A recent statement coming from Nintendo of Europe has confirmed that 320 Nintendo employees will be laid off from their jobs at NOE, effective August 31st, 2014.
Among the 320 employees losing their job, 190 of them are part of Nintendo of Europe’s Germany-stationed localization team, while the other 130 are full-time Nintendo of Europe employees.
Back in June, Nintendo reported that they were planning on laying off the aforementioned 130 employees as part of a restructuring initiative. The other 190 employees were employed by Nintendo of Europe through a leasing agency. The localization and testing assignments once tasked to the department will now be outsourced to other agencies.
You can read what Nintendo of Europe had to say regarding the layoffs below:
Nintendo of Europe’s Statement
“As previously communicated in June 2014, approximately 130 permanent employees will be released by Nintendo of Europe (Germany) at the end of August 2014 as part of a set of measures to better enable the European business to adapt to the rapidly changing business environment.
As a separate measure, Nintendo of Europe is reorganizing its European Localization Development (ELD) department, where it currently uses a number of temporary agency workers in translation and testing activities, in order to increase flexibility and cost-efficiency in the long-term. It is intended that there will be an increase in outsourcing future translation and test activities to third-party companies on an as-needed basis, and very sadly this has meant having ended the contracts of 190 temporary agency workers, who were formally notified of this decision in June 2014.”
The chief of Nintendo, Satoru Iwata, has previously gone on record back in 2013 in regards to company layoffs.
In a July 2013 investor call, Iwata stated the following:
“If we reduce the number of employees for better short-term financial results, employee morale will decrease, I sincerely doubt employees who fear that they may be laid off will be able to develop software titles that could impress people around the world.
I know that some employers publicize their restructuring plan to improve their financial performance by letting a number of their employees go, but at Nintendo, employees make valuable contributions in their respective fields, so I believe that laying off a group of employees will not help to strengthen Nintendo’s business in the long run.”
What are your thoughts on this situation? Do you feel that the layoffs were necessary for Nintendo of Europe’s restructuring plan? Let us know in the comments section below! As always, stay tuned to GamerHeadlines.com for the latest in video game and technology news.
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