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.

[gurps_npc]

I am so tired of people saying "you have to enforce it, even for the little things". That is bull crap. Not true at all. Zero tolerance policies cause more problems than they are worth - ALL the time.

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.

Funny how Universal never ran into any lawsuits demanding the same treatment. Not a single one in all of 26 years.

Zero tolerance parties never make any sense. You do NOT need to enforce a policy for the little things in order to be able to enforce it for the big things. A mere warning is most often more than enough than actual punishment. A letter written to the Day school - offering a $10,000 donation in kind of a license to use the Disney characters would have been more than enough to maintain their copyright. Similarly, a strict warning and perhaps a one day suspension (no pay) would have let this employee off without endangering the "no press" rule's sanctity.

Other examples are very very common. Cops routinely ignore people traveling at 58 mph in a 55 mph zone. Some businesses routinely let people leave early on the day before a three day weekend.

In most cases where someone/some group enforces a rule strictly it's because some shmuck has an agenda to push, not because it enforcing it loosely wouldn't work.

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.

[Derekloffin]

Get it right man, it isn't Zero Tolerance, it is Zero Intelligence. Come on now. Seriously though, that is really what Zero Tolerance is about, removing any form of intelligence from the decision making process and assuming that one solution fits all situations. It truly Zero Intelligence. As you say it just doesn't make sense.

Re:This doesn't seem unusual.

[Marginal Coward]

Zero tolerance policies cause more problems than they are worth - ALL the time.

I'm sensing that you have a policy of zero tolerance for zero tolerance policies. Maybe it's time for a little leeway in this area.

Re:This doesn't seem unusual.

[Fire_Wraith]

That was Oracle though. They're probably contractually obligated to make the company look bad.

If they didn't, it just wouldn't be Oracle.

He takes responsibility for it being his own fault

[__roo]

I know a lot of us like to blame people for their own problems, but in this case he knows it's his own fault—which, to me, makes the whole situation even more sad and awful. I feel really bad for him, and I hope he can find a way to come back from this.

From TFA:

“I look around my house and see images of my son and feel such intense shame and crippling sadness,” Pranger wrote on Facebook. “I know that if I can’t find a job at least as good as this one, I won’t be able to provide for my family I’ve lost them their health coverage and their security. I also know that I’ve probably lost a good deal of my friends, just because I know how hard it can be to stay in touch with someone when the convenience of proximity is lost. I’m so sorry to everyone. I’ve failed you. You believed in me and supported me and trusted me and I’ve failed you. I’ve failed me.”

Simple rule

[bws111]

Here is a simple rule - unless you have been specifically authorized, don't talk about your companies business in public. Chances are very good you signed an agreement to that effect.