Nintendo is closing two of its North American Offices, one located in Toronto (Ontario, Canada) and the other located in Redwood City (California, USA). This news was initially reported by Kotaku, which stated roughly 100 employees between both branches would be displaced as a result of said closure.
Nintendo later confirmed this news in a Statment, saying:
Nintendo of America headquarters are in Redmond, WA, and Vancouver, BC. We are moving more of our employees and operations into those headquarters and will be closing small satellite offices in Toronto, ON, and Redwood City, CA, over time.
As part of this news, the departure of Nick Chavez who was SVP sales, marketing, and communications at the Nintendo Redwood City office was also pointed to. He announced his latest job with the fast-food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken through his LinkedIn profile on Friday.
As part of the statement, Nintendo said:
Devon Pritchard, executive vice president, business affairs and publisher relations for Nintendo of America (NOA), will assume interim leadership of sales, marketing and communications following the departure of Nick Chavez. Ms. Pritchard will oversee strategy and execution of sales, marketing and communications across the US and Canada.
Those two satellite offices strictly dealt with Sales and Marketing, meaning that any games currently in development are likely to be unaffected by these closures. Furthermore, many of the hotly anticipated releases from Nintendo such as Splatoon 3, Breath of The Wild 2, or Kirby And The Forgotten City are being developed in Japan so this restructuring looks only to affect the company on a corporate level.
That being said, it is never fun to hear that people will be losing their positions due to corporate restructuring, regardless of how much of a benefit said restructuring can have. Hopefully, everybody displaced is able to land ok.
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