That's all I had to write!
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in reply to @BurningYggdrassil's post:
Not tryna burst bubbles, but the reason Nintendo didn't do layoffs after the Wii U flop was Japanese labor laws, not the benevolence of Iwata.
You'll note that SE and Capcom haven't had any real layoffs over the past year and Sega's have been limited to their American division. Sony's layoffs have only been at western studios because they no longer have development staff in Japan.
I have no bubbles to burst that I would fear, so no worries. But at the same time you might have read something different into this.
Iwata was the only one I know of that actually halved his paycheck. It seems like it was his own choice and, even if just a symbolic act, it sure must have boosted morale at Nintendo.
Not much understanding of how things work over there when it comes to work (even though I am eyeballing the oppurtunities) but pretty sure it also depends on individual contracts.
It's just the labor laws, I promise:
It's funny how some people can't even allow you to remember a dead man on peace.
It's actually very good. Rather facts than falsely believing in something, so I thank Ctg for the info.
I do hear rather often though that working for Nintendo of Japan is a great time. Very few leave those jobs early as they want to stay for a long time.
Sveral other high-ups also cut their paychecks with about 20%, so seems they were taking care of the company, symbolic or not.
While it is true that Japanese labor laws make layoffs harder, Nintendo's financials and forecasts at the time allowed them to get away with it of they wamted.
Layoffs in Japan happen in hidden ways more frequently with studio consolidations, floating subsidiaries, and negotiated settlements, none which were reported at the time (this year, when SE absorbed Tokyo RPG Factory, an unreported number of people lost their job).
So Nintendo did have the option to layoff people in Japan at the time. They also had the option to layoff the useless people at Retro Studios.
That an example of a satellite office closure is used to contradict the stated philosophy of Iwata is an inaccurate reading of the facts. Especially since those services were trending towards consolidation on single bigger offices for years (at the height of the Switch power, all West America branches moved to Seattle and the affected employees had the option to move).
It doesn't look like this example (affecting 130 direct employees and 190 contractors) actually had anything to do with Nintendo's financials, and had more to do with the fact they were outsourcing Localization in Europe and consolidating their European operation.
And thank you for this. This getting more interesting now.
More funzies.