Nintendo Of America's Testers Say They Faced Years Of Sexual Harassment

[bear]

EDIT: I'm not sure if I needed to put a content warning of some sort here or if that seems like pandering. There's no explicit content in the article but there's some disturbing behaviour described. Just so people are aware. 

 

 

I'm just starting a topic to highlight this piece of reporting by Kotaku. Its grim reading but it's a great piece of work by Sisi Jiang. 

 

https://kotaku.com/nintendo-of-america-sexual-harassment-sexism-aerotek-1849414921

 

 

[Ry]

I'm shocked. 

 

 

[TehStu]

First of all, what the fuck at this story.

 

Quote

Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser internally acknowledged the media allegations about working conditions at the company. He said that Nintendo has “zero-tolerance for inappropriate conduct, including harassment, discrimination or intimidation.” Kotaku reached out to ask about what steps Nintendo has taken to enforce its zero-tolerance policy for contract employees but did not receive a comment by the time of publication.

Right.

 

Complete aside but we pay $60 for a game tested by someone working in Redmond, WA on $16/hour? This whole industry is bullshit.

[wev]

Weren't there rumours of stuff not being good at Nintendo (in Japan and America) when the Activision, Unisoft, Rockstar and CD Projekt Red allegations were coming out?

[El Spatula]

It's Nintendo though so...

[Wiper]

1 hour ago, Ry said:

I'm shocked.

 

I'm assuming this is sarcasm, but it's incredibly depressing that this solicits such a response. It's bad enough that we have to assume the default position of most games companies is to overwork its staff; expanding that to also include widespread sexual harrassment as a standard within games companies damns the industry even further. Just horrible stuff.

[footle]

Widespread sexual harassment of underpaid contractors by permanent staff, no less. Just to make the power imbalance that little bit more skewed.

[Mars]

Please understand.

[Haribokart]

4 hours ago, El Spatula said:

It's Nintendo though so...

Yep. Nintendo are generally treated by GaMeRs like Trump is by the US far right - whatever shit they get up to, they can do no wrong.

 

Watch the vocal Ubisoft (etc) haters completely ignore this.

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

Fuck Nintendo 

[dataDave]

I love Nintendo games, but incels can go in the bin.

 

Who the fuck talks to women, or anyone, like that thinking it's going to earn them respect/friends/getting laid? 🤣 Is this another one of those American things?

[HarMGM]

This is so incredibly sad to read time and time again. What is it with the lack of ethics and behaviour that's tolerated at these companies?

 

Christ.

 

13 hours ago, El Spatula said:

It's Nintendo though so...

 

10 hours ago, Haribokart said:

Yep. Nintendo are generally treated by GaMeRs like Trump is by the US far right - whatever shit they get up to, they can do no wrong.

 

Watch the vocal Ubisoft (etc) haters completely ignore this.

Leave it to gamers(tm) to turn serious allegations of sexual harassment and assault into a proxy for console/publisher warz.

[Broker]

This is so fucking depressing. I knew they had some shitty work culture but this is repulsive. 

[Shoes]

12 hours ago, dataDave said:

 

Who the fuck talks to women, or anyone, like that thinking it's going to earn them respect/friends/getting laid? 🤣 Is this another one of those American things? 

 

It's not funny mate, neither is it an "American thing".

[matt0]

Grim.

 

It's reached the point where you have to assume that all the major publishers and developers (and many indies) have severe workplace harassment issues now, you just haven't heard about [insert brand x] yet.

[Harsin]

Weirdly EA seem to be the one that hasn’t had rafts of horrific stories about sexual abuse yet. The days when we thought loot boxes were the worst the big publishers were up to seem like halcyon days now.

[Gambit]

18 hours ago, wev said:

Weren't there rumours of stuff not being good at Nintendo (in Japan and America) when the Activision, Unisoft, Rockstar and CD Projekt Red allegations were coming out?

 

Yep. They asked Reggie about it and his response was basically "I didn't see anything". This was while he was trying to shill his shit book.

[Harsin]

2 minutes ago, Gambit said:

 

Yep. They asked Reggie about it and his response was basically "I didn't see anything". This was while he was trying to shill his shit book.

Ah yes, the Yves Guillemot defence.

[wev]

11 minutes ago, Gambit said:

 

Yep. They asked Reggie about it and his response was basically "I didn't see anything". This was while he was trying to shill his shit book.

That rings a bell

 

Course gamers be like "oh it's Nintendo, they're so wholesome"

 

[Ry]

17 hours ago, Wiper said:

 

I'm assuming this is sarcasm, but it's incredibly depressing that this solicits such a response. It's bad enough that we have to assume the default position of most games companies is to overwork its staff; expanding that to also include widespread sexual harrassment as a standard within games companies damns the industry even further. Just horrible stuff.

Yeah, it was sarcasm. 

 

I'm not surprised Nintendo is another shit show. They have always been a shitty company. 

[pulsemyne]

19 minutes ago, Ry said:

Yeah, it was sarcasm. 

 

I'm not surprised Nintendo is another shit show. They have always been a shitty company. 

Well there is quite a difference between NOA and Nintendo of Japan. Not saying that sexism doesn't exist in the later of course.

The thing is this is endemic throughout the industry. It's very male dominated and that breeds an environment of "The lads".

[Gabe]

5 hours ago, HarMGM said:

Leave it to gamers(tm) to turn serious allegations of sexual harassment and assault into a proxy for console/publisher warz.

Is it that though? When it was Ubisoft/Activision et al there were a number of people happy to say how they would boycott them, sometimes with the rider of "which is easy for me as I don't like their games".

 

This forum generally has a lot of love for Nintendo though, so are we going to see people talk of boycotts of them now too, now that it may mean they would have to forego games they do actually want to play? Or will people comment but ultimately shrug their shoulders and carry on?

[BitterToad]

29 minutes ago, Gabe said:

Is it that though? When it was Ubisoft/Activision et al there were a number of people happy to say how they would boycott them, sometimes with the rider of "which is easy for me as I don't like their games".

 

This forum generally has a lot of love for Nintendo though, so are we going to see people talk of boycotts of them now too, now that it may mean they would have to forego games they do actually want to play? Or will people comment but ultimately shrug their shoulders and carry on?

There are ways around giving Nintendo money while still being able to play their games. It might still be morally iffy but if you feel bad about buying Nintendo you can buy second hand. Luckily I've not had to do this for Ubisoft or Activision because their games are shite, but with Ninty I'll absolutely be buying from the forum/pre-owned until they at least apologise and lay out how they're going to change. 

[layten]

26 minutes ago, Gabe said:

Is it that though? When it was Ubisoft/Activision et al there were a number of people happy to say how they would boycott them, sometimes with the rider of "which is easy for me as I don't like their games".

 

This forum generally has a lot of love for Nintendo though, so are we going to see people talk of boycotts of them now too, now that it may mean they would have to forego games they do actually want to play? Or will people comment but ultimately shrug their shoulders and carry on?

It's certainly something which warrants a level of discussion over the glib point scoring comments we got.

 

Personally am I going to stop buying Nintendo games over this? No, I'm not. Am I disappointed to see a company which I held in high regard to be just as much of a dumpster fire as the rest of the industry? Yes.

 

The initial response from the head of NoA is equally disappointing. I would have hoped for better from a company that prides itself on a family friendly image. The best we can hope for now it is in the public domain is that the increased light on the issue will force change of environment and the awful individuals behind it get what they deserve.

[Clipper]

I increasingly buy/play smaller indie titles* and/or Gamepass stuff, partially because they suit my play time and partially because big AAA stuff tends to be riddled with these allegations indicating that AAA production is toxic. I used to play the odd Ubisoft (Assassins Creed) and Activision (COD) title but it all felt a bit grubby especially with the sexual allegations. Paying £60 (or whatever) for a AAA game made under toxic conditions and riddled with loot boxes or other such stuff just feels wrong. I will likely add Nintendo to that list now

 

* I realise that indie titles can also stem from toxic work environments but most of the examples we see are the big boys.

[robdood]

3 hours ago, matt0 said:

Grim.

 

It's reached the point where you have to assume that all the major publishers and developers (and many indies) have severe workplace harassment issues now, you just haven't heard about [insert brand x] yet.

 I can't believe its just gamedev-related workplaces though, right?  It's fucking everywhere.  Its the patriarchy in full effect. 

[Wiper]

This is enough for me to not buy Nintendo games first-hand, and makes me regret e.g. having bought Xenoblade 3 at launch. The list of game producing companies I'm comfortable giving money to grows ever shorter.

[TehStu]

Fair comment. My immediate reaction was "well shit, there's no way we'll boycott BotW 2". The kids are bouncing around excited for it. It was easy when it was Ubisoft and I didn't like the look of Valhalla and (I think) I already had Odyssey in a sale.

 

But robdood is right, it's rife everywhere. You probably just don't hear about it from your bank. I have no idea what we, consumers, can do then. Did we have any effect on Activision? Or Ubisoft? 

 

edit - crunch is the other one I've been trying to avoid, haven't bought Cyberpunk although perhaps that's pissing into the wind at this point. Given the parade of games on Game Pass, I haven't really thought of who might or might not be someone I would ordinarily support with my wallet.

[Benny]

Basically you pick your poison. Though I've not bought an AAA game in a long time as they all turn out to be a load of shite*. Indie games are where my money goes these days. e.g. Ultrakill and Card Shark both recently.

 

*Fromsoft games excepted. Are they AAA?

[Qazimod]

I've been out of the loop with Nintendo for years anyway - the newest hardware of theirs that I own is a 2005-era DS (EDIT: and a SNES Mini I suppose.) Not really because of any personal principles (unless you count "continuous fear of their iterative hardware refreshes and the possibility of buying something the day before a better model is announced") but because I don't have the time or money to support all of the platforms in every generation.

 

Nevertheless, it's all pretty gross.