Original Article By Ryan Pearson At NicheGamer.com
Nintendo have announced they are closing two offices in North America; one in California, and one in Ontario.
Kotaku report that Nintendo closed its Redwood City, California office on October 29th. Sources told Kotaku that roughly 100 employees were affected, along with the resignation of SVP of Sales and Marketing Nick Chavez (the position previously held by President of Nintendo of America Doug Bowser). Chavez announced earlier that day he would be joining KFC.
Later, Nintendo issued a statement to Kotaku, confirming they would be moving employees and operations to headquarters (Redmond, Washington and Vancouver, British Columbia) and will be closing smaller satellite offices over time; including Toronto, Ontario.
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The Redwood City office handled sales and marketing, and had field teams working directly with retail stores. Executive Vice President, Business Affairs and Publisher Relations Devon Pritchard will handle Sales, Marketing and Communications for now; taking duties from Chavez.
Kotaku also note that closures and restructurings are rare for NIntendo; with the last cases being 2016 (downsizing in South Korea), and 2014 (restructuring in Europe; leading to 300 lay offs). The late Satoru Iwata, CEO of Nintendo, resisted layoffs as they were bad for morale. He elected to take a pay cut in the aftermath of the Wii U’s poor reception.
By all accounts, Nintendo have been doing well. The Nintendo Switch held a 33 consecutive month US best seller record; only broken by the PlayStation 5 in September of this year.
