Despite announcing a brand new Nintendo 3DS model today in Japan, Nintendo of Europe has confirmed that it will cut 320 jobs by August 31. When the office relocation was originally announced, only 130 jobs were expected to be cut. However, more than 190 temporary workers are being added to the list of people being laid off during this adjustment. Kotaku reached out for clarification of the job cuts and this is Nintendo’s official statement:
As previously communicated in June 2014, approximately 130 permanent employees will be released by Nintendo of Europe (Germany) at the end of August 2014 as part of a set of measures to better enable the European business to adapt to the rapidly changing business environment.
As a separate measure, Nintendo of Europe is reorganizing its European Localization Development (ELD) department, where it currently uses a number of temporary agency workers in translation and testing activities, in order to increase flexibility and cost-efficiency in the long-term. It is intended that there will be an increase in outsourcing future translation and test activities to third-party companies on an as-needed basis, and very sadly this has meant having ended the contracts of 190 temporary agency workers, who were formally notified of this decision in June 2014.
From that, it seems as if the translation department that works on games to make sure FIGS (French, Italian, German, Spanish) translations are up to par with their English translations. While it sucks that these workers are being laid off, Nintendo’s representative made mention of using third-party workers in order to translate in the future. Perhaps this will result in games being translated for the European region in a much more timely manner.
