One of the biggest differences between Nintendo and most other publishers in the industry is that the former has never resorted to mass layoffs and other means of cutting down on their workforce, even in pressing conditions where the company’s profit were much below their projections. And during one of those times back in 2014, instead of laying off a large number of developers to make up for falling revenues, the Nintendo Company Limited president at the time, Satoru Iwata, took a 50% pay cut in order to keep up employments which had also resulted in a massive boost in morale among the developers.
This act of generosity from Nintendo continues to remain a shining beacon in the industry, especially in the current era where mass layoffs have sadly become far more common than they’ve ever been.
And recently, the former President of Nintendo of America, Reggie Fils-Aimé has shared insights on their view on layoffs which he reveals, is something the company had never been interested in.
“We thought about people from the standpoint that we never wanted to go through layoffs or mass eliminations of people. It just wasn’t in our DNA,” he said (via DualShockers).
Also, according to him, the companies that have undergone massive layoffs recently, are more likely to be major Red flags for the employees.
Almost all the big AAA studios right now are laying off a vast part of their workforce and it’s unclear whether the actual reason for this is AI or not cause huge mega corporations have all the incentive for using AI to replace human developers and workers as it lets them to increase their total revenue in more ways than one. And as the industry has placed profit over people many times in the past, the possibility of the companies putting AI ahead of live humans can’t be dismissed, as of right now.
