According to a new report from Kotaku and confirmed by The Verge, Nintendo has closed its offices in California and Toronto.
The shuttering of the office in Redwood City, California, affects around 100 employees within Nintendo’s Sales and Marketing department, as well as its NMI, which is “a dedicated merchandising field team who work with retail stores across the country.” Kotaku’s article mentions “many of the now-displaced staff were upset over the decision.”
Nintendo has confirmed the closures in a statement to The Verge. Here is the statement in full:
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
We don’t yet know how many total jobs have actually been affected. From what we’ve learned in the above statement, many roles are relocating to Nintendo of America and Canada’s headquarters. Due to the rise of hybrid and remote working solutions, the office closure may not necessarily mean jobs have been lost. The opportunity to relocate also looks to be on the table for some.
With the Redwood location reportedly being closed down, Nintendo’s only offices on the West coast remain in the state of Washington, where its headquarters and distribution center call home.
The company recently released a new OLED model of the Switch, Metroid Dread, and added new Switch Online features (and a price bump to support it). For your weekly dose of audio Nintendo news and discussions, check out our podcast All Things Nintendo.
Source: Game Informer