The workplace environment at Nintendo of America has been recently getting a lot of flack, mainly due to the company’s attempts to keep employees from unionizing. Unfortunately, Kotaku has released a report that it is not just union-busting that Nintendo of America has allegedly been doing. This time, it relates to the company’s game testers.
Although these game testers were contracted through Aerotek, which was later reorganized into Aston Carter, they did their work at Nintendo of America’s headquarters and interacted with Nintendo’s full-time employees. According to Kotaku, “Nintendo’s careers page indicated that roughly 25% of the roles it advertised for its North American headquarters were on a contract basis”.
Unfortunately, multiple female game testers say that certain employees at Nintendo of America, including full-time employees that are not contracted by a third-party in any way, had sexually harassed them in various ways. The complaints include stalking, unwanted and inappropriate comments, as well as inappropriate advances.
Although not everyone accused of this behavior are named, Nintendo of America product testing department head Melvin Forrest and Nintendo of America product tester Eric Bush are both directly mentioned as being among the people that were involved in this behavior. Some of the employees not named also include full-time Nintendo workers and fellow Aerotek contractors. According to a game tester, one unnamed Nintendo of America employee “was constantly making really gross jokes and comments, but he was the friend of everybody there”.
There are also allegations of sexism, with women game testers experiencing lower odds of being brought in to Nintendo of America as a full-time employee compared to men. Women are also not given career advancements One game tester even noted that “after working at Nintendo for nine years, she found out a more junior male contractor in her testing department was making $19 an hour while she was making $16”. Kotaku also says that “one woman said she stayed at the same base wage for six years until she got a higher offer elsewhere and threatened to leave. Another woman was offered double her current pay when at a different company”. One female game tester also complains about there being favoritism and cronyism.
Unfortunately, lesbian game testers received an extra layer of poor treatment. The complaints include inappropriate comments and inappropriate advances even after being told about the victim’s sexuality. A lesbian game tester mentions that “during breaks, she and a fellow female tester she was dating would hold hands. She says an Aerotek supervisor called them into the contracting office and admonished the pair for violating the agency’s ‘no-touching policy,’ which was rarely enforced for straight couples displaying affection in the office”.
This “frat house” environment, which a former game tester that worked on Zelda: Breath Of The Wild described it as, wasn’t a brief thing either. This behavior is reported from various game testers as early as 2009 and as recently as 2020. Nintendo leadership was even sent a letter just this past February by a dozen game testers from Lotcheck, which “conducts the final checks for how games performed on Nintendo’s consoles”, requesting Nintendo leadership “improve the testers’ working conditions”, calling the department an “unsafe and uncomfortable environment for female testers”.
Unfortunately, not only did both Nintendo of America and Aerotek do very little to put a stop to the behavior, if they did anything at all. But it was risky to even report the poor behavior at all because, as one game tester explained, “we didn’t say anything because if you [did], you were called overly sensitive”. The victim of stalking says that the stalker threatened to get them fired if they reported his behavior. Another game tester said that people who would make her feel uncomfortable also “asked me not to go to HR about it because I’d be ‘misinterpreting,’” making me feel guilty about my own discomfort”.
As for the present, it is unknown. A current game tester, via Kotaku, says that “the HR in the building where most of Nintendo’s full-time staff work is actively trying to ‘spearhead diversity and inclusion’ within NOA”. She also acknowledged that “each of the different buildings associated with Nintendo[’s Redmond campus] all are [a] little microcosm…there aren’t as many chances to meet people from other parts of the company”. Kotaku reached out to Nintendo, Aerotek and Aston Carter representatives about all this, but never got any replies.
I believe it, honestly. I’ve met a lot of degenerate male gamers. I’ve even been a degenerate male gamer.
I don’t know how they can stop it at its root, but they investigate every accusation seriously and make employee or contractor feel comfortable to report such behavior and not be afraid of being called overly-sensitive or facing retaliation.
Wasn’t this what Blizzard was being investigated for last year? And didn’t NoA CEO Doug Bowser make a statement about that, calling them out and saying such behavior goes against his own values? And now such things might be happening under his tenure?
This is terrible no matter the circumstances, but I feel that previous statement paired with these allegations only amplify the disgust.
This pains me to read. Nintendo really needs to get their shit together, or they’re on their way of quickly becoming another Ubisoft or Blizzard.
It feels like Nintendo really mess up all over again. We all know they don’t get their crap together anytime soon because we all know Nintendo is still being Nintendo.
I take this with a grain of salt. Victim mentality can exaggerate a minor interaction into something bigger, especially if you are looking for it.
Interesting…. I wouldn’t immediately believe the victims since, all a woman needs to do is point fingers and say anything along the lines of sexual assault, predatory behavior, or a rape allegation and a man’s life is instantly ruined.
That “no touch” rule is a joke. Straight or lesbian couples, whatever, don’t care. You come to the workplace to work and act professional, not to flirt, touch each other, display signs of affection, or make romantic/sexual advances on others. The office is a work environment, not a dating environment. You’d think people, especially grown adults would have the common sense to know that…..but apparently not lol.
If that claim about it being a frat house environment is true, then that’s disgusting. I just can’t tolerate other men who participate in such typical barbaric male behavior.
Welcome to male-dominated industry, where men even expect female employees with the same job title to clean up after them like nannies. And when there’s already that level of disrespect, it can only spiral from there. And then the woman is the one that gets blamed. Then men spread really dumb untruths like “People automatically believe everything women say!” to distract from the fact that men are the liars about their own nature.
The amount of cuckism in this comment section is hilarious.
SH is the new whiplash. When these companies get smart they’ll start closing their American offices, especially in insane places in California. This isn’t a Nintendo problem, it’s a snowflake problem.
Who cares, women suck
Wow, this comment section sure is… something.
I’m sensing a whole bunch of simps in this comment thread.
Get rid of the bad apples IF they are actually guilty. Don’t be like WB & fire a guy based only on accusations.
Aerotek is NOT Nintendo. Stop with the clickbait.
Sexual harassment bad sure
but what is wrong that it is like a frat house? Because she hates frat houses? It really is their choice for the work environment to be a fun one for them, and if management is not against it then there is no problem and she is just being salty about people having fun.
Sorry but, calling something a frat house is not an insult, it just makes you look like a prude.