Some Disturbing Truths About Nintendo Are Coming to Light
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I don't expect this to get much spotlight, but hello; former EA contractor here.
This is, as was stated, A VERY common thing in the games industry, especially in the older, more "well established" companies.
I was with EA for around 5 and a half years throughout my career as a contractor, and life was pretty bleak day to day. Tight deadlines, short breaks, meager pay, long hours, and a constant air of disposability were all par for the course. In fact, when projects or features for games shipped, the team that worked on those projects (save for maybe a very, VERY small handful) were usually let go. Headcount shedding was standard, as if people were moved to other projects, they would usually want more money, title changes, benefits, etc, so it was usually much "cheaper" in their eyes to simply sign a bunch of new green employees, eager to work in games for peanuts, rather than keep on experienced individuals.
The more I learn about the gaming industry, the more I want to make sure never to work in it
@@FeeshUnofficial go into indie
@@FeeshUnofficial it's not just the game industry. My brother used to be in a similar scenario with Google... And i personally worked for a fairly small software company at one point with 40 hour weeks, scheduled hours, etc. just like a regular full time employee... Then when the company went under, I found I couldn't get unemployment (despite having paid into it for years at a previous job) because the boss had listed me as a contractor.
@@greengreens6347 very tempted to. I adore indie games, and indie developers. They're extremely dedicated and friendly most of the time
@@JonnyLuscious oh what the hell. That's awful to hear. I'm probably still gonna work in computer science, because it pays good, I like it, and I have the protection of Dutch employee protection laws
A game tester is not "someone who plays games for money". That's such a misconception. A tester's job is not to play the game. It is to do their best to get glitches to happen by performing uncommon and weird actions. It is very tedious and repetitive and far from the "play the game" experience.
A game tester is more like "someone who plays a single, small segment of an unfinished game hundreds of times". Play the same stretch of an Alpha build over and over, do the stupidest, most ridiculous things you can think of to try to make the game crash, then try to replicate it if you find a glitch so they can iron it out.
"Game tester" isn't as amazing a job as it might sound.
@@Illgaia That's an even better definition, yes.
So annoying when people think a tester is someone who gets to play games and who gets paid to do that for some reason.
People mistaking play testers for let's players.
No. You Are Wrong.
@@Lou-yf1jo Please enlighten us
I worked at nintendo as a QA tester from 2012-2015 ... never felt like I was part of the company. we were put in a separate building, only allowed in one small very specific spot of the main building (the food court & the nintendo store), the culture of the company almost felt like we were being looked down upon. but the worst part by far, was the pay. it was minimum wage, to the exact amount, with no way to increase it outside of becoming a test lead or joining lotcheck, both of which were almost impossible to do unless you worked there for 10+ years (or knew someone). and the cherry on top was that since it was a contract job, we were required to go on a 2 month leave every year where it was unclear whether you might actually be able to return afterwards or not. I think they did this because if we worked for them too long, they'd legally have to hire us into the company & no longer be contract, which would mean giving us the same (much, much higher) base pay that regular employees made. it was honestly a huge shitshow, the only reason I stayed (and so many others stayed) is because we were all living the dream of working for Nintendo ... and if I'm being honest, it was actually still a really cool experience, but the cons far outweighed the pros.
Yup, had the exact same experience.
... So Nintendo treated you exactly the same as every other company or business with 500+ employees has treated their temp/contract employees since part-time has been a thing. If you were just doing your job, then they had no reason to give you any promotions or guarantee you get to come back. You are the one responsible for making them want to keep you.
@@LainK1978 hey, I dont think Nintendo hires through TH-cam comment sections
I think with contractors it’s mostly because they aren’t in the company. I heard this from other contractors and they tend to be always watched and guided through the building. I think that’s mostly because they don’t want company secrets to come out. It’s a thing most companies fear, they don’t have you in a controllable position and makes contractors very untrustworthy.
The pay however, I got nothing. That just sucks dude.
@@LainK1978 The point is, companies shouldn't treat their employees or contractors that way. It doesn't matter if 100% of companies do this, it's wrong and they all need to be called out on it.
The sad fact is, this sort of abuse is RIFE in Japan (where I live and work for two decades). I have both experienced and heard (far more) horror stories like these. It’s the work culture of abuse and bullying here. It’s unchecked.
Absolutely. I was recently contracted at the head European office of a Japanese company and the culture there was so over demanding - with anyone slightly above you in the company constantly keeping tabs on your actions and movement - that I quit right before my probation period ended. It really was a shock for me and I knew that this type of culture could be easily abused.
@@marxistlynchist You dodge a big bullet there. There is a reason why people look like walking corpses after work here.
Yeah, that’s why black companies are a term there. That should catch on worldwide though.
True enough. It seems that more developed Asian countries, Japan and China to kist two of them, have a very strict and protective ideology regarding multiple things such as education scores and work especially. The issue has always been that main cultural perspective.
I think of Nintendo slowed down a bit and gave more time on projects, more leniency regarding employees and maybe offered more jobs to the contrac workers than it would help the company as a whole.
Yea
"it's like this everywhere" isn't a defense and doesn't make it okay
Right!
He called it in the video @12:00. Exactly what happened in the comments.
No, but it begs the question: why is this being brought up just now as if it’s some major scoop? It’s really not. Did you really think Nintendo was some fairy tale company? I mean, you’ve seen their wallet-gouging mobile games, right. Seriously, I find the naivety here astonishing.
Then do something to fix it, it’s not a recent thing and it has been a normal thing in the industry for a long ass time
No? Yeah that was I thought, you’re just gonna continue with your day and ignore this whole situation bc you’re powerless.
It isn't a defense, but I just think that calling Nintendo out on it is dumb. Like yeah, it's true, and it should be mentioned, but we should probably be talking more about companies who mistreat even their full time employees first. Nintendo isn't a fairy tale company, but it certainly not even close to the level of bad the other AAA companies are.
@@happyspaceinvader508 Yes, people do believe that. This whole console war nonsense and picking sides breeds this idea that these companies are your friends and you become completely uncritical of them and it allows them to get away with this kind of workplace abuse and wage theft because they have all these rabid apologists waiting in the wings that they don't even have to pay to harass people. In fact they pay for the privilege. It's not just Nintendo. It's the entire gaming and entertainment industry that is like this specifically.
I'm usually one who dislikes Nintendo a lot as a corporation, but I've always given them credit for generally treating their employees very well. Sad to see that isn't the case for their contractors.
Nintendo made some good games though
@@charlieasalgadosalgado1369 Note that I said as a corporation, not as a developer.
Western devs just have an entitlement complex, lol. Like booh hoo, you get treated not as nice as the higher ups... thats every job, bozo.
@@TheMetalIsNeon What do they do to the developers
@@TheMetalIsNeon I have been supporting Nintendo since I was a little kid what do they do to their employees I hope it’s nothing shady
As a Medic/Doctor contractor for a Health institution, i can say this comes very close and i can say this DEFINITELY happens everywhere, not only on the gaming Industry. I also have been exploited by the system for less the payment because of company greed. Not trying to justify Nintendo, they suck for also exploiting their employees. Just saying this happens everywhere.
Yeah these essentially sub contracted arrangements where a contracted company sends sub contracted workers are always the worse position to be in. But also the going thought should be “no guts, no glory”. If you want to have the freedom and respect of operating on your own terms, enter a situation a situation where you own the contractor company, if things get unpleasant you at least don’t get stuck in the middle
Came here to say this. This is fairly standard all over the place. Nintendo (or any other company) essentially hires people through a contracting company. The contracting is actually between the contracting company and their employee. These are not employees of nintendo on paper. Therefore the contracting company is the one handling benefits and etc.
Can confirm. It's pretty much SOP for customer service people, _especially_ call centers. One I've worked at somehow expected about 30 people to all use the same time clock after lunch, but not punch in even 1 minute early or late, lest you be penalized. That's among other mistreatment, and we weren't even contractors.
I think Nintendo doesn’t see contractors as “real” employees
Almost like all workers everywhere are universally exploited....
Yep, the “contractor” title is a huge problem in industries all across America-and it happened to me when I worked for a small business, which tend to be idolized here in America, so don’t think this is only happening in the mega-corporations. And on that note, that’s what makes the whole “don’t like it, just leave” argument so infuriating. First of all, I need money to live, and I need MORE money to live WELL (mental illness is expensive, y’all), and I need a job to have healthcare, so it’s not as simple as “just leave.” Second of all, GOOD LUCK finding an industry that doesn’t do this! Spoiler alert, THEY ALL DO! Why is it on the victims of the problem to leave a situation, and not on the perpetrators to stop breaking the law-yes, it is an illegal business practice here in America to call a full-time employee an “independent contractor”-and fix the damn problem?!
The saddening reality of it is that we end up learning that no-industry truly WANTS to hire people on and create new advancements out of pure inspiration and goodness for the future... That it's all corporate interests and greed-driven profiteering work.
Maybe that element hasn't hit Japan as hard as Western cultures...? I can only speak from having lived in North America, but this stuff makes it no wonder why the entirety of the most recent two generations are basically "tired of living but the majority are only passively, as opposed to actively suicidal".
Don’t you love to realize how awful the industry as a whole is after years of ignoring the harsh reality that even after so much information we now know over 90% of people will still not give a S- about it?
No? Just me? Ok.
The entire "don't like it, leave" mentality came from the 50s and 60s when jobs were extremely plentiful and companies were openly trying to lure people in rather than lock them in.
Its an old boomerism just like "give the boss a firm handshake", the markets changed so much that 90% of that doesn't exist anymore and you're told you mentally fatiguing minimum wage retail job is a blessing.
@@dugonman8360 And strangely, in most cases, it is. Which is the more depressing part of that.
I'd say it is a problem across the entire world, not just the USA.
There are entire industries / support structures that profit from contract workers.
There are even more different names and variants for what effectively are conract workers.
As such there's no way they're willing to either enforce existing laws or ensure that work becomes consistent enough for industries not to have this eb and flow of work, because that would eat into their profit margin.
They even have dedicated software to ensure they don't risk being forced to hire a former contract worker as a full time employee ...
Yes... this is how perverted the contract worker concept is.
And you can bet that they'd lay off all full time employees and replace them with contract workers if they could ...
I hated having to ask to go to the bathroom in highschool and elementary school. Like some teacher who disliked me could make me have to hold it in. Now it's the boss that gets to do that. That should be illegal.
Did the teacher happen to be one of *"those"* teachers who'll tend use the old "the bell doesn't dismiss you I do!" technique?
@@lordkaijux5262 I bet they were
The problem is that often kids do abuse bathroom privileges. I suspect your frustration around bathroom breaks should have been directed moreso at your peers than your teachers. It's a difficult balance for sure, but I don't think most teachers are vindictive about this kind of thing.
@@DizzyDiddy Shut up with "collective punishment is good actually", blaming ones peers sucks and is divisive, and causes more problems than it fixes
I agree. My school has us use bathroom passes and we only get to go during class 4 times each semester. It really curbs people leaving the classroom to go but it's not fun
The only caveat should be that you can only spend, say, up to 3-5 minutes in the bathroom so that you couldn't just waste time in there.
Funny how when you watch Arlo long enough you forget you’re watching a puppet
In my mind’s eye he is a simple blue monster, though I know he’s probably a dude who likes Jim Henson and video games
Muppet -cough-
Yea, I just assume arlo puppet is just controlling itself lol
Puppet? Wdym what puppet
Wow, even when criticizing Nintendo, people still say Arlo is just a puppet. /s
This is the world we live in now. It's a gig world. Everything goes through contractors now. I'm an educator in Japan. University lecturers are forced out every five years in order to avoid having to hire them permanently. Nobody is willing to commit anymore. You have to give your all as an employee, but it's not reciprocal. In so many fields it's the case. And to say "it's like that all over" is no justification. I hate it massively. I feel powerless to stop it though.
Capitalism’s power seems inescapable, but so did the “divine right” of kings.
That's exactly what " they" want. They want you to feel powerless. But think of yourself as a drop of water. Alone there is little you can do. But many drops of water together can become a tidal wave. And a tidal wave can overcome just about anything in their path.
And this what you got to do. Stop thinking that you are alone in this. There are many like you in the same predicament. In fact in this day and age I'd bet you are the majority. You and those with you got to stop buying into "their" idea of individualism. Stop playing into "their" tactics of divide and conquer. And stop running the rat race they want you to run. Together you... no, WE can overcome THEM.
Like the other guy said about " divine right". The ancien régime in 18th century France thought themselves untouchable too... Right until the blade of the guillotine came falling down on their necks.
You’re powerless, but I appreciate the fact that you at least acknowledge it
Somehow I know we WILL rise and change the world for the better. The people can only take so much pressure and when they rise, the ones that are "above" will fall. Nothing stops the people, not even the strongest of armies.
@@Karcinos64 They will rise, but what will take the place of the old? Another. Yet another one of these systems.
What Nintendo is doing is all part of the so-called “Uberfication” of industry: everyone becomes a contractor who is not entitled to benefits or job protections.
I’m a PhD student in the American university system who is treated for tax purposes as a contractor so that the university can squeeze and milk my labor as a teacher and an editor. University system perfected ways to exploit labor at minimal cost to itself. Now everyone else is doing it.
Thanks for at least giving a shit, Arlo. Most Nintendo TH-camrs don’t acknowledge the actual human costs behind all of the fun and toys.
I always figured university work had some kind of strings attached. Though I didn’t know it was this bad.
Sad thing is, Universities in the US have gotten so bad because their profits are what fund Trusts. It's totally screwed up the post-primary education system as a result. Education is a side gig for Universities now.
@@ShadowDrakken Absolutely. Some boards and trustees may still be pushing for intrinsic goods (curiosity, creativity, wonder, contemplation) but more and more financialization has forced schools to see everything in terms of only profitability. And this isn’t just a problem for artists or philosophers. It’s threatening the integrity of a lot of hard sciences, engineering, etc. - we aren’t selecting for paradigm-creators but mere problem-solvers who work within already established paradigms as increasingly defined by corporate influence and power. It’s heart-breaking to watch in real time. Education is not a commodity.
@@ja4039 too be honest the school system can be a lie as well.back then in the Rome to medieval times anyone could study for around 1 or 2 years to master a single subject and get proclaimed and can teach anyone in person with 100% scholarship in that subject ,but now you need to go through multiple school subjects just to get the degree you want a lot of the subjects do not even align to what your going for. a new reformed simplified school system for people of ages 18 and up who only need to study the subjects they need for that degree would make everyone's lives so much better we could call them personal schools where people can study as long as they want and at the pace they want may it be very slow or fast it would depend on the persons preferences this would allow people to get more jobs without the need for college this would help a lot.
@@1BadAssArchAngelvs14 I don’t disagree. Standards are needed to figure out norms in various fields of practice or theory but we need to also tap into our natural curiosity and love of learning by making educational systems more localized, personalized, and flexible to the needs of individuals. I don’t think it’s possible within the immediate moment. But education is in need of a fundamental overhaul.
And you are right about the learning curve that increases as history marches. I think Newton is said to be the last two encyclopedist. It’s just literally impossible now.
I know this is off topic but can we take a moment to appreciate Arlo’s puppetry. I’ve been watching this channel since the ocorina of time cd video and from the beginning of his channel he’s really good at making the puppet feel alive. All of his movements are filled with such personality and charisma I forget that Arlo isn’t a real person. Someone please hire this man for a movie or show😭
Truly
T...This is a puppet?
Okay, 5$ to come to this man's burthday party, and bring seals.
Puppetry? What are you talking about?
I’d almost rather pay him the $5 to let me come to HIS birthday party instead😅
It's very unfortunate how widespread this kind of problem is, is it really so hard to just treat employees and contractors like *people*?
Unfortunately
Apparently not...
oh hi dexie
The problem is that companies specifically hire contractors because they're expendable and they don't have to give them benefits. It's more on the US and the world at large to change labor laws to create laws that benefit the employees, talent, and the consumer. But even then, companies can always just lobby and bribe 'em to not do that.
Under capitalism? Virtually impossible heh
"Dangling the carrot of being a full time employee"
God this hit close to home. I worked for a temp agency for a bit and was brought in full-time for a call center for Capital One. I really liked the job and environment (don't worry we only took in-calls, never called anybody). And they told us if we had good enough stats, we could move to being hired full-time by the company. I wouldn't say I was a model employee by any stretch, but my numbers exceeded most of the full-time employees and I had already been given extra responsibilities that none of the other Temps had been given. So I thought I was a shoe in, but there was always 1 metric that wasn't good enough. Until after a year they told us that the company was moving to a different state 🙃
That's incredibly shitty, I'm sorry
I had a similar experience with my time being a “subcontractor” for a certain automotive industry giant.
Yuuuuup.
Best numbers in the region almost every period for two years. Never got a vacation. Always worked full time -1 hr. Never got any of the bonuses I was owed because of one technicality or another. Place collapsed after I was furloughed right before I'd hit a milestone.
Contractors are second class citizens by design, and moving up is a myth in almost every situation.
If you aren't hired full time and get a full time paycheck as your first paycheck, you will never be a full time employee.
Explain this in fortnite terms
@@bradystafford7654 uuuuuhh
Tilted Towers was my favorite place to drop, and I didn't always win but enough to brag to my friends. I thought the May 4th 2019 update was going to upgrade the loot and add some cool new features, but instead it fucking exploded and now it's gone
"Contract work" is a big problem in the Seattle area. Google, Microsoft, Nintendo, Amazon, Expedia, etc. all do it here. I had to work for many of these as a contract worker before finally getting a full time job with benefits and such. It's honestly worse than people even think. Not only are the benefits and pay a fraction of what they should be for people doing the same job, but there's also a general division between full time workers and contract workers. You get viewed as less than. One of the companies mentioned, they literally had like company wide after hours events that contractors were straight up not invited to. Like, they literally just didn't want to give the contract workers free food or whatever for the events once or twice a year. It's almost like high school where people hang out in groups based on whether they are full time or not. It's bizarre. (This is a company I worked for listed that isn't Nintendo, but after watching the video in full, it sounds identical to Nintendo, different color badges and all.)
Additionally, there's added stress of constantly knowing you'll have to be looking for your next job after a year and readjusting to a new job if you're lucky enough to even find one. I don't know how it's even legal. It's not what contract work was designed for. It's just paying skilled, college educated employees less to do what is a traditionally high salary job. It's gross. I actually got two jobs offers at the same time from another company and Nintendo for play testing. I turned down Nintendo because it was minimum wage at the time, which was $10 an hour. Later on, I met people that did the job in the area, and heard horror stories of how they treated people. They act like you should just be happy to be there and confiscate your phone and act super paranoid. (I get why they take the phone, but the attitude about it is the issue.) It's far from a Nintendo problem here, but NoA certainly isn't a bastion of good employment. There's a large contract work force that they don't treat the same as the few full time employees they parade in front of the camera and on surveys. Contract employees don't take part in employee satisfaction surveys or anything. It's all a massive scam. I love Nintendo, but NoA and many companies in this area are terrible to people.
So, you are saying this is more a NoA problem (or even America problem), than a Nintendo problem?
@@arsia. NoA and in particular, the staffing agencies (in my stint as an NoA contractor, Parker Staffing and Aerotech).
@@TeardropSidemarker I still get spam emails from Aerotek
Ouch, the part you mentioned about companies not even wanting contractors getting free food at company events...
Premera Blue Cross. I forgot, the only reason I got to eat at their outdoor festival thing was because a direct employee said they thought the policy was stupid and was giving out vouchers to us contractors. What a hero.
That company sucked in so many other ways. Can't remember if I wrote a Glassdoor review but I'm getting inspiration.
@@TeardropSidemarker We had Aerotek staffing at some of the companies I mentioned too! Randstad as well. Each more horrible than the last.
It’s such a love-hate relationship I have with Nintendo. In some ways they exceed other companies, but in these ways they are no better. I don’t deny any malice, but I honestly think a good chunk of it comes down to some of the old guard being ignorant and not keeping their top brass in touch with the times. It’s frustrating because I care, and I know they can be so much better if they had a real kick in the pants from someone or something that reorganized everything and brought things up to speed. And it won’t happen unless these kinds of exposés hit.
The dream scenario is just to replace all the execs with people that are more in touch with modern sensibilities, maybe younger. But just keep all the visionaries like Miyamoto and Aonuma and just don't. Fuck. With the games! But obviously that's not gonna happen anytime soon, lol.
@@ExaltedUriel At this point Myiamoto IS more of an executive than an actual game designer, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he was part of the problem as well 🙁
Alot of Nintendo fans have a hate love relationship cause of this and the copyright issues
its just a feature of capitalism. this is nothing new, and no amount of old or new blood will change that.
@@Kass686 oh?
I relate highly to this subject. I'm a teacher and one year I was just not able to find full-time work, so I took on a job as a sub at the school that had a full-time opening. I had been interviewed for the full-time opening, and I'd gotten glowing reviews from some previous sub work I did in the same district. However, months went by of me completing a full-time teaching job while technically still considered a sub. I had to run 5 classes, do all the grading, speak with families after hours - the whole shebang. And then they go and hire someone else internally 4 months later. When I confronted them with unemployment and student loan business, their response was that I never worked full-time, but that is a blatant lie given I was not just a sub, but a permanent resident sub that year. I might despise the district that abused my time for the rest of my life.
Unsurprising when it comes to buereaucratic and HR infested environments like education and especially State education.
I worked in a K-12 school for 7 years and many teachers (and management roles) can generate truly horrible work environments for what is already a high stress environment, and these teachers, for people entrusted with future generations, can be wildly divorced from reality at even the best of times. 'Fair' and 'Truth', to some teachers, simply does not exist. Example; the principal and my manager were both teachers. I was being asked to stay back for events and not being paid (but in my contact, it said I must be compensated). I complained, they drew me up a new document and provided some example hours. The next event, they violated the new document, and even though it used the EXACT hours that the example document did, they said "it did not apply in this circumstance". They said, if I was not happy, they will find someone else, despite several LEGAL DOCUMENTS saying they were violating my terms of employment. They got away with it. There was an audit and everything. The auditors sided with me. The principal decided, 'well the audit doesn't agree with my rhetoric so I will simply cover it up'.
I mean it didn't help that the principal was banging the deputy, so the entire management chain was compromised. But I will be singing the same song for the rest of my life; stay away from the Education industry.
Dude thats rough.
Dude I said prayers for you after reading this.
@@FrankMcFuzz1 dude, prayers. Sounds like "Freedom Writers" plot. Great movie BTW.
I'm less inclined to believe Reggie because after this came out and he implied I wasn't a thing while he was there (it was), there were a slew of "Wgat does Reggie think about X franchise?" articles which feels like deflection and distraction.
Just because he's a meme guy doesn't mean he's not also a typically corporate guy.
Either he knew and dud nothing.
He didn't know and failed his duty of care.
Or he kinda knew and didn't look into it.
There's a culture-specific aspect to this "treating employees like workhorses" debacle with regards to Nintendo, and that's the concept of karoshi. It's a common thing in the Japanese business world, and it's basically the idea of working yourself to literal exhaustion but spun as a good thing, like an honorable duty to put your blood, sweat, and tears into your work for the good of the company. Lots of corporate bigwigs take karoshi very seriously and instill it into their workers, including Nintendo ex-president Hiroshi Yamauchi. It's as toxic as it sounds; Yamauchi's harsh treatment of his employees has been compared to a yakuza boss.
I'm not excusing poor treatment of workers in Japanese corporations, of course; I'm just saying there's a cultural precedent as well as a financial one when it comes to treating workers poorly. Conversations about worker treatment in Japanese companies need to acknowledge the influence of karoshi and the possibility that it needs to be dismantled or its influence reduced in order to make major changes to worker treatment.
At least Japan has culture as a reason, I live Stateside & was abused (in more than 1 way) by my boss in an internship that didn't pay me or live up to its promises in any way because I wasn't physically capable of living up to their insane quotas that they just kept raising for me. Japanese Office Environment sounds better than the crap I went through even though it would mean no longer having a life.
but this is Nintendo of America. i don't think it has much to do the fact that Nintendo is Japanese. Amazon workers are treated beyond subhuman. working until you almost die is unfortunately normalized in a lot of countries.
Fuck that, maybe if it was MY company, sure, though even then that's not healthy, but certainly not as a lower-level cog in the corporate machine.
@@takgang64 Did you not watch the video?
It's literally confirmed, even by ex.workers for Nintendo, that Nintendo of Japan makes all the decisions, for Nintendo of America or Nintendo-anywhere really.
Because of course they do, as Nintendo of Japan is notoriously controlling. Of course, they wouldn't let any of their sub-divisions make their own decisions.
I been a contractor before and let me tell you it's very easy to feel like you don't actually work for the company and usually I was treated like I didn't. Also I had interned at the company before moving to a contractor I got paid MORE as an intern than a contractor...it's kind of dumb lol. I do wish to be clear management in my area of work was awesome and very nice folks but I couldn't keep doing it. I went into an interview and it went really well I mixed very well with the team. I didn't get offered the job nor did I hear about the results or feedback from the interview so I could learn from the experience. I was lucky in being able to get benefits from the contracting company but when you aren't paid very well the benefits cut it even more depending on the plan you choose. It's rough out there folks but the best you can hope for is find a job you love, educate yourself, and find a team that fosters inclusion and growth.
I'm glad to hear you speaking out about this. I just wish companies did more to treat their workers better.
@@nobafan7515 yeah it's very unfortunate but I guess at the end of the day you take the experience gained and move onto a better position somewhere else.
It is SO frustrating to go to interviews, thinking you did very well, only to never hear back from the job again 😑 . I even went to an interview where they specifically told me they would contact me even if I didn't get the job, and never heard from them again... Then there were a few interviews I had where I would get to the second stage of the interview, which was usually at a location out of the way, thinking I was definitely going to get the job, only to never hear from them again at that point. Here it is 7 years later and I still don't have a job in my field, either.
@@willthelemon5681 I’m sorry that happened to you
To be completely fair, and as a former contractor myself, you aren't working for that company. You're working for an employment agency that sells your labor to a company. Nintendo and the scores of other companies using this tactic founded by Microsoft, don't have any direct control over things like pay rates, benefits, break requirements, time off or disciplinary actions. Those are all done by the agency that offers your labor to the bigger company at a certain price.
While it would be nice if Nintendo fixed these problems, the underlying problem is that this is a market standard, not just an industry standard. There need to be more legal protections for contractor employees if we want these problems corrected. That will also require weakening the stock market, since share holders wanting ever increasing profits drive many of these decisions
You can't because that would only cause even more problems, more specifically the mass implementation of automation at a systematic scale that makes what happened during the 2nd Industrial Revolution (what popular culture calls the Industrial Revolution) look like a picnic. This sort of environment is largely because workers _understood_ that by the 1970s, there is only going to be less jobs overall, and the only thing keeping them from accelerating to breakneck speeds is basically giving up on things like livable wages...
All this laws do is push people out of employment into poverty. This is why most cleaning professionals in Germany work unregistered on the side, because all this protection and taxes make then unable to survive without the black market.
@@TheTrueAdept automation is coming whether we like it or not. Workers rights are irrelevant to the automation conversation. It will always come regardless of circumstances because automation will always be cheaper and cheaper production means higher profits, and that's all that motivates businesses.
The market will not tame itself, legislation is an artificial force and moral imperative.
Or just let rats run the kitchen
Yeah this is not really a Nintendo problem, is a industry problem, I kinda hate that some act like Nintendo is making nasty stuff here when from their standpoint they’re not making anything that’s not a industry standard, this is bigger than just Nintendo making some anti-anything stuff
I’ve dealt with this exact “contractor” thing as a janitor at a hospital. They would dangle the possibility of becoming an actual employee constantly, and any mistake you made was used as an excuse as to why you weren’t getting brought on. The contractors literally did the exact same job as the employees. I knew people who worked there for 2 years waiting for they’re benefits and never got them. This was Hoag Hospital btw
I was working on getting my Game Art degree in the early '10s, and I can tell you this isn't a new thing. Colleges were SPECIFICALLY warning us about poor work conditions in the entertainment industry in general and the video game industry in particular. At the time the warnings were mostly centered around the issue of crunch time, but the sad thing is hearing how contractors are treated doesn't actually surprise me. :\
The sad truth about this whole situation is that this will make the news, but then after a little while people are going to move past it and then everyone will forget and Nintendo will never take the responsibility to fix the problem. It's almost like this happens 99% of the time. I think Nintendo is generally one of the better video game companies, but this cycle of a Nintendo controversy popping up and then magically going away has been going on for too long and it's eventually going to bite them and all of their fans and customers back.
Nintendo is above average for a gaming company, average for a company, but wouldn't pass most European employee protection laws if they moved all branches there
This is not a "Nintendo issue" to fix, they are not obligated to hire sub contractors, and sadly this type of jobs are very common pretty much everywhere, Microsoft have it, Sony have it, google definitely have it... Heck, even Disney.
Can Nintendo fix a global issue?, I doubt it.
@@FeeshUnofficial Why would they do that?, Europe union is a joke... They've been shitting on nuclear energy and now question why being energy depending on a belligerent power is suddenly a bad idea XD.
@@soragranda thing is right, I worked as a contract worker for Ikea, and they treated me well. There wasn't really a difference between contract worker and full time employee in how we were treated. I get that Nintendo can't fix the entire issue but saying they don't cary any responsibility is wrong too
@@soragranda isn’t nuclear energy pretty bad for the environment?
I was contracted for UPS for almost 10 years, it was the same way there, we had the crummiest most miserable jobs of anyone on that site but got paid the lowest, weren't offered benefits of any kind, no company picnics it was as if they didn't even want to acknowledge we existed, but we were always busting our butts in the hopes of being hired and becoming a union employee like the rest, but we were ALL let go after almost 10 years because another crew negotiated a cheaper contract, it's not a video game company, but same principle
God that breaks my heart. I’m so sorry.
10 Years? Getting violated by my boss during my 1 Year internship that broke its agreement doesn't seem as bad. We know the real reason that these abusive positions exist although I don't think the TH-cam algorithm will let me say it. All I can say is they aren't satisfied with just having people work hard they want to humiliate them because they want their money's worth out of their livestock. Societies have always had jobs that nobody wanted to do, our 21st Century USA just decided to needlessly twist decent wage jobs into being much worse than they were supposed to be just to be sadistic.
@@WaterKirby1994 Unfortunately I chased that carrot much longer than I should have. To this day though I refuse to buy or have anything shipped through UPS
The reason Nintendo has been able to "stay out of it" is because employee abuse is a big part of Japanese work culture. No one working there is complaining because that's perfectly normal for them.
To be clear, I do not support this. It is awful. But this is why.
That and also like Disney they have a reputation for "making our childhood"
I heard that a 3DS modder got harassed by Nintendo, they found out his schedule, friends, family, where he lives, etc... Genuinely scary stuff to see that they easily got away with.
They own the console, what did you expected?
Yeah, the modder was from Belgium and the project's codename was Belgian Waffle.
@@wolfdragox5563 Kind of expected that they wouldn't do that and if they did, get in trouble for it, but they didn't.
@@DerpySnake oc thy didn’t get in trouble for that, you think companies don’t get your personal information when you sign to any of their platforms? they didn’t do anything ilegal, if anything they had all the support of law bc they own everything you have or do on their platform, and mods are made or use at your own risk, Nintendo has get away from arguably worse stuff so is no surprise this was nothing for them
be more afraid about the fact that even YT might have all that information too and is spying you at this exact moment, or MS, or Sony, or google, or Twitter, or Facebook, or your phone
You have NO privacy.
@@wolfdragox5563 Not my point but ok
I did a stint as a contracted game tester at Nintendo back in 2001. The environment didn't seem to be hugely divided, as far as I could see. Yeah, you were expected to stay at your desk and they really didn't like it if you took more than one break, but that was because you were *already* given a fifteen minute mandatory break every hour. They did it to prevent the testers from suffering the kind of RSI that becomes all too common.
Aside from my direct supervisor, I never actually met any higher-ups. I would venture a guess that Reggie wouldn't have time to sit down and have a chat with a contracted tester.
Reggie and other executive level employees made time on a weekly basis to chat with anyone in the buildings that wanted to, and this invite was extended to contractors. I was a contract tester at Nintendo and met with him on several occasions.
Sounds ridiculous. As an adult human you should be able to get away from your desk anytime you want. As long as you're doing the work..why would they care?
@@django4013 if you’re getting a fifteen minute break every hour, I’d be bothered if people left their desk besides that. Way more break time than I’ve ever heard of before. So if you need to go to the bathroom like ten minutes after you just took a fifteen minute break, I’d probably look at you side-eyed too.
@@matthewr7593 Thanks for downplaying the labor of contractors. Real classy.
@@django4013 when I was a contractor there was a real problem with people sleeping at their desks and playing on their DSes in the bathroom. Like you'd go in there and see the shadow of people very clearly holding and playing a game while sitting on the toilet.
At least in my experience working in that environment, the treatment of contractors depended on their work. Folks who did their job well and were proactive in improving were treated basically the same as full-time managers, and those that slacked off, frequently came in late and played their own games at their desks didn't get their contracts renewed.
I rushed over as soon as I saw "Disturbing Truths"
clique bate
Same
Just be careful. I get rushing to watch a video but that crunch can be unhealthy.
It’s clickbait. Literally every game company does this. That’s just the unfortunate reality.
@@metagross1512 Its kind of click bait, but for a good cause like when in a show someone has to steal something because it was given to the person accidently and the person could get in trouble
It’s a sad reality that pretty much every corporation is run like this, abusing contractors in all the ways you mentioned.
Arlo, the problem isn't that these issues are hard to address due to how they're easily dismissed, it's that the anger is misdirected at Nintendo instead of the culture that allows this. This IS an extremely common problem, and the fact that you brushed that off so easily shows how misplaced your mindset is. If you actually take issue with this, stand against the behavior outside of this video game bubble, because more people matter than college grads that dream of working for the big N.
Mf unironically wrote:
>MISDIRECT at Nintendo
Explain to me who is than responsible for nintendo contractors being treated like shit? Are cultures being sued for labor violation?
This kind of thing happens when your economic system decides that paying the workers is a business cost rather than an investment. Either there's got to be tighter laws around what you can call a contractor or the rights that contractors have should be expanded. The big question is how to get those laws in place.
Or else viva la communist revolution!
Wait for the people currently in power to step down or die.
Question: Why “or”?
bLaMe cApiTaLizM
@@John6-40 That is how it works, yes. Capitalism is the problem, yes.
Nintendo is disconnected from the fans and now Nintendo is disconnected from Nintendo
I think the most shocking company reveal I've seen is that TT Games who makes the LEGO Games had their employees crunch for the past few years
There was also news that the Microsoft-Collaborated Company for the Ori games, Moon Studios, also had a lot of abuse
@@ShadeKill microsoft doesnt own moon
@@nubbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbin Ah, my bad. Sorry, thanks for informing. Seems like news said they both cut ties with each other, as well
@@ShadeKill yeah it's all good
This isn’t good… but the sad reality is SO many companies do this. This is why unions are important. With unions, companies wouldn’t be able to pull this kinda crap.
Edit: Just to be clear, I’m not giving Nintendo a pass at all. I was super disappointed when I heard they were doing this. I hope the big wigs back in Japan hear this is going on and take some decisive actions.
Not true at all. I’ve worked at a union as a casual which is worse than being a contracted because you don’t even know what shifts your going to work, basically on call. And I still had to pay union dues.
Unconventional political participation:Amen
@@timwilson207
Nice try, Bezos
My friend (formerly) a Teamster would respectfully disagree
@@LancesArmorStriking not saying unions are bad but this union job was.
In most cases, Unions would rather protect bad employees and leach off actual good workers than actually fix any problems. The real solution is deregulation so that small businesses can compete to make the best product while treating their workers better. It's easier to switch between them that way when there isn't an oligopoly. Or basically indies which kinda is doing everything I just said but on usually an even smaller scale. Showes that they're still quite capable and much better than most AAA in most cases even.
contacting has been an issue in companies all of the states and I can relate to contractors in general. Rather than telling people to get different jobs I feel like we should press our congressmen and senators to push legislation to protect contractors as that has become more and more common in the business world now as companies exploit rules as current laws don't really protect contractors the same as full time employees
I and two adults in my family have been contractors and got treated this way, as well as hundreds of others we worked with. Factories cycle through us, using all the tactics you described. Its heartbreaking to hear it goes all the way up to big game companies. I hope they resolve this. These hard workers deserve to get hired on! Great video Arlo
The pay cut thing was under Iwata who was a really good person, and Nintendo of Japan.
To be fair, Japan’s work culture in general is *awful*. Even worse than America.
@adam? Yeah…I could kind of tell, just how Sony and Nintendo…act. Especially in comparison to Microsoft
@@T-Dawg75 Sony have had problems too recently. Not a good comparison
@@TurnaboutAdam Japanese people work hard because it’s in their blood. Not because their CEOs are abusive.
@@psychokinrazalon AHAHAHAHA
IMO these claims seem tame to me. Like Arlo said, I’ve worked in tech fields not in gaming and contractors are treated the same way if not worse. I’m not saying it’s right, but this seems more of an issue with US law regarding contract work being abused like this. It’s an issue in every field and is unacceptable.
Not just the US, Spain, and of course Japan all have similar issues.
Exactly, this is not just Nintendo, it sicks me to see some acting as if was
It's crazy if you think about it at all that we have these different classes of workers. All people who work should have Equal rights and be considered workers even if they're temporary, but instead we have this crazy tiered system of workers who aren't legally considered workers...
!!! I used to be a game tester for Nintendo!!! I left at 2017 because it was becoming too expensive to live there.
So, there were two contractors: Aerotek, and I don't remember the name for the other one. I was with Aerotek. Aerotek treated me pretty well, so I can't complain. I actually DID get health benefits with that job, but that would be canceled if my contract was canceled for a long amount of time.
I enjoyed working there for the most part. The worst part of it was that I'd get bored if I wasn't finding bugs, or if I had to work with people who were goofing off and not working quickly. What sucked though is that a lot of the times we were given a game project to work on, and sometimes they'd give us a softball idea of when the deadline was, sometimes that deadline was cut off super early or extended. We never knew when exactly the work would end. What also sucked is that we'd never know when work would start. There were periods where I'd have constant work, and other times where I'd have to wait over a month for new work from Nintendo. The longest wait might have been two or three months. But I was working when the company was switching from WiiU to the Switch, so work was patchy at the time.
I used the bathroom quite a bit but never had any complains. :\
As for being treated like outsiders ... yeah. But I'm going to quote a coworker: "Nintendo fans are the smelliest fans." Often I would travel from the QA building to the main Nintendo building to mooch mail supplies. There was a noticeable difference between QA people & official workers. QA people would be young, with their fashion style consisting of gaming shirts and bad hygiene. Filing up to do fire drills was a smelly nightmare. The official Nintendo people were dressed very nicely, and were older as well. If I were in their posistion I wouldn't want to hang out with the QA people. But, if Nintendo paid us more than $11-$12 an hour, maybe we could afford dress shirts and deodorant.
I don't know how stable working as a QA tester could has been with covid happening, and if it's stabilized since the pandemic started.
Here are my most memorable experiences:
• We got a nice huge red cake to eat when the Switch was released
• In the Nintendo building I saw business men playing ukuleles in what I think was the "Yoshi Room"
• One day the roof caught on fire or something, and we spent the whole day outside waiting to get back to work (it was a nice day, thankfully)
• Some hipster was standing in the front lawn of the Nintendo building and he had a black billy goat on a leash. I don't think he worked there.
• I took a picture of the Nintendo sign when everyone placed items there after Satoru Iwata's death. :(
So, I had the job for a good while. My biggest complaint is that the work wasn't stable enough for the time. Maybe it would have been fine if I stayed and worked on more Switch titles, but I know I would have been screwed if I was still there when Covid hit.
A lot of this stuff is standard for contract employees at any job. You're not an employee so you don't get benefits directly from the company, the perks that come with being an employee or get to go to company functions. However, treating people like slaves is not okay and if you are going to convert them do it or don't. Don't dangle it in front of people this way. It's not cool.
agree with this. Undue influence is pretty bad and can cause people to expect something. Honestly if I was telling my kid about job stuff. I'd tell them if they promise you a promotion give them a deadline if they don't give it to you at that point then quit as they probably won't give it to you.
Software development is such a weird industry. I recently bought a standing desk and one of the accessories was a hammock. There is no sane reason one should need to plan on sleeping under their desk at work, yet we’ve all heard the stories.
let's hope people getting that accessory are ordering them for their home offices
Weird is not the word you use there. Terrible is.
This problem is incredibly far-reaching, from adjunct professors, to uber and delivery drivers, and now video games apparently, more and more companies doing their best to avoid paying out full time benefits and eroding the 8 hour work day with contract labor...
The problem with the “if you don’t like your job, just quit” excuse is it implies there are certain jobs that *should* be treated poorly, when in reality ANY COMPANY THAT EMPLOYS YOU SHOULD BE GRATEFUL YOU’RE WILLING TO WORK FOR THEM!!!
That company NEEDS that position filled, so they should be willing to treat whoever fills it well.
Agreed
No it doesn't, it means companies that treat their employees poorly should have them quit until they don't have a workforce anymore.
As long as workforce is in limited supply that's a reasonable cause of action,
I've seen companies go out of business because they would lose staff faster than they could train them.
The sentiment works in some environments, but other sectors have a surplus of workers that makes it ineffective.
Game development has a surplus of people that want to work in it out of passion, so companies can pick out those who will accept lower workplace standards to get the job.
This is why competition without all the regulations to stifle it are important. It would make this far less common if at all since there would be countless options.
Arlo never fails with the awkwardly abrupt intros 🎯
Those alone are worth the watch
This is common - so let's recognize that "get a different job" isn't the solution. Someone else will be hired into that abusive situation if you leave. We need widespread worker's rights. We only have 40 hour work weeks and weekends off because the workers fought tooth and nail to get legislation passed. We had to force these companies to treat us better. We need to fight again. Unionize, vote, protest. "Voting with your dollar" doesn't really work, we need widespread change.
Get a different job is the explicit solution. If you do not like how the person you are doing work for treats you, then that is what you do period. You are making an assumption that the position is actually abusive, and that it is not just that the person complaining is not good at what they do, lazy, late all the time, and/or takes breaks every 15-20 minutes for just as long. Unions are garbage and only steal money from works nothing more, the only times that they have been useful is when the work being done was high risk work like mining or other similar work that has a high chance of death. The 40-hour work week was in existence long before any legislation. Further, the 40-hour work week only applies to hourly employees. If you are salaried, there is no such limitation. Safety laws were put in place to protect the lives of employees. There were no laws to have the companies treat anyone better.
I don't think voting works so well either. The ruling class always forces us between two of their factions, one more overt than the other in their repression.
And this seems to be the case outside the US as well. Recently in Australia, the Greens lost to Labour despite widespread dissatisfaction with both Labour and Liberals.
I assume Australia will have more of the same but with some performative window-dressing.
If you leave a company that isn’t treating you right, and they didn’t beg you to stay and offer more money, then it’s probably best you leave anyway.
The problem is anti competition regulations getting in the way of small startups being able to fully take over and give better products and worker treatment naturally. Asking a bigger monopoly to regulate an oligopoly will only create an even worse situation than the current one.
This hits pretty close to home in my personal situation. I actually just transitioned to a full time employee after almost 3 years of being contractor at my job. This does tend to be a very common thing in many larger corporate companies as it's almost a right of passage. Almost everyone I know at my company started out as a contractor as I think so the company can kind of get a feel for how well you fit there before actually having to bring you on full time right off the gate.
However, with my job, I never was treated as second class as these reports from Nintendo seem. Yes, there were a few meetings and events I could not attend because those were for employees only but those were few and far between. There was never this notion of us and them, but it does make you feel a little more left out in some ways like you don't get a piece of company bonuses or get the same PTO for holidays. We also didn't have segregated buildings of Employees and Contractors as we were all in the same buildings across the campus.
And I don't know if this is the same for every company, but in my case, it actually cost the company more money to have me as a contractor for that long since they were paying me as well as my staffing/contracting company fee.
Anyone who thinks this is bad should go look at the Pro Wrestling industry, especially WWE.
In fact, from the outside looking in, North America in general just seems to treat employees really badly across the board, in all industries.
True & its alarming the level of sadism that minimum wage employees are put through. They don't want people who will work for them they want people they can humiliate & abuse until they quit. My generation has taken the bulk of this problem with managers & supervisors intentionally trying to make decent jobs into horrible work experiences in the vast majority of entry level positions & it is awful. Personally I think the Japanese Office Life is probably better because of the lack of sadism. If I said what happened to me when working in Ohio I don't think TH-cam will accept my comment.
Yeah I kinda always figured Nintendo wasn’t the best to work at. Most game companies aren’t.
Yeah even a small indie studio can be dicey (although the chances of a healthy work environment are a lot better than AAA studios)
Well from what I get, it is if you're full time, but that is probably not gonna happen
I'm very grateful that you convering this subject , about the work condition inside the video game industry, this brought into the light this problem.
I love how quickly Arlo turned from the reasonable, considerate boss into the annoying, irrational boss who won't let you get any work done.
That's interesting. I have been a contractor before and yes you can be treated more or less like a second class citizen but at the same time you earn a lot more than full time employees and that's the whole point of contracting and that's why people do it, at least that's how it is in the UK working in software, also most contractors do not want to be full time employees because they will see their earnings cut due to the employee perks/benefits. I wouldn't paint Nintendo as evil for using contractors. Contractors get contracting roles to essentially earn more than what they would as permanent employees sacrificing the employee benefits
Best comment so far.
It really feels like Iwata was the barrier holding back this villainy.
It wasnt. Iwata did so much dumb shit
R.I.P Satoru Iwata
Okay, calm down
you have fantasy stories in your head about good guys and bad guys. do you ever reflect on those kinds of silly notions?
@@notchunglingsu7014 Yeah, man. If the bad people stopped being poopy, bad people, and were more like the bright, shiny awesome person I am, than the world would be perfect.
Contractors do way more than full time work lol. I worked 70+ hr weeks as a contractor for the same pay an employee would make
Thank you so much for talking about this Arlo, it's very important that TH-camrs like you call attention to it but I've been seeing a lot of them ignoring it and not mentioning it at all when it's super important to talk about
This is a huge problem in many industries right now, specifically creatives. What you described actually fails the contractor test. A contractor doesn’t get told what time to report to work, they tell you when they’re available.
I think a lot of the time these "contractors" are employed by an employment agency. They get called contractors because they aren't employees of the host company, but they aren't technically independent contractors either. They don't get to negotiate the contract, but their agency does. Even independent contractors could negotiate a contract that dictated their working hours though.
@@DizzyDiddy not always. Even still you can’t tell a contractor how to do their work or when to report to work.
@@mrwarr it just depends on the contract the involved parties agree to. Some contracts will have explicit work hours.
@@DizzyDiddy those contracts probably fail the contractor test. The US Dept of Labor has defined what an employee and an independent contractor is. Contractors are independent - therefore they use their own equipment, make their own hours, etc.
If I hire you as a contractor to write a TH-cam comment for me, I can tell you I need it by Friday and I’ll pay you $100. That’s about the extent of involvement I’m allowed. I can check with you on Wednesday for an update, but I can’t discipline you for not working on my comment all day on Tuesday. Otherwise I’m treating you like my employee.
@@mrwarr thanks, I learned something new today. Sounds like most of these "contractors" should technically be classified as employees. I wonder how they get around that.
Nintendo is bascially an old grandpa that makes incredible things but is too nostalgic for the past to change with the times.
Change what and in what way?
@@psychokinrazalon change the work culture and business practices
@@psychokinrazalon and games
I was a contract security analyst for hp in Europe (sec headquarters are in oregon) and i can confirm this is standard. Any contract workers regardless of department are generally not given benefits, privileges, or invited to functions. From what I understand this is industry standard
Arlo, sometimes while watching your videos I sincerely forget that this is puppeteering. The mannerisms are so perfectly captured in your puppeteering that its awe inspiring
Thanks for covering this Arlo, hopefully more discourse about this will reach the right person to make a change happen.
Also, which song are you using for your outro now? Old xm music is fantastic and this one is super good.
I’m contracted at a large company (I can’t say which) and I can confirm that some of the experiences aren’t exclusive to Nintendo contractors. Contractors at the company I am contracted at feel like second class citizens. We have different colored badges and we’re not allowed to attend events that the larger company puts on.
I was just about to say something like this. I know Microsoft is like this.
tbh, there's nothing wrong with that system. Contractors may not be allowed to various sources of info or have restricted access to the company cause they are not employees. This has been normal and functional forever.
@@NoxideActive nothing wrong with feeling like a second class citizen?
@@ColtonPhillips Depends on the context.
@@ColtonPhillipsThis one other guy made a great post explaining the badge system so I'm pasting it here.
7:55 This is done because of security reasons, if personnel is aware of something that shouldn't be release until an specific date then giving this information or people outside of formal hired personnel could be bad (and this is done by a lot of big companies).
The issue with contractors is that everybody use them the way Nintendo does it, because is legal to do it, they are not obligated to give a upgrade to a full time job developers that aren't technically working directly for them.
Pretty much all big companies does what Nintendo does with (& sub) contractors.
It sucks that this is happening but, it was only a matter of time
“only a matter of time” Nintendo has existed since 1889, are we really going to pretend they haven’t done anything wrong until now?
What I find interesting is that class divide. Shitty business ideas plus well treated employees always felt like a strange mix, and after hearing this it just felt like "That is surprising, but also not at the same time." You don't hear about mistreated employees because it's the "employees" being mistreated. Which is again, a wide spread issue. What can you do? Just throw Nintendo on the "shitty company" pile with everyone else. I already plan on ditching the switch after BoTW 2.
"Only a matter of time" as in it was inevitable it was public.
@@Yellowredstone
Nintendo is primarily a Japanese company. They treat the employees they have direct control over extremely well.
@@metagross1512 Nintendo Ninjas moment
See, this what happens when you hired Bowser to run your company.
King Boo would never let this happen.
Thanks for making this video! Didn't know about this, or I forgot about it. Seems contract-work is never the way to go (if possible). I hope your video keeps getting more traction! It showed up on my youtube feed. (btw, like the puppet host)
Working in software development, my favourite quote is:
"They pay you for your judgement, not your endurance."
*Overtime and crunch time is wrong.* Both because it's hard on the employees but also because it lowers product quality and increases overall costs just to meet an artificial deadline.
I prefer 'bad idea', to 'wrong'. 'Wrong' carries a moral judgement with it, when this is an amoral situation of business judgement.
@@Novarcharesk if you sincerely think that overworking people isn’t a moral issue then we might have differing definitions for morality.
@@Novarcharesk I see your point but I still prefer wrong here. There is indeed a moral judgement because these decisions cause suffering of one's employees who are not simply cogs in a machine but living, breathing, feeling people.
I feel like life is way too short for work culture to be so soul crushing and demanding. I seriously hate "hustle culture" and the mentality of "if you don't like your job, then just get a better one" like... guys we shouldn't be killing ourselves just to be able to pay our bills and survive. Life shouldn't be this difficult.
* edit * apparently one person thinks I'm selfish and horrible because I'm not suffering in slave labor, therefore I have no right to point out our rather terrible work culture in general. What a maroon.
People often debate "The meaning of life" but I think it's pretty simple; the meaning of life is to *enjoy it* ... I mean, it's the whole reason we invented machines (tractors and such) and computers in the first place - to give ourselves more leisure time
Capitalism, and the greed it's tied to, are the ultimate culprit for the way things are heh
Say that to children and their parents mining precious metals for the deice you're typing this on. Contractors have a luxury problem.
@@DarkAngelEU oh stop it. Just because one person's problem isn't worse than someone else's problem doesn't mean their problems are bad.
There is no prosperity without exploitation
@@Shnarfbird A false assumption based on propaganda, no doubt ...
Thank you for covering this. The more people spread information in a reasonable, measured, constructive way, the better chance we have of seeing change. I love to see you use your position for good!
On a lighter note, the bit with Kane at the end had me chuckling. I would love to see Kane pop up in more videos! The only downside is, that's more editing for him to do!
As a former contractor in the IT industry for over 20 years, there are 2 important points I feel I should make.
1. This has always been the case for contractors in all areas of the IT industry as long as I can remember. Back in the late 90s, it was commonplace for contractors to sit separately to the employees. And then, only a couple of years ago I did a contract at a very well known US bank where, on a relatively empty floor of the building, I was made to sit at the opposite end of the floor from the team I was supposed to be working with. Being treated as a part of a team is realatively rare, and certainly not something to be taken for granted. In my experience, it only really happens when the team leader is a contractor (or an ex-contractor).
2. If you’re a contractor that is happy to become part of the furniture at a company, then I’m sorry but you’re not a proper contractor… you’re just a tax dodger who wants to have their cake and eat it. That’s right: what a lot of people seem to miss is that contractors are able to set up their own mini company, pay themselves a minimum wage salary (on which they pay almost no tax) and then draw the rest of their income via issuing dividends… on which they pay significantly less tax than if they received the same money in a salary. This easily offsets the company benefits you would have received. And you frequently have the opportunity not to renew, but go and work for someone who pays better.
A contractor in the tech business should be like a contractor anywhere else. When someone comes to fit your new kitchen, they don’t stick around to mop the floors… they go somewhere else to fit another new kitchen, or maybe a bathroom, and so on. IT projects tend to run a fair bit longer, but I only ever renewed a contract if there was a different piece of work to do. The maximum time I spent in any one company at a time was 18 months, but more typically I work either 6 or 12 month contracts.
Yes, it’s despicable that corporations use contractors as “cheap” labor that they don’t have to pay benefits for… but the only reason they’ve ever been able to get away with this is those contractors lining up to be exploited as ersatz employees. And those same contractors tarnish the reputation of “real contractors”… people who go in, get a specialists job done, and then get straight out and work somewhere else.
Anyway, I’m sure the IRS would be very interested to hear what’s recently been going on at NOA.
I used to work for a Japanese auto manufacturer and the "permanent contract worker" business model is true. You do the same work as direct hires for less money and worse benefits. Not only do they do this to save on payroll, they also do it to create divisions and classism in the work group so that it's less likely the entire workforce will cooperate toward unionizing. It also allows the brand name to plausibly detach itself by plea of ignorance from poor working conditions in a segment of its workforce
This whole gaming related situation has upset me so much that I'm going to spend the entirety of next month in the woods 😤
Jokes aside, these are my actual thoughts on this, I've been saying for a while, I love Nintendo games, and I respect Nintendo's developers, but I don't really like Nintendo as a company, this has just been fuel to that fire.
Also that wasn't a joke when I said I'm going to spend the entirety of next month in the woods... because I got a job at a summer camp.
I agree. There are very talented developers in Nintendo who care about their fans, but the executives are scummy greedy people.
@@turbobist2889 Pretty much every executive is these days. This is what happens when the profit motive is prioritised over the workers' health and security. Unfortunately, this is an *extremely* deep rooted issue, not just in Japan and America but pretty much everywhere else with the capitalist system being the main one, which means a few changes to labour laws won't fix this - we need the whole system gutted and rebuilt.
Excuse the highly politically charged post, but unfortunately this is the reality, and only by tackling the issue by it's root can we enforce real change.
When I worked for Amazon, they pretty much did this same thing.
They used a third party to higher in part time workers at a much lower hourly rate, and had to pay fees on top of it. You work for 90 days at the end you either work for Amazon and got your blue badge or be off for a month before eligible for rehire.
I LOVE this new feature youtube has that shows most replayed spikes. It really helps see where to skip the ad reads.
Every big money machine finds ways to demoralise and replace staff on the cheap. Corners get cut by management, which gets scapegoated onto the grunts. I can guarantee Nintendo are no different. All the things mentioned in this video are plausible indeed. Artists are being shafted of their creativity in many industries
-vaush fan
Hey Arlo, I know your Dread review is coming up so I was curious if at any point you'll talk about MercurySteam as a company and how the game came to be. They did a great job but it came at the expense of some pretty gnarly working conditions and people not getting credited for their work. A lot of people who worked on the game aren't with the company anymore and that makes me personally question whether any follow up on 2D Metroid will be any good given the loss of talent stemming from a bad workplace environment.
As a person who used to be treated like this in a contracting job, it grinds my gears to hear this happening to others
Lmaooooo that last skit between arlo and kane is amazing
"GO TAKE AN HOUR LONG BATHROOM BREAK RIGHT NOW!!!"
Arlo, you are a treasure!
7:55 This is done because of security reasons, if personnel is aware of something that shouldn't be release until an specific date then giving this information or people outside of formal hired personnel could be bad (and this is done by a lot of big companies).
The issue with contractors is that everybody use them the way Nintendo does it, because is legal to do it, they are not obligated to give a upgrade to a full time job developers that aren't technically working directly for them.
Pretty much all big companies does what Nintendo does with (& sub) contractors.
Basically sounds more like a contractor rights problem. Unfortunate as it is. I would put it you can't offer people a job if you aren't going to give it to someone legally that would some kind of undue influence. Just due to the fact that the contractor has a lot of power over the people that are picking up the work.
@@fasddfadfgasdgs That is the thing, legally they you don't work for them, in Japan square Enix build a temporary team and put someone that handle that team, when the game is done the studio is disbanded, if there were particularly good employees those will go to another temporary studios and after that eventually (with hope and a deity miracle) you can enter the company.
There was a case in which in those temporary studios a boss was mentally and physically abusing his sub contractors that much that some killed themselves... Can't remember if it was a square Enix or a Capcom temporary studio, the thing is, by the law those two had nothing to do with the studio -_-.
So yeah this is a very big issue in how the rights of this type of job works in pretty much all the world.
Thank you for wording this in such a nice way. I hope more people see this before overreacting and then quickly forgetting about it. :P
@@NoxideActive This is pretty big issue but is a problem from the current world way of business... So Nintendo "fixing it" seems unrealistic.
Arlo secretely cracking a whip at the end by not cracking a whip
kind of unrelated but I love the (potentially unplanned) detail of Arlo walking back to his desk after fixing the focus of the camera at around 1:25
This I feel might be more a problem with the laws in America around contact work. The fact that contractors can be strung along like this legally appalls me. It completely contradicts what "contract work" means.
One problem I have with Nintendo recently is them closing down the shops where a bunch of titles will be lost forever and I have a problem with that because they decide to close it down during all this stuff going on around the world and shortages and people losing jobs
The world is back to normal
@@glungusgongus was the world ever normal?
I love the idea of Arlo aggressively telling his editor to take a break. XD
Hey arlo. Love your content. Have been watching for over a year now 🙌! Just a suggestion, I think you should make a video showing off your playtime on switch and the games you have been playing recently! Big fan here. Keep up the great work 💯
If only we still had Iwata…
Of course this is happening in the American branch...
Japan has an insanely high standard of work ethic, but the culture I hear is equally very respectful, as it ought to be for high-expectations workaholics.
In the States..?
Whatever they can legally get away with for the widest profit margin possible, they'll do it.
I don't know if the Japanese Superiors are micromanaging to be aware of it, but I do believe that whomever is overseeing the contractor's workspace is definitely embracing that American Tradition of Capitalism to its fullest potential.
That's worse. Granted I had no faith in either of them before this.
I used to work for a Japanese owned US subsidiary. I can absolutely attest to the disconnect. We had a CEO and CFO from Japan who rotated out with a new one from Japan every 4 years. Made it impossible for them to really contribute. by the time they got their feet under them two and a half or 3 years in, they wouldn't have time to implement any sort of useful policy or changes before. they're on the plane back home to Japan and some new guy comes in to take over from scratch.
I love that ending when he talks to Kane😂😂
The WiiU thing, where the executives cut their own pay to keep the employees was actually a hoax, the board cut down their pay as a way to make themselves responsible for the low sales, but Nintendo as a whole had massive 3DS sales, so they were not in financial risk of any kind
It was just another of the "Nintendo is going to die" the press does once in a while
If they didn’t let a bunch of people go or cut pay, it’s fine.
Almost like every industry should have unions...
how do you unionize contracted workers who work for themselves?
@@fasddfadfgasdgs The leaker of this stuff was actualy unionizing. One of the reasons they cut him off
really been loving the new outro music!
Thank you for reporting on this story! Glad to see you're holding solidarity with workers.
Oh no, what is it THIS time???
Many people like to say that all companies and corporations are evil with no redeeming qualities but reality is more complicated than that. It's possible for a big organization to turn a profit while doing right by all their employees and customers but it's hard when so many different people and voices are involved, not all of which are acting in good faith. We as consumers can only keep our ears to the ground to listen for disappointing news like this and do our best to make our voices heard about how these situations need to change no matter how many uninformed people tell us to shut up about it.
The end theme here was different to yesterday’s. I guess you’ve either got one long theme which you can take clips of for different videos, or you’re experimenting-either way, very very cool. I think you must make your own music too because of no credit. Honestly these themes of yours resonate so strongly with me: they capture so well something I love so much about games, or even about life itself, together with representing the spirit of your channel so well also-therefore one of my favourite things I’ve ever heard.
"Some disturbing truths are coming to light about Nintendo" literally every week
Always a good day when Arlo says "hello!" in my notifications
As someone who worked as a contractor across various businesses for about 4 years, this absolutely tracks for how contracting gigs go. You're "othered" and never have all the permissions to do work, and constantly treated like a gopher. The idea of a permanent position is usually a persistent carrot-on-a-stick, but it really depends on the job.
Basically, what people are saying it's like to be a contactor at Nintendo sounds like what it's like to be a contractor at any corporate job. Certainly not saying it's good, but I'd expect better of a typically employee-focused company like Nintendo :/
Yeah this seems like a “Nintendo is just another company” situation. We have to stop putting them on a pedestal.
@@kickitsmooth At Nintendo's Japanese employees are treated with respect. Right????
This is just a general huge problem in the U.S. right now. I was a contractor with various companies for over a decade, and this is very much on point. I got dragged whenever I showed up less than three minutes late. When I show up early, I'm told that I can't clock in until a certain time, because it'll cause the "appearance of working overtime." I worked in a right-to-work state. I had a supervisor that liked to walk up to the location where the right-to-work notice was posted on the bulletin board, literally tap on the paper, and say stuff like "Anyone can be fired at any time without cause." And, indeed, full-time employees of the companies would walk up to me and basically threaten my continued employment because they were being minorly inconvenienced by the policies I had to enforce... the ones that their own company created and wanted them to adhere to.
Companies found a loophole, and they will exploit it until it's fixed. People within a work environment are generally awful and will look for ways to "prove" that they are better than other people. This is nothing new in U.S. citizen-industrial relations. There are some perks to this kind of work, but they are rare and do not offset the negatives.
Legend has it Kane is still on that bathroom break to this day