Nintendo Fires Employee For Speaking About Job On a Podcast

An anonymous reader writes: You may not have heard of Chris Pranger before, but he's one of the localizers that works to bring Nintendo games over to the west. He recently talked about the localization process for a small podcast, providing Nintendo fans some details about how games make it from Japan to the western world. Nintendo's response to the fan interest in the game localizing process? They fired him, of course. It's unclear what statements in specific Nintendo objected to and Nintendo, so far, hasn't explained its decision.

Comments

This doesn't seem unusual.

[Sowelu]

Most places I've been at have a VERY strict policy of not talking to the media or representing the company in any way without permission (usually only PR or execs can do it). If you want people to follow the policy, you have to enforce it, even for the little things.

Re:This doesn't seem unusual.

[Dutch Gun]

It's not unusual at all. I've worked in the videogame industry for many years. You simply don't talk to the public or media about projects you're working on - ever. We all sign NDA agreements which prohibit us from talking about *anything*. I can't even *name* the current project I'm working on, let alone discuss details. I've written official company blogs about the games I've worked on, but they were reviewed by editors, legal, community managers, PR, and so on before being published. When you're sinking ten to a hundred million dollars into a AAA title, a company wants to be incredibly careful about the message being sent out. This developer was part of that world, and unfortunately didn't understand that.

There's a great temptation to talk to media, because people are interested in what happens behind the scenes of some of their favorite videogames. It's a bit of an ego boost to think that people want to listen to what you have to say. It's unfortunate that Nintendo felt the need to fire him instead of giving him a reprimand, but I suppose that's their policy.

Just recently we saw how an ill-conceive blog from an Oracle manager made the entire company look really bad. You can understand why people who aren't trained to talk to the public or the media shouldn't be attempting it on their own. Things are bound to slip our that you didn't really want to say.

Re:This doesn't seem unusual.

[Anonymous Coward]

I talk about old jobs here on Slashdot all the time in the comments under Anonymous Coward.

Reason? Exactly the reason in the OP. If I was still working for said companies (eg if they were still operating, and not being terrible American companies.) I would never do such a thing working for a company that through a process of elimination could determine I'm the one "leaking sensitive information"

A lot of American company policies are asinine to a point where you can't even get an employment reference anymore. So there is a lot of incentive to spill your deadbeat employer's secrets so that they suffer humiliation and hopefully as a byproduct they improve the situation or go bankrupt and someone else takes their place.

However when you work for a company like Nintendo, or Electronic Arts, you end up with this unfortunate situation where ALL talking to the media is reflected negatively, no matter how polite and nice you are. This is because these companies sell products that can be harmed if talked about... regardless of the context. A Nintendo Employee is clearly not an unbiased source of information, so as much as the employee may talk up their companies products, it will be seen as covering for bad choices made by the company.

Hence, why only employers of "services" can ever get away about talking about their company. Your local ISP or services provided by your Municipal government you can talk positively or pooh-pooh all you want, because ultimately your ISP or Municipal government is the only provider of that service. Talking about key staff though? That's a firing.

Re:This isn't "Tomato" is it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Tomato was Clyde Mandelin. I don't know that he was ever directly under Nintendo's employee, but he was a well known localization expert, working on things like Kingdom Hearts II and Dragon Ball. Too lazy to find proper references, so wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Re:I don't get Nintendo.

[the_nightwulf]

Pretty much all that's holding them afloat is exclusivity for the NES era intellectual property, which they keep re-hashing over and over and over again and their die-hard fans (of which there are a lot) keep buying.

F-Zero, Star Fox, Pokemon, Animal Crossing, Pikmin, and Splatoon are examples of Nintendo IP introduced from the SNES through Wii U era that are not related to NES-era IP.

Pretty much all that's holding Sony / MIcrosoft afloat is SUPER 3D SHOOTER CHAMPIONSHIP EDITION 20XX THAT'S NOTHING LIKE LAST YEAR'S VERSION. I don't have any interest in Sony products (I trust I don't need to rehash Sony's shitty anti-consumer policies and products for the audience) but I did buy an Xbox 360 and didn't find much to play that wasn't a sports game or FPS. It collects dust and I'm not finding any attraction to an Xbone, while the Wii U gets frequent use for Smash Bros, Mario Kart, and Splatoon. Hard to understand the hate for Nintendo's "re-hashing" when it's prevalent from every manufacturer, and Nintendo's are actually good.

The other side of the story.

[westlake]

One of the worst examples was the kids school that Disney sued. Disney falsely claimed that by giving away or by charging minimal values, it opened them up to law suits from other locations demanding the same treatment. After it happened, Universal gave that school - for free - the use of their characters - Yogi Bear, Scooby Doo, Flintstones, etc. That happened in 1989.

Disney demanded that the unauthorized 5-foot-high painted figures of Disney characters on the walls of Very Important Babies Daycare, Good Godmother Daycare, and Temple Messianique (all in Hallandale, Florida) be removed for valid business reasons: infringements must be fought in order to keep trademarks intact; other Disney character licensees would have grounds to object if Disney provided inexpensive (or free) licenses to the centers (which are, after all, profit-making enterprises); and the use of Disney characters falsely suggested Disney's affiliation with the day care facilities.

Universal, still smarting from the early opening of Disney's studio-themed park... saw in the day care controversy a way to seize some publicity for themselves and give Disney a bad name in Florida as part of the bargain. Accordingly, Universal Studios Florida and Hanna-Barbera Productions offered the centers the use of characters from their own cartoons, such as Scooby-Doo, the Flintstones, the Jetsons, and Yogi Bear.

Daycare Center Murals

This was a clever publicity stunt for Universal, but I don't think it has ever shown that Universal really allowed their characters to be used without a license.

The day care centers in question all appear to be defunct. Hallandale, FL Child Care Centers

This is what happens when you aren't paying attention to the licensing of your product: Flintstones Bedrock City in Arizona on Sale for $2 Million, Brontosaurus Included

Because I love quirky roadside attractions, I hope someone does make this place nice again. If not, $5 is a fair price for some rabbit hunting.

I dunno, a lot of us natives love the creepy charm. I've only been once, but would love to go again were there less risk of tetanus.