Nintendo has confirmed that it’s laying off some internal testers amidst a first-party ‘lull’ that has a lack of exclusive games prepped for 2024, including the Switch 2 reportedly being delayed. The company confirmed that impacted testers will receive severance packages and be provided “assistance during their transition.”
Following a report from Kotaku about the layoffs, Nintendo officially responded with its own statement confirming that it is restructuring its internal testing, leading to some internal testers being let go due to a lack of first-party games and hardware being ready.
The statement from Nintendo reads:
“For all assignments that are ending, the contractors’ agencies, with [Nintendo of America’s] support, will offer severance packages and provide assistance during their transition. For those contractor associates who will be leaving us, we are tremendously grateful for the important contributions they’ve made to our business, and we extend our heartfelt thanks for their hard work and service to Nintendo.”
Contractors claim that Nintendo has no new major first-party games on the horizon and that no tester had hands-on time with the Switch successor yet, which was originally rumoured to launch in late 2024 but reports claim that it has now been pushed to next year in order to avoid hardware shortages.
The official number of internal testers being laid off hasn’t been confirmed yet, though four former and current Nintendo employees said in Kotaku’s report that it could potentially impact over 100 workers. Those being converted to full-time employment are also apparently being moved out of software testing.
Nintendo joins the list of gaming companies that have been hit with mass layoffs recently. Earlier this year, Microsoft cut around 1,900 jobs across its gaming divisions at Xbox including Bethesda and Activision Blizzard. In February, Sony laid off 900 employees with studios like Insomniac, Naughty Dog and Guerrilla Games impacted by the job cuts.
Source: Kotaku
