Topic: Previous Employees Bad Mouth Nintendo

[Caterkiller]

http://kotaku.com/5940672/pissed-off-employees-bash-pretty-much-every-major-video-game-company


Well everyone who has worked for any major video game company has bad things to say. Read it all here, only this is for Nintendo. I left out a few things, so take a look at the link.


Cons – No layoffs means no change. Many of the management are there for 20+ year, and proud of it. Many of them joined Nintendo fresh out of college, or in some cases, high school. They do not know how the world outside Nintendo works. They do not know managers in the other successful companies are highly educated and competitive.

Because the old timers won't leave, there's no room for young talented people to move up. Many smart young people left. Those who get promotions are lazy workers who spend 50% of his day sucking up to management, lying about his achievements. Very disappointing for honest, hardworking, capable people.

Advice to Senior Management – The review in ONLY top down. No manager gets comments from subordinates. No use to complain to manager above, as they all protect themselves, knowing the limitation of their competencies. They really need 360 degree review process.

Cons – Extremely hierarchical. Decisions are made in Japan and NOA employees are expected to execute. Initiative is not encouraged.

Cons – Parent headquarters micro-manages most marketing tactics. Spend most of your time explaining and justifying actions, instead of being innovative and aggressive [sic] in the competitive video game industry. No work/life balance. Headquarters want to be cooperative but has difficulty trusting and allowing US subsidiary to be proactive.
Advice to Senior Management – Let the US subsidiary do their work and market in the style appropriate to our consumers. Move beyond finger pointing and finding scapegoats to making the best video games possible.

[NWR_insanolord]

From the perspective of an outsider who has followed the company for a long time, those all sound like fair criticisms of Nintendo, and many of them are things that have been argued before on these forums by people without that kind of insider knowledge.

[Chozo Ghost]

I don't doubt any of that criticism. As a consumer I don't know much about what goes on at Nintendo internally behind the scenes, but I do see how rigid and unflexable and unadapatable they are in the marketplace. Nintendo refused to adapt when the market shifted to CDs, and then again with online play, HD graphics, and now with hard drives... so I have no reason to doubt that the way Nintendo is run internally is like that. We see it externally, and it makes sense these decisions are a reflection of the hidden internal workings of the company.

[Enner]

Complaints are consistent with the decisions Nintendo makes. I can only hope that Nintendo addresses these problems before it is too late.


EDIT:
Worthwhile to skim through the website.
http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Nintendo-of-America-Reviews-E4173.htm


One thing that sticks it out is that the company's culture is changing due to the recent financial results.


EDIT, EDIT: Oh, and the lack of promotions/advancements.

[Lithium]

a lot of these seem like common complaints for about any company, but it doesn't surprise me to see these directed at Nintendo. as just about everyone in this thread said, it really shows even on a consumer level

[lolmonade]

http://kotaku.com/5940672/pissed-off-employees-bash-pretty-much-every-major-video-game-company


Well everyone who has worked for any major video game company has bad things to say. Read it all here, only this is for Nintendo. I left out a few things, so take a look at the link.


Cons – No layoffs means no change. Many of the management are there for 20+ year, and proud of it. Many of them joined Nintendo fresh out of college, or in some cases, high school. They do not know how the world outside Nintendo works. They do not know managers in the other successful companies are highly educated and competitive.

Because the old timers won't leave, there's no room for young talented people to move up. Many smart young people left. Those who get promotions are lazy workers who spend 50% of his day sucking up to management, lying about his achievements. Very disappointing for honest, hardworking, capable people.

Advice to Senior Management – The review in ONLY top down. No manager gets comments from subordinates. No use to complain to manager above, as they all protect themselves, knowing the limitation of their competencies. They really need 360 degree review process.

As someone who is a part of the corporate world, I can tell you first-hand that these are not Nintendo-only problems.  Any company that gets large enough will have issues with Management being lifelong employees, and possible career stagnation if you don't work hard enough.  These are all complains that are typical for any company that's larger than a postage stamp.
 
Unfortunately, networking is integral to promotion as well, and that complain sounds almost like someone who was jealous their peer got a promotion over them because they see themselves as more qualified.
 
One thing I can say: I'm grateful to work for the company I do BECAUSE they do things like manager effectiveness surveys, employee satisfaction surveys, 360 degree reviews, etc.  It isn't a cure-all for managerial stubborness, but it definitely helps.
 
What I will say is that if the complains about management and NOJ being stubborn to change are true, then it's reflected in Nintendo's products.

[S-U-P-E-R]

I used to read a certain site all the time that was basically like wikileaks for the game biz. I saw the same stuff being said about Nintendo back then, too. (5-10 years ago) The upsides were good job perks like on-site massages or whatever. I wonder if the perks are still as good post-relocation.

[Ian Sane]

I find it incredibly frustrating to be a Nintendo customer.  To work for them would probably be hell.  "Stubborn old men with their heads up their asses" would be a good way to describe the company in general.  And the managers shifting blame and dodging criticism?  No ****.  I think the high 3DS price was the first time Nintendo admitted fault on anything.  They act like they never do anything wrong publicly so why not privately as well?

No company would come across publicly as stubborn as Nintendo does while being all open-minded and adaptive within.  You can fake a good image while being a disaster within but no one fakes a bad one.

[Chozo Ghost]

I don't know if this is in any way related to this, but I remember reading in an article not that long ago about how there are no women in any senior positions at Nintendo. I'm sure they employ women for the small stuff, but there are none whatsoever in the higher levels of the company.

[Ceric]

I don't know if this is in any way related to this, but I remember reading in an article not that long ago about how there are no women in any senior positions at Nintendo. I'm sure they employ women for the small stuff, but there are none whatsoever in the higher levels of the company.

I think Women's Rights in Japan aren't yet what they are here in the North America.

[Chozo Ghost]

I think Women's Rights in Japan aren't yet what they are here in the North America.

Legally I'm sure they have the same rights as men over there. The problem they face is discrimination because of cultural reasons, or whatever. But they do have the same right to vote, and everything else. But from the sounds of it, Nintendo seems to be run by this "Good 'ol Boy Network" which excludes girls.

[Louieturkey]

I don't doubt any of that criticism. As a consumer I don't know much about what goes on at Nintendo internally behind the scenes, but I do see how rigid and unflexable and unadapatable they are in the marketplace. Nintendo refused to adapt when the market shifted to CDs, and then again with online play, HD graphics, and now with hard drives... so I have no reason to doubt that the way Nintendo is run internally is like that. We see it externally, and it makes sense these decisions are a reflection of the hidden internal workings of the company.

After reading this, do you still blame Reggie for all of NOA's faults?

[Chozo Ghost]

After reading this, do you still blame Reggie for all of NOA's faults?

I don't blame him for the faults of Nintendo as a whole and I never did, but the faults of NOA? Absolutely.

[Ceric]

That is sort of why Reggie is paid what he is is to take the blame.

[Louieturkey]

After reading this, do you still blame Reggie for all of NOA's faults?

I don't blame him for the faults of Nintendo as a whole and I never did, but the faults of NOA? Absolutely.

So the fact that reports are essentially saying he doesn't have the power to bring games over as that is the choice of NOJ doesn't change your opinion of him? 

[Sarail]

After reading this, do you still blame Reggie for all of NOA's faults?

I don't blame him for the faults of Nintendo as a whole and I never did, but the faults of NOA? Absolutely.

So the fact that reports are essentially saying he doesn't have the power to bring games over as that is the choice of NOJ doesn't change your opinion of him? 

Sometimes you have to stand up to the man.

Only then will people actually take notice - to which you can then make a difference.

[Chozo Ghost]

So the fact that reports are essentially saying he doesn't have the power to bring games over as that is the choice of NOJ doesn't change your opinion of him?

He might not have the power, but he still could make some effort to plead the case. I don't see him even making any effort. He just accepts NCL's decision, and that's pretty much it. We need someone who is independent and an advocate for the fans. And btw, why is it that Nintendo of Europe does a better job than NOA of delivering the games? You say NCL calls the shots, and that's probably true to a large extent, but if so why does Europe still get stuff that America does not?

[Caterkiller]

Chozo we will never see Reggie plead, for all we know he very well could have. But it will never be made public except in anonymous instances such as this.

Imagine if NOA and NOJ were constantly going at it about which games go where and that was made public? That's no good at all.

Reggie has done nothing wrong. Blame Iwata, seriously. Still, we did get Xenoblade right? The end result is a positive one.

[Louieturkey]

Chozo we will never see Reggie plead, for all we know he very well could have. But it will never be made public except in anonymous instances such as this.

Imagine if NOA and NOJ were constantly going at it about which games go where and that was made public? That's no good at all.

Reggie has done nothing wrong. Blame Iwata, seriously. Still, we did get Xenoblade right? The end result is a positive one.

Partly positive. We still probably aren't getting Pandora's Tower and we didn't get Fatal Frame 4 (they could have paid Koei to fix the game) and probably aren't getting Project Zero 2.  No Zengeki no Reglinev, no Captain Rainbow, none of the obscure games that if translated on a budget and were handled similar to the way Atlus does its releases, could still make a small profit.

And yes, I blame Iwata for all of that.  Then again, there were a lot of games that we didn't get when Howard Lincoln ran NOA either.  It seems this is an ongoing thing.

[Sarail]

Chozo we will never see Reggie plead, for all we know he very well could have. But it will never be made public except in anonymous instances such as this.

Imagine if NOA and NOJ were constantly going at it about which games go where and that was made public? That's no good at all.

Reggie has done nothing wrong. Blame Iwata, seriously. Still, we did get Xenoblade right? The end result is a positive one.

Partly positive. We still probably aren't getting Pandora's Tower and we didn't get Fatal Frame 4 (they could have paid Koei to fix the game) and probably aren't getting Project Zero 2.  No Zengeki no Reglinev, no Captain Rainbow, none of the obscure games that if translated on a budget and were handled similar to the way Atlus does its releases, could still make a small profit.

And yes, I blame Iwata for all of that.  Then again, there were a lot of games that we didn't get when Howard Lincoln ran NOA either.  It seems this is an ongoing thing.

Seiken Densetsu 3, Terranigma, Bahamat's Lagoon... to name a few. :/

[TJ Spyke]

But those are third party games, I think Louie meant first party games.

[Sarail]

Oh, right. Hah, sorry. I guess I'm just really bummed those never came over. Completely Square-Enix's fault.

[GK]

Seiken Densetsu 3, Terranigma, Bahamat's Lagoon... to name a few. :/

Maybe not these but Disaster: Day of Crisis?

Here's to hoping for an updated Wii U version.

[BlackNMild2k1]

Maybe they can just eShop all those previously unlocalized games

and then if they sell enough of them to warrant a translation, they can translate it and give the update to those that already bought it, just like the Ambassador program on 3DS.

[Louieturkey]

Oh, right. Hah, sorry. I guess I'm just really bummed those never came over. Completely Square-Enix's fault.

You may be able to blame Nintendo for those.   They were doing most of the publishing for Squaresoft during the SNES days.