Nintendo of America Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Nintendo of America full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Great work environment and great perks.

Cons – Some of the employees who have been there a while are not flexible and willing to look at new ideas.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Nintendo of America full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Good benefits, nice amenities on campus, great employees to work beside (but not necessarily to work for)

Cons – The corporate culture has shifted drastically within the past couple years. It used to be a place where people wanted to stay and retire, hence a significant number of 10, 20, and 30+ year veterans at the company.

From what I've heard from others and even seen when I started four years ago, job security, work/life balance, benefits, and job satisfaction were never an issue until recent years. Now it doesn't feel like you're valued by the company or that it matters if you stay, since it's more beneficial for them to obtain a headcount back and that they can bring a consultant in to replace you. Morale is dropping significantly, as it is now common to hear employees say amongst themselves that it is time for them to move on soon also.

Advice to Senior Management – Compare prior years to current, and at least find a balance if wishing to retain top talent. The current pace is not sustainable.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Nintendo of America full-time for more than a year

Pros – Free meals during over time. Relaxed attitude. open door policy to talk to upper management within department to address concerns. Game play (if you like that sort of thing).

Cons – Strict penny and time pincher attitude to everyday events including tardiness (one minute is late and if three occurrences pass during employment with no chance of rehire). Crass and demeaning immediate superiors.

Advice to Senior Management – a more professional attitude at work would be nice. some immediate superiors ought to be talked to about their constant cursing and poor / negative attitude concerning work, co-workers, clients, and contractors.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Nintendo of America full-time for less than a year

Pros – Providing support for the greatest video game company ever! Talking to and helping fellow gamers was my idea of a dream job.

Cons – There is very chance of getting hired and no room to grow within the company if you do. The training is minimal for a position where you're resolving complicated technical issues. Most of the tools are made internally and do not work much of the time. This makes doing your job difficult and frustrating. You're treated with no respect by the leads or managers. The advisors are helpful but seem to be stressed out. Overall working here was a terrible experience. I found myself hating the company after working there.

Advice to Senior Management – Respect and value the people who come to work at Nintendo. Provide opportunities for additional training and advancement. Provide feedback and ratings based on performance, not on looks or who like chatting with.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Nintendo of America full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Decent benefits, innovative games and products, an industry favorite, brand recognition.

Cons – Nintendo of America has become an extremely depressing and stressful place to work. The cons of working for this company far outweigh the pros. I have watched many talented and passionate employees feel the need to quit in recent months due to the overwhelming lack of fair treatment. Morale couldn't be any lower in my department and this seems to stretch across many areas of the company. One major problem with this company is the poor management structure and blatant displays of favoritism. Management decisions are based on emotion or opinion and not with the companies future in mind. There are next to zero advancement opportunities for interested and qualified individuals. NOA does not seem to value or reward the longer term employees as much as they are only interested in finding the cheapest way to have the most amount of work done. In recent months many current full time positions have been devalued and job duties have been redistributed to contracted workers who are paid less and do not receive company benefits. There are borderline illegal activities within the Consumer Service/Product Testing building and the HR department does not seem interested in helping whatsoever. Once a dream job, I can say this place has become more of a nightmare in recent months and years.

Advice to Senior Management – For those within management that truly care to provide a fair, and healthy work environment, I'd suggest investigating some of the abusive treatment towards not only the contract workers, but more so the full time employees. When the larger majority of a department is absent on almost a weekly basis using FMLA for depression, one would think that some real change is needed up top. Please consider the lives that are being effected through the lack of concern, and lack of accountability of those in the positions of power. Also, while Nintendo is a very frugal company, please consider spending the money and providing functional tools to work with. We cannot work with constantly broken tools and continue to receive poor reviews because our work is not able to be tracked or completed properly.

Current Employee – been working at Nintendo of America full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Good reputation.
Fun and innovative products.
Good benefits.

Cons – Nintendo used to be an outstanding place to work. It was extremely difficult to get hired as they only selected the very best candidates. Over the last few years, Nintendo has lost its way. The unique culture that made Nintendo special has been replaced with something you’d find at some of the worst companies. Morale is beyond dismal throughout much of the company. Management mainly consists of people who have spent their entire career here and have no experience outside of Nintendo. Advancement opportunities are extremely rare as promotions are awarded based on personal relationships and not on actual work performance or qualifications. Pay increases and bonuses unfortunately work on this same system. Talent, dedication, and intelligence are not appreciated here, only your ability to become friends with the right people. One would think this rampant favoritism would least be investigated by HR. Unfortunately they are unwilling to investigate or even discuss these well known issues. It’s been so disappointing to see Nintendo fall to this sad state.

Advice to Senior Management – Eliminate (or at least investigate) the rampant favoritism, evaluate employees fairly based on accomplishments rather than friendships, provide development opportunities for employees within the organization, increase pay to industry average, work to improve employee morale, appreciate your existing talent.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Nintendo of America for more than 10 years

Pros – Great benefits, nice new corporate headquarter with gym, bonus program, fun corporate events. Great products.

Cons – Major growths and recent re-organizations has changed the overall culture of the company

Advice to Senior Management – Invest in training your existing staff instead of simply bringing in new people.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Nintendo of America full-time for less than a year

Pros – The culture of the workplace was amazing. I did not go a day at work without smiling or laughing.

Cons – Testers are treated with very little respect. The company requires that you take two months off a year to avoid you gaining rights. They lose a lot of good talent this way.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Nintendo of America

Pros – Nintendo of America had pretty amazing health benefits while I worked there. Additionally you get some nice discounts on video games, systems and memorabilia. There were also plenty of perks like free Mariners tickets, a yearly raffle for a chance to get their Hawaii house for a week (you only paid airfare and taxes, not free but still an amazing deal) and plenty of other stuff. It generally felt "fun" working there. They also offered to pay for training in Japanese language and culture and there were opportunities to travel to Japan and work with them over there.

Cons – The pay in the Information Technology Department was really pretty dismal. With Microsoft literally less than a mile away it's hard to believe they attract and retain talent, though work life balance at Nintendo is probably miles ahead of MS or any other high tech on the Eastside.

Advice to Senior Management – Overall I always felt management was doing a pretty good job the only thing I would say is that they could probably do a better job of breaking down some of the departmental walls (especially within IT) and work more on collaborating outside of each others individual units.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Nintendo of America

Pros – Benefits are good
Stable company
Industry Leader
Innovative (more so than either MS or Sony)
Cares about employees to a degree

Cons – Has grown too fast in recent years
Has become more corporate in recent years'
When Minoru Arakawa left, the company suffered and so did the employees

Advice to Senior Management – DJ should go...

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend