The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade
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Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade
#2To be real honest, without doing any research, I already assumed working for NOA would be miserable.
Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade
#3> Contractors increasingly see themselves as second-class citizens
This made me laugh
My dude, you’re not a citizen at all.
Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade
#4I never understand articles like this. Am I supposed to feel bad for playtesters because they don't have access to a soccer field and D-pad shaped couches?
Most people have jobs without those perks. Does the fact that you do work for a company "in tech" make it worse that you're not showered with benefits? The margins aren't high and the work they are doing can be done by almost anyone.
Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade
#5I never understand articles like this. Am I supposed to feel bad for playtesters because they don't have access to a soccer field and D-pad shaped couches? Most people have jobs without those perks. Does the fact that you do work for a company "in tech" make it worse that you're not showered with benefits? The margins aren't high and the work they are doing can be done by almost anyone.
> The margins aren't high
Nintendo’s margins are almost 30%.
Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade
#6This is using Nintendo to talk about an industry-wide problem. In essence, tech companies use contracted labor to skirt around minimum standards for employment and the law lets them get away with it.
Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade
#7> Contractors increasingly see themselves as second-class citizens This made me laugh My dude, you’re not a citizen at all.
Yeah, weird...'contractor' as an employment category by definition means that a company doesn't deal with you as a regular employee. What exactly did these people think they signed up for?
Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade
#8This is using Nintendo to talk about an industry-wide problem. In essence, tech companies use contracted labor to skirt around minimum standards for employment and the law lets them get away with it.
"minimum standards for employment"
What is that? Do you mean "law"?
Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade
#9The past 20 years for Nintendo have been pretty interesting, to say the least. They started with the Gamecube, a console that sold weak numbers and faced stuff competition despite it's library of modern classics. They followed that up with the iPhone of game consoles, the Wii, and moved hundreds of millions of units like it was no big deal. Seeking to capitalize on that same success, they made the Wii U, which seemingly forgot all of the things that made the Wii great in the first place. Then they fixed it with the Switch, identifying the disappointment that people felt with the Wii U and streamlining the product to really dig in to consumer trends. It's a lot of ups and downs, and that's without even touching on their software and handheld history.
It's got me wondering what's up at Nintendo. Their mainstay studios like HAL Laboratories and MercurySteam haven't changed all that much over the years, and their presentation quality and infatuation with design has yet to waver. Overall, I'm starting to think their hardware and management teams are the weakest links: their least successful and least appreciated ventures have been when they wandered outside of their walled garden to make a quick buck (Super Mario Run or Mario Kart Grand Prix, anyone?), second only to their questionable hardware designs over the previous 2 decades. I have nothing but respect for the way Nintendo's developers and engineers deliver a polished product for all kinds of consumers, but I struggle to imagine how they're going to continue to adapt to the market. Especially if they're continuing to merge their handheld and home console markets, I worry they could turn this Switch success into another Wii U moment.
Time will tell, but Nintendo's got quite a tumultuous history with some exceptional highs and dumbfounding lows.
Re: The growing discontent behind Nintendo’s fun facade
#10This is using Nintendo to talk about an industry-wide problem. In essence, tech companies use contracted labor to skirt around minimum standards for employment and the law lets them get away with it.
"minimum standards for employment" What is that? Do you mean "law"?
I'm not entirely sure what you're asking, but tentatively I think the answer is yes. They avoid the legal standards for employment by abusing a 'contractor' legal status.
A contractor is supposed to be an outside expert, not a sub-employee.