto office but no luck, I wanted to check it out! :'(
 
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I'm crossing my fingers people are being proper relocation, if they're being shifted around, and were given adequate heads up and any kind of assistance, if they're being let go. I can't imagine how rough this would be for folk whom worked there
 
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Klois said:
article says

so not sounding good :/
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to be fair its kotaku, I wont take anything they type serious as they like to twist things for views and outrage. we dont know if Nintendo transfer them, offered them work remote, benefits, gold parachute etc etc etc.
 
Sumio Mondo said:
Vancouver is a long arse way from Toronto lol. And a whole lot more expensive to live in too.
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Toronto has actually closed the gap in the past little while and they're about equal in how terribly inexpensive they are to live in now.
 
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Gashead said:
As a non American that always bugged me. Silicon valley and all the nonsense is shoved in one corner of the country but America is so big you have to fly anywhere anyway so why not just choose some cheaper more rural place to set up shop? Your workers are stuck inside all day it's not like anyone is making the most of California's weather. A 4 hour flight to LA and NY is better than an 8 hour flight from one to the other.
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People live in the cities

You need people to work in your offices, so the companies are also in the cities

I don't really understand your point about flights. I'm 23 and have never flown anywhere. If something's not in driving distance, I don't interact with it.

And people aren't at work all day 7 days a week. The climate is 100% a consideration for where people want to work/live.
 
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Jahranimo said:
I'm still unsure what to make of this honestly. Seems sudden, at least from the outside-looking-in.
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If the VSP had time to get a new corporate job, likely it was not sudden, or at least we will know if it was sudden cause that gets drummed up a lot when it happens
 
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