Once again Nintendo hits the headlines, but this time not for the "lighthearted" news you might expect, not even their obnoxious DMCA notice. Several female testers have spoken out about certain inappropriate comments, advances, and overall "frat-like" ambient that they experienced from both co-workers and superiors during their stay at NoA as testers. The allegations even seem to indicate harsh behaviours not only based on sex, but also towards employees of different sexual orientations.

The accusations have been reported and published by Kotaku just a few days ago, in quite a lengthy article going into great detail about the several stories they've gathered regarding the different accusations and claims from inside the NoA offices.

The recent claims have reached the attention of Nintendo of America's current president, Doug Bowser, to which he sent an internal message to their employees:

We have and will always investigate any allegations we become aware of, and we are actively investigating these most recent claims.

It is currently unknown if there is an active legal action against specific employees.

Source #1
Source #2

 

[City]

Gotta love how it's always generic bullshit and never stuff with hard proof.

I used to be harassed by a manager. When I was insulted for not going to work when my grandfather died I finally decided to take action and from that moment I ALWAYS registered any conversation I had with her. At the end of my contract, when she pressured hard not to renew me, I spilled the beans: phone calls, meetings, emails, as well as my reports.

This is yet another "frat-like ambient!!1" accusation full of nothing.

 

[ShadowOne333]

Gotta love how it's always generic bullshit and never stuff with hard proof.

I used to be harassed by a manager. When I was insulted for not going to work when my grandfather died I finally decided to take action and from that moment I ALWAYS registered any conversation I had with her. At the end of my contract, when she pressured hard not to renew me, I spilled the beans: phone calls, meetings, emails, as well as my reports.

This is yet another "frat-like ambient!!1" accusation full of nothing.

It's gonna be interesting for sure to see how this carries on and how it will be handled.
One thing that did catch my attention which sounded absurd, was how they make mention of one specific translator that got on board and published a shitpost somewhere (I think it was Reddit) about having sex with Vaporeon on the post in explicit detail, and that apparently started the whole ordeal.

 

[City]

It's gonna be interesting for sure to see how this carries on and how it will be handled.
One thing that did catch my attention which sounded absurd, was how they make mention of one specific translator that got on board and published a shitpost somewhere (I think it was Reddit) about having sex with Vaporeon on the post in explicit detail, and that apparently started the whole ordeal.

Hopefully people will remember what happened to Johnny Depp and won't stand for false accusations anymore.

 

[impeeza]

another "me-too" false accusations, going nowhere

 

[Bladexdsl]

has bowser been trying to kidnap more woman again?

 

[yuyuyup]

the gigaleak provided hard evidence of women getting mistreated in game development (starfox dev Argonaut) so It's not really something that's hard to believe. It doesn't mean things definitely did or didn't happen, it just means it's likely.

 

[The Catboy]

Hopefully people will remember what happened to Johnny Depp and won't stand for false accusations anymore.

False accusations make up roughly 2% of all reported claims. The idea that all accusations need to be treated with such scrutiny is just wrong and the reason why most victims don’t come forward. Statistically speaking, it’s more likely that these claims have more legitimacy than falsehood. This isn’t to say that there’s not going to be any falsehood, but it is to say that we shouldn’t just assume falsehood off the bat due to an extremely small fraction of false claims.

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Proof?

The time for beleiving women automatically is passed.

 

[VartioArtel]

I withhold judgment without evidence of the events. If these claims really happened they should have followed through during the Activision-Blizzard situation, made it a giant movement at the time to remove the toxicity from gaming in general. Why did it take so long to actually address this following that?

I am not saying there aren't cases - I guarantee there's at least a few throughout Nintendo's history, but that the timing of this seems disjointed from when it would carry the most raw power to elicit change not just in Nintendo but the whole industry.

I'd need to see financials (for things such as the pay gaps), workloads, etc. A story isn't enough.

 

[p1ngpong]

Typical switch owners!

 

[Chris_Dai_Gyakuten_Saiban]

has bowser been trying to kidnap more woman again?

Unfortunately the princess you are looking for is in another office.

 

[munnimann]

Gotta love how it's always generic bullshit and never stuff with hard proof.

I used to be harassed by a manager. When I was insulted for not going to work when my grandfather died I finally decided to take action and from that moment I ALWAYS registered any conversation I had with her. At the end of my contract, when she pressured hard not to renew me, I spilled the beans: phone calls, meetings, emails, as well as my reports.

This is yet another "frat-like ambient!!1" accusation full of nothing.

The accusers don't owe you any details. These are for the investigators. You are only being informed that the accusation is out there and is being investigated.

 

[Andy2001]

Oh no! Anyways...

 

[Sigma--]

I don't really think the correct way to process this news is to instantly go "they MUST be lying" or otherwise just try to act like it's very unlikely: these things unfortunately do happen, and now it's up to the investigation to figure out what happened.

 

[chrisrlink]

just another reason to Pirate nintendo games, but seriously if true (and I'm sure it is) that kid friendly rep is gonna be tarnished for years at least

 

[The Catboy]

I don't really think the correct way to process this news is to instantly go "they MUST be lying" or otherwise just try to act like it's very unlikely: these things unfortunately do happen, and now it's up to the investigation to figure out what happened.

Let’s not beat around the bush, most of the members of this site are men who have no idea the daily harassment women (or those assumed to be women,) deal with. Most just see the high profile false accusations and believe that every accusation must be false. Then ignore everything that proves otherwise. This is the same thing that happened when the Activision Blizzard case. Which it turns out that the case had more legitimately than falsehood but of course these guys ignore those cases and jump straight to believing everything is just false accusations.

 

[sombrerosonic]

Let’s not beat around the bush, most of the members of this site are men who have no idea the daily harassment women (or those assumed to be women,) deal with. Most just see the high profile false accusations and believe that every accusation must be false. Then ignore everything that proves otherwise. This is the same thing that happened when the Activision Blizzard case. Which it turns out that the case had more legitimately than falsehood but of course these guys ignore those cases and jump straight to believing everything is just false accusations.

I think people now think thats its a lie do to how many lies have happend over sexual harrasment in the past.

Honestly its just sad but its best too look into it instead of just saying 'Yep, they lied"

 

[Cris1997XX]

Let’s not beat around the bush, most of the members of this site are men who have no idea the daily harassment women (or those assumed to be women,) deal with. Most just see the high profile false accusations and believe that every accusation must be false. Then ignore everything that proves otherwise. This is the same thing that happened when the Activision Blizzard case. Which it turns out that the case had more legitimately than falsehood but of course these guys ignore those cases and jump straight to believing everything is just false accusations.

I mean...no shit sherlock? I can count the number of female members on my hands

 

[The Catboy]

I think people now think thats its a lie do to how many lies have happend over sexual harrasment in the past.

Honestly its just sad but its best too look into it instead of just saying 'Yep, they lied"

It doesn’t help that much of the media attention around high profile cases tends to paint victims as suspicious and tend to focus largely on false accusations or the falsehoods of a case. Then of course there’s been social media memes like “Should women get jail time for false accusations?” Which helps paint the image the false accusations are more common than they really are. So I am not shocked but equally wish people would actually look into this topic before jumping to conclusions. There’s a higher likelihood that this issue has more legitimacy and that we need to work through everything before concluding it’s all fake