Satoru Iwata Refuses to Layoff Nintendo Employees

[rapidoud]

And another piece of news showing that they actually care. A pretty sad tone in this one but it's kinda refreshing to hear from a company that's not yelling "give us money" while they fire people and close studios... Fuck have I been pessimistic this week...

They don't care. They are doing what they think will get them the most money.

Businesses have no morals kid, hate to destroy your fantasy. They are literally created to generate wealth for the owners as well as stakeholders. Nintendo believe that moral will trump in the end (also the fact you'd have to rehire new people and train them as well as pay severance packages), but only time will tell if it was a good move.

 

[Hero of Lime]

Can I have a job at Nintendo of America? Pretty Please?

Even though I understand that sometimes employees need to be laid off to keep a company(usually smaller ones) from going under, but it's good to see a really big company know it will lose money, but keep some trust with its employees.

 

[RicoADF]

It seems the Japanese are one of the few cultures that still embraces honour.

They also possess the ability to consider long term effects of decisions.

Thats why I prefer Sony to Microsoft, the culture of the Japanese is far better and doesnt have the "fuck you, now give me more money" of America. Hmm you know that Wii U I was looking at now has 10x more appeal....

 

[Strazdas]

It seems the Japanese are one of the few cultures that still embraces honour.

They also possess the ability to consider long term effects of decisions.

when it comes to economics, the world was always divided between western "short term profits, ignore long term" and japanese "long term profits despite short term loss" strategies. its mroe than just games. economits even got a joke about it, american creating a fire brings a couple rough logs, pour gasoline on it, light it up and ignore any damage funes, the japanese buids the fire stick by stick, slowly, untill it shines just as bright. this is saying a lot of americas way of "Throw money at it, if problem, throw more money" strategy we saw on big budget busters too.

 

[barbzilla]

Just have to trust that they know what they are doing. There is some logic in not firing any employees, however, there is also logic is reducing redundancy. Generally, hard financial times can help a company realize that they have people whose jobs are pointless or inefficient.

So, I see this is both a good and bad thing. Nintendo is doing something that is decent. Still, this could also have negative long term effects if they simply ignore the fat and don't trim it.

While what you say is true, they will discover they have some jobs that are useless, that doesn't mean that the employee is useless. This is a very common mistake, and has destroyed more than a few businesses. Downsizing usually results in lowered productivity out of the remaining workers as they have both lost friends and fear for their future at the company. It is much better to do away with the redundant jobs and keep the employee. Especially in the world of coding, since someone can, quite easily, be moved to another project.

 

[Monsterfurby]

Remember - they are only passing layoffs down the value chain! Nintendo will have to amend their own business strategy to accommodate, which might hurt second/third parties and distributors.

Of course, that's all perfectly legitimate business, but don't think that it won't be felt anywhere else.

 

[Lovely Mixture]

It's official, we need a Good Guy Iwata meme.

"3DS isn't selling well, therefore we need to make benefit cuts."
"...for my annual salary"

"WiiU isn't selling well, we should downsize.
"...Our budget"

 

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

I tip my hat to the man. A noble thing to do.

 

[Rossmallo]

This, combined with the fact he elected to eat a massive pay cut himself as opposed to dropping it on the employees...This shows how bloody awesome Iwata is.

Good on ya, man.

 

[DBLT4P]

Nice going Nintendo... I went to Gamestop and explicitly asked for a new copy of Fire Emblem: Awakening like a good like boy, but you had to go and make me feel guilty for getting the 3DS I needed to play it off ebay anyway.

I guess I'll have to buy project X zone now...

 

[NoeL]

Their marketing and mindshare bods need a good freshen up however. Games like Wonderful 101 are due out in a month or so and the vast majority of people have absolutely no idea just what the fuck it is yet.

Totally agree. Despite coming in under their projected profits I doubt Nintendo are hurting financially. If they're going to turn their sales around they need to throw a sizable chunk of cash into advertising.

Pokemon X and Y and the rest of the 3DS library is coming out soon, they'll be fine.

Yeah, but it's the Wii U sales that are hurting. Pokemon isn't going to push them up.

 

[Darmani]

I think like the 3DS just accumulation of familiar and funky but appealing titles will solve that issue. The problem is it does nothing for now AND companies are marking AGAINST a WiiU in the future, even if its understandable (ZombiU being unprofitable) risking that being less and less supported only by boutique games and games out of sync with major offerings when 3rd parties are driving the growing profits. Or being unable to play and not getting the yearly games EVERYONE gets is a major impetus to your product ESPECIALLY when its just as expensive. Its like.. well getting an HD-DVD player when you have to buy a next gen gaming system anyway and they cost about the same.

 

[tzimize]

It seems the Japanese are one of the few cultures that still embraces honour.

They also possess the ability to consider long term effects of decisions.

That ability is shockingly absent in a lot of the industry.

 

[Joos]

I wish my manager was this wise.