Is Nintendo of America losing 90% of sales / marketing staff?

The rumor mill was at full tilt earlier in the day with reports that up to 90% of Nintendo's sales and marketing team in Redmond was leaving, along with key marketing execs Beth Llewelyn, Perrin Kaplan, and George Harrison -- and now Nintendo has issued a pretty murky non-denial denial, confirming with Gamesindustry.biz that it's opening new offices in Silicon Valley and New York, but not addressing the staff issue, so it's still not clear if the staff is leaving to move to the new offices, or just, you know, leaving. Further muddying the waters, the company called the rumors about Kaplin, Llewelyn, and Harrison "speculation," but when we called NOA and its PR firm, both parties declined to comment, leaving it totally uncertain as to why anyone might speculate about that -- it's not exactly watercooler material. Expect to see some interesting spin coming out of Marioville in the next few days as this whole thing sorts itself out.