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.

[Kaveh @ Jun 8th 2007 9:42PM]

yeah, Nintendo has nothing left, all they been doing the last 15 years is milking the gameboy, and what happens when people finally get sick of the Mario thing? There new WII is just a toy, its not ground breaking, I already had a mouse for my pc back in the 90's from logitech that did the same thing.

[Chuckles McGee @ Jun 8th 2007 11:30PM]

Yeah, you sure had a motion sensitive mouse...not a Wii- did you also have a library of easy-to-play multiplayer games to go with it? I'm sick and tired of all this "my gizmo can do that too" business. Everyone's hating on successful devices: the Wii, the iPod, the iPhone, the Razr. Either your device really doesn't have all the features and functionality (a computer mouse is not superior to any game console in being a game console)- or by some slim chance, you do have something more incredible than this most popular device. So by actual virtue of the machine, or incredibly successful marketing, the device has outsold yours. Either way, that's successful marketing and a successful company.

So yeah, go do have some fun extreme spreadsheeting with your mouse. I'll just be playing with my Wii.

[Ikke2003 @ Jun 9th 2007 2:17PM]

And what are you gonna play on your wii? Did they release any games since Zelda?

Some of the new games even support the gc controller... what's next, GC controller exclusive games? Nah, wii is a nice gimmick but not a next-gen console.

[darter9000 @ Jun 8th 2007 9:51PM]

Umm... save for the cynical comment from #1... I think Nintendo's successes (and possibly the corporate tax policies of Washington State) may be driving Nintendo to spread out across the country. Nintendo never really had a strong corporate presence in the United States, they may be trying to change that now.

[ITR @ Jun 8th 2007 10:15PM]

Didn't you hear it's only 60%..not 90%.
http://kotaku.com/gaming/top/noa-sixty-percent--wont-move-267311.php

"Virtually all of the employees affected by the relocation plan have now responded with their decisions, and approximately four of every ten have agreed to make the move to either New York or the Bay Area, in keeping with our original expectations.
A transition task force of key executives has been formed to ensure the smoothest process possible, and continuous information and resources will be available to all employees. The rest of Nintendo's strong leadership talent will continue to drive our business objectives forward. It has always been the case that Nintendo employees are resilient and rise to any challenge, and there is no doubt in my mind that we will excel as we continue to tackle new challenges and business opportunities.

Nintendo itself can not discuss the relocation status of any individual involved, but for those who will be departing the company, we have every expectation that they will succeed to the highest degree in their future endeavors. We will miss the talent, energy and experience from those who have chosen not to relocate. Our sales and marketing teams have been key components in returning Nintendo to its current position of market leadership.

Reggie Fils-Aime
President, Nintendo of America"

[kadajawi @ Jun 8th 2007 10:32PM]

Why does Nintendo need marketing staff anyway? The Wii sells no matter what they do. Great little thing.

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jun 9th 2007 4:46AM]

Uhm... But this is marketroids who are driving consumer products. Sales/marketing are the people who talk with customers most.

Looks at Jobs or Miyamoto - they are more sales than devels/techies.

IOW, Wii design is so successful in part because N's sales force properly assessed target audience.

P.S. Well, of course there is opposite side of "sales force" - which now urgently needed by Sony to sell its e.g. PSP which is outsold by DS five to one. Best sales - are the sales you are not seeing. Worst sales - the ones standing on your door mat. And this is where right now Sony is.

[THX1138 @ Jun 8th 2007 10:35PM]

I'll miss George Harrison and I've honestly never heard too much about Beth Llewelyn, but good riddance to Perrin Kaplan.

I cannot stand her know-it-all nature and self important attitude; not to mention the fact that a good majority of the information that comes from her is always retracted or corrected in one way or another.

[Grey Acumen @ Jun 9th 2007 12:10AM]

Just to insert a moment of rational logic against the torrent of dubious sources.

Why on earth would any company let go of more than half of its sales and marketing team after such a phenomenal performance over the past year? Especially with how important of a factor marketing has been in getting the Wii into public consumption.

Sorry guys, cite all the sources you want on this, I'm not buying it until I see it actually happen.

[darter9000 @ Jun 9th 2007 12:27AM]

Well... it doesn't sound like Nintendo is pushing anyone out. It might even be one of those 'unhappy worker' thing going on that tends to stay unofficial... It's really hard to tell at this extent. But, as the article suggests, it does remain a rumor.

[Leiterfluid @ Jun 9th 2007 12:30AM]

This doesn't surprise me. The cost of living in Redmond and the Snoqualmie area is outrageous, but it's a drop in the bucket compared to living in NYC or Frisco. They would have to pay their marketing staff a serious cost-of-living increase to convince them to move.

[Darren @ Jun 9th 2007 12:47AM]

As long as the engineering and creative staffs remains intact we have nothing to worry about.


I couldn't give a rat's ass about the marketing department.

[Low @ Jun 9th 2007 2:59AM]

"Everyone's hating on successful devices: the Wii, the iPod, the iPhone, the Razr. Either your device really doesn't have all the features and functionality...or by some slim chance, you do have something more incredible than this most popular device."


I completely agree. (except their are a million DAPs with equal or better functionality than the iPod [read: iRiver clix]) Why can't people just admit their success and leave it at that?

[gerbick @ Jun 9th 2007 3:32AM]

Where do I put in my application?

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jun 9th 2007 4:35AM]

Seeing company in black opening two more offices - it doesn't looks like it's going to fire anybody. Not even relocate.

I think they are just expanding.

Heck, ppl, think about for a minute: USA is only place where there is a shortage of Wiis. (In Europe they are sitting idly on shelves - just like PS3 and Xbox360 - waiting for customers.) It make perfect sense to expand in USA - to bring more localized (non-J-games) to the market as well as ramp up support.

In the situation, the only what "bad" can happen to management team - is promotion.

[markypants @ Jun 9th 2007 5:27AM]

Erm not sure about the rest of europe they're definitely not just sitting on store shelves in the UK, as show by the plethora of Wii Stock checking websites in the UK. I still see people queuing up outside toys R' Us every saturday just to get their hands on one! I had to spend a week with a Wii Stock Alert on my computer at work before I finally nabbed one for amazon. If anything rather than geting better it looks to be getting worse over here :-S Crazyness!

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jun 9th 2007 5:52AM]

Well. Over here in Germany they certainly are well stocked.

Both Saturn and Media Markt - two biggest Germany CE retailers - have Wiis on their shelves.

Green color means "available immediately" -
http://geizhals.at/deutschland/?a=154164

[Rick @ Jun 9th 2007 8:33AM]

Perrin Kaplan has nothing to worry about....she could easily start her own line of gentlemen videos.....

[Zeeshan Ali @ Jun 9th 2007 9:43AM]

Wii itself and it's controllers are truely revolutionary but i expected some online multiplayer capabilities before the launch of any of the games. This is such a importance feature that i bought my wii and the games without doubting for a second that all the games could possibly lack it.

[KC @ Jun 9th 2007 5:05PM]

Wow. Just earlier this week when Sony was going to layoff 10% of the some PS3 department, and everyone says that BD and the PS3 is failing and dying. Now this news about Nintendo losing 60% of the NA sales and marketing, no one is going ape-shit over them.

[Jeff Y. @ Jun 11th 2007 6:46AM]

For some reason a lot of people would like to see Sony fail.