Nintendo Fires Employee For Speaking On Podcast

HardOCP News

[H] News
Joined
Dec 31, 1969
Messages
0
This situation sucks but at least the guy didn't do the whole "poor me, I'm a victim" thing.

“Hello friends and family,” Pranger wrote in a heartbreaking public Facebook message this morning. “As many of you have probably seen, I am no longer at Nintendo. I was terminated this week due to a podcast appearance I made last Monday. It was a stupid judgment call on my part and ultimately it cost me far more than I could have imagined.”
 
Hello friends and family. As many of you have probably seen, I am no longer at Nintendo. I was terminated this week due to a podcast appearance I made last Monday. It was a stupid judgment call on my part and ultimately it cost me far more than I could have imagined.

I've lost the only job I really knew or ever intended to know. Since leaving high school, I've had a singular goal in terms of a career. It got me through college and pushed me through the difficult time immediately after college where I learned just how crippling it was to have an English degree in the job market. I applied for 6 years straight for my job. Even before that, I'd made my entire identity around my hope to one day have this perfect job. I was mocked here and there as "Nintendo Boy" from maybe middle school on, but I thought that if I succeeded, it'd all be worth it.

And now it's gone and I honestly don't know how to handle myself. A central part of my personality revolves around Nintendo. Anything that I've decorated with around my house has a very clear Nintendo theme. My shirts and jackets overwhelmingly show that as well. Being able to finally feel at home at a job is a feeling I can't easily quantify. I was the guy who'd see a hastily-discarded paper towel in the men's room and pick it up, saying to myself, "This is my home, and I will keep it clean."

If we're being honest, I'm scared. Very scared. I haven't been without a job for over 4 years, and even then it was during the weird "just exiting college" part of life that everyone goes through. And back then, I was still down in Oregon near family. Living in Washington has struggled to feel normal, but I was grounded in my job. It was where I happily spent my time and saw all of my friends. With that unstuck, Washington suddenly feels alien and empty all over again.

I look around my house and see images of my son and feel such intense shame and crippling sadness. How do I share this part of my life with him? How do I cope knowing that I've failed him? Even before this I'd been struggling to want to provide better for him and my wife, knowing that due to my student loans, I wouldn't be entirely debt-free until I turned 40. That's not a hyperbole either. I'm just now barely under $100,000 in student debt and my last payment is scheduled for the same year that I turn 40. "That student debt is intimidating, but it's worth it for the end result." I've undone my end result.

I spent the last week in a miserable place once the podcast began getting coverage. I was instantly scared when a coworker poked me and said, "Hey, you're on GoNintendo." Suddenly article after article began appearing in game sites of all languages. Comments sections painted me as an idiot and the like. My Twitter started giving me hourly reminders from people meaning well and otherwise. It seemed unthinkable that I'd be let go for a single moment of poor judgment and my own misunderstandings, but here we are.

Obviously, as I'm writing this at 4 am, I don't think I have a clear goal. All I can think of is that there's so much I've put at risk. 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.

I'm pretty sure this guy is actually insane. I mean, he owes over $100,000 for an English degree. And look at his Facebook post. Why would you even post something like that on a public forum? People are seriously deranged.
 
Knowing how secretive Nintendo is, I'm amazed this guy would have even considered doing the interview.
 
I'm pretty sure this guy is actually insane. I mean, he owes over $100,000 for an English degree. And look at his Facebook post. Why would you even post something like that on a public forum? People are seriously deranged.

Wow, didn't bother going to his FB page, and after reading that all I can say is..... wow, what an idiot.

I mean lets get real, he busts his hump to get a job in a secret part of a very secretive company, then then once he achieves that goal he does an interview, that even people who have never worked at Nintendo know would get him fired. Seriously?!?!
 
Unless you work in the PR department of a company (or are top management) - you have no business giving interviews on company related issues - at least not without having to deal with the repercussions thereafter.

I feel bad for the guy - nothing he says (according to the article's excerpts) seemed that bad! But seriously, what was he thinking when he went on? Obviously not his wife and kid.
 
What exactly did he say that was sooooo bad?

HE merely laid out the reality that the hardcore "fans" of this obscure Japanese focused gam es don't seem to understand, even if you are very very "vocal" about wanting a game to be brought over, it's simply not economically feasible for Nintendo to do it in most cases because they aren't enough people.

Why would saying that get him fired??? like this is some big taboo or sacred thing?
 
What exactly did he say that was sooooo bad?

HE merely laid out the reality that the hardcore "fans" of this obscure Japanese focused gam es don't seem to understand, even if you are very very "vocal" about wanting a game to be brought over, it's simply not economically feasible for Nintendo to do it in most cases because they aren't enough people.

Why would saying that get him fired??? like this is some big taboo or sacred thing?

Nintendo hates people.
 
Unless you work in the PR department of a company (or are top management) - you have no business giving interviews on company related issues - at least not without having to deal with the repercussions thereafter.

I feel bad for the guy - nothing he says (according to the article's excerpts) seemed that bad! But seriously, what was he thinking when he went on? Obviously not his wife and kid.

Pretty much. I've worked for a number of companies that aren't as tight lipped about things as Nintendo, and it's generally spelled out pretty clearly in the NDAs you end up signing, employee handbooks, policies, etc. that you are not to do anything to represent the company unless explicitly authorized to do so.

It's not about what is said, and whether or not there's some issue of trade secrets involved. It's a matter of it either being a part of your job description or being otherwise authorized by management to do it. In this case, Nintendo already has a marketing and PR department that gets paid for that sort of thing.
 
As a person who works at a large corporation, one of the things that's enforced through and through is that you have no business representing the company as a whole when you're one of the little code monkey worker ants. I don't know if he's deranged, but giving out any type of interview which espouses company stances is clearly something you should not do, especially when you're in the position you have dreamed of.

Like rule #1 at corporations is pretty much "don't rock the boat". Trying to get into a position to where you can steer it is fine, but rocking the boat is a bad idea, unless you manage to get some influential member's backing.

Oh, and I don't really like corporations though mind you, especially the lunacy of the pay grades and company politics. I'm 100% sure that not everyone is worth what they make at the company skillset wise. The level right above me is hilariously overworked. Like it's frightening. It's pretty obvious that there are probably a bunch of... undeserving individuals at the top that only got there by virtue of connection. One common theme I see among many higher managers is "hey I knew the CEO at one point". Oh did, you? What a surprise. Well, I'm not particularly ambitious, so I don't care. I'll be jumping ship and swimming towards a better one at some point though. At least I get to telecommute 3 days a week now, that kind of has been stalling me. >_>
 
Well he COULD have done the interview, just not give out any personal details. Do it as anonymous to the audience.
 
it not only shows poor judgement on his part to speak publicly on behalf of his company when its not expressly authorized, but sets a bad precedent for Nintendo if they did not do something about it.

aint goin' to no facebook or twitter page to see what the hoopla's about though.
 
Poor fella, that whole story read like a suicide note to me, hopefully his friends and family keep a close eye on him because it seems he's really being hard on himself. Maybe Sony sees an opportunity for good press and hires him, would make for a great feel good story after reading that.
 
Maybe Steve could get him a job, have him review console hardware or something for the site. :D
 
Poor fella, that whole story read like a suicide note to me, hopefully his friends and family keep a close eye on him because it seems he's really being hard on himself. Maybe Sony sees an opportunity for good press and hires him, would make for a great feel good story after reading that.

I really doubt that. First, this story will likely be out of the public eye within a week unless something ridiculous happens. Second, why would Sony hire someone who admitted to dedicating his life to getting his dream job and then screwing it up by failing to follow the policies of his employer? I'm not saying the guy doesn't deserve another chance, but his story isn't exactly something inspiring enough that anyone would care about and from an employer perspective it's just a bad idea to hire someone who makes such a massive lapse in judgement(would you want to risk him doing the same thing in your company that he did when working for your competitor?).
 
I really doubt that. First, this story will likely be out of the public eye within a week unless something ridiculous happens. Second, why would Sony hire someone who admitted to dedicating his life to getting his dream job and then screwing it up by failing to follow the policies of his employer? I'm not saying the guy doesn't deserve another chance, but his story isn't exactly something inspiring enough that anyone would care about and from an employer perspective it's just a bad idea to hire someone who makes such a massive lapse in judgement(would you want to risk him doing the same thing in your company that he did when working for your competitor?).

I'm a big believer in second chances, but then again I don't run a multimillion dollar corporation. Guy seemed passionate about video games, I'm sure he could be put to use somewhere where he could make a positive influence somewhere in the industry, but unfortunately his overly passionate nature turned out to be his downfall in this case.
 
This is a lot bigger then the standard NDA/misrepresenting the company situation which is why the guy said he started sweating bullets as soon as his coworkers began mentioning the story. I clicked the article thinking "maybe Nintendo went a little overboard on someone" which lasted right up until it said that he worked in "the Treehouse".

For those not in the know the Treehouse is a part of Nintendo of America mostly responsible for certain localization work. The way it got its name was from the first game they worked on, Donkey Kong Country for the SNES. It was an important project because they where breaking the mold of the cheap "engrish" translations that came before but it carried a big risk because it meant sharing top secret Nintendo property (the still early in development Donkey Kong Country which had some rather revolutionary graphics) with people outside the core development team in Japan.

To manage the risk the "Treehouse" was created almost like a company within a company. Treehouse employees got their own offices that where physically secured from the rest of the Nintendo of America employees - even many executives didn't have clearance to enter the Treehouse. Treehouse employees know they are under strict NDA about anything they see or hear inside the Treehouse, they're told they can't even discuss it with other Nintendo employees let alone do a press interview.

So the reason this guy had a melt down (and the reason Nintendo fired him) was because he worked at the Nintendo equivalent of Area 51 and made a really, really bad judgement call. It seems like he didn't make the connection in his mind between talking on this podcast and people (including those at Nintendo) listening to it. Maybe he was under the impression it was live (no recording) going out to a niche audience.
 
I think it is very harsh to fire someone over something like this unless he was speaking bad about the company.

From what I understand he didn't say bad things about the company so what harm is done to Nintendo?

Also I think that the industry needs more openness. I Mean the so called video game journalists are all in leauge with the companies since they are depending on getting copies before release. If they interview someone from a video game company it is always polite questions and they don't say anything bad. If all journalism was like that then we would have no one pointing out things like Watergate and such. There are some exceptions. A Swedish video game magazine called LEVEL did write about how workers are treated who build the PS4 and such but most of the time anything coming out of a video game company has been approved by several layers of PR people and the "journalist" is nothing but an ass kisser who says only nice things even if the game is garbage. In reviews they are usually more honest but I wish that we could get away from this ass kissing and everything needs to be approved by PR bullshit because I cannot trust anything that comes out of a developers mouth. Video game journalists don't even deserve the title in most cases and are just part of the PR machine. Not saying that they are corrupt but they are just too scared to do something like asking about how workers are treated or if conflict minerals are used in the making of the consoles. If they do that then they will no longer get review copies of games.
 
That really sucks, but i cannot understand why he didn't just ask one of his superiors first? I worked for a Japanese company for over ten years, they were very strict and regimented. But after work, man they partied HARD :D
 
And he is likely to never find a similar type job after his posts. Had he just quietly went away and not been the spotlight of several journalists, he would have been okay. Just seems like an idiot that doesn't think more than a few seconds in front of himself.

I have done a lot of dumb things at my company I work for but have been very very strict to holding to my NDA I signed. Most companies take that document more seriously than anything. I could spill a secret that would have no value out of context to anyone but that would be enough to get me fired and possible sued. No, if you care about your job and your company, you should behave as such.
 
What exactly did he say that was sooooo bad?

HE merely laid out the reality that the hardcore "fans" of this obscure Japanese focused gam es don't seem to understand, even if you are very very "vocal" about wanting a game to be brought over, it's simply not economically feasible for Nintendo to do it in most cases because they aren't enough people.

Why would saying that get him fired??? like this is some big taboo or sacred thing?

It's not what he said, its that he said anything.

There's two tier issue:

Firstly, *all* companies have an obligation to control external communications. In the case of publicly traded companies that's a legal obligation. If some random employee, even non maliciously, mentions on FB that some product is having difficulties, that can get you in serious trouble with the SEC (or equivalent) because it's "insider" info about company/product status being released through unofficial channels.

As such most companies have pretty strict rules on that (mine does, there's a whole extra thing on top of my regular NDA that's just about that), it's not evil, it's responsible. Peoples livelihoods are tied up in the health of the company, "just don't" is a pretty good absolute rule, and it seems like Nintendo has a zero tolerance policy on that.

Secondly, it's hard to put that genie back in the bottle, by going infront of people he's now "that nintendo guy". Right now his twitter, FB, tumblr instagram, flikr, myspace and any other social media thing you can imagine is being trawled over for historical statements and will be staked out by the gaming media and nintendo fans forever. Everything he has said, or says in the future is basically an official nintendo position as far as a good portion of those people are concerned.

If he has some drunken twitter post from 5 years ago in college where he's making slanty eyes for lols, now nintendo of america is racist, because not everyone is rational and reasonable like us here. He has made himself an ongoing liability to the company.

Was termination extreme? Maybe, maybe not. I could see the media attention maybe getting him his job back, but you can bet it'd be with "STFU!" in big red letters on his new contract :p
 
Nothing of value lost

I agree. I mean come on, $100,000 college debt for an English BA degree? I have a BS in IT and that cost me only $33,000 in college debt. They really need to stop giving out money for bullshit degrees that have very little job prospects out there.
 
Talking about your job as a representative of a company can and does get you fired at a lot of places. I think the only reason this is getting so much attention is because he is being a baby about it in public.
 
I'm pretty sure this guy is actually insane. I mean, he owes over $100,000 for an English degree.

I think it is pretty nuts too, but it's not that uncommon. At least he was working. I know a guy whose wife has a ~$100K in student loan debt for a 4 year degree. She's a stay at home mom.
 
Guy should just off himself. His family will probably be better off in the long run. Seriously. He's a broken man. I use the word man loosely here. He sounds like a child.

Actually, he sounds like a bonafide loon. Sounds like he built his whole life and identity around Nintendo (and we're talking from grade school according to his rant). No one does this , and doesn't grow out of it, unless there's something mentally misfiring up top. Obviously he got too into it at work and he either started thinking he was more important than he was, couldn't handle the secrecy, or is one of those guys were you tell them they did a good job and their head swells up to the size of a watermelon and they start taking smack.

This guy is going to crash and burn. He'll take anyone that gets close to him out along the way. His world just imploded. He's got nothing left. You could tell just from his rant that Nintendo came before his kid, wife, house and everything. If he doesn't off himself I'll be real surprised.

Boohoo.
 
Talking about your job as a representative of a company can and does get you fired at a lot of places. I think the only reason this is getting so much attention is because he is being a baby about it in public.

Yep, and chances are that more than anything limit the number of companies that might hire him in the future.
 
Guy should just off himself. His family will probably be better off in the long run. Seriously. He's a broken man. I use the word man loosely here. He sounds like a child.

Actually, he sounds like a bonafide loon. Sounds like he built his whole life and identity around Nintendo (and we're talking from grade school according to his rant). No one does this , and doesn't grow out of it, unless there's something mentally misfiring up top. Obviously he got too into it at work and he either started thinking he was more important than he was, couldn't handle the secrecy, or is one of those guys were you tell them they did a good job and their head swells up to the size of a watermelon and they start taking smack.

This guy is going to crash and burn. He'll take anyone that gets close to him out along the way. His world just imploded. He's got nothing left. You could tell just from his rant that Nintendo came before his kid, wife, house and everything. If he doesn't off himself I'll be real surprised.

Boohoo.

As long as he gets it on video, cool!
 
Poor fella, that whole story read like a suicide note to me...

My first thought as well.

The guy writes pretty well and is clearly obsessed with the video game industry. Hopefully some review site picks him up as an editor or something.
 
My first thought as well.

The guy writes pretty well and is clearly obsessed with the video game industry. Hopefully some review site picks him up as an editor or something.

No way. The guy sounds like a complete drama queen was doesn't understand basic confidentiality concepts and was way too emotionally invested in a job.
 
What exactly did he say that was sooooo bad?

HE merely laid out the reality that the hardcore "fans" of this obscure Japanese focused gam es don't seem to understand, even if you are very very "vocal" about wanting a game to be brought over, it's simply not economically feasible for Nintendo to do it in most cases because they aren't enough people.

That is true about obscure Japanese focused games. However I do think they could make a lot more money as a company if they made their bigger games (like Mario, Zelda, etc) multi-platform at this point. Almost no one has a Wii U and they aren't buying one just for Mario. I know I'd buy a Mario or Mario Kart game in a heartbeat if it was on PC, and I bet a lot of PS4/Xbone owners would too. They have basically become a handheld console company at this point, just remaking old games for the 3DS.

At least they finally made money for the first time in years, but I can't help feel like they could make so much more if they didn't cling to their exclusive titles.
 
I think it is very harsh to fire someone over something like this unless he was speaking bad about the company.

From what I understand he didn't say bad things about the company so what harm is done to Nintendo?

Also I think that the industry needs more openness. I Mean the so called video game journalists are all in leauge with the companies since they are depending on getting copies before release. If they interview someone from a video game company it is always polite questions and they don't say anything bad. If all journalism was like that then we would have no one pointing out things like Watergate and such. There are some exceptions. A Swedish video game magazine called LEVEL did write about how workers are treated who build the PS4 and such but most of the time anything coming out of a video game company has been approved by several layers of PR people and the "journalist" is nothing but an ass kisser who says only nice things even if the game is garbage. In reviews they are usually more honest but I wish that we could get away from this ass kissing and everything needs to be approved by PR bullshit because I cannot trust anything that comes out of a developers mouth. Video game journalists don't even deserve the title in most cases and are just part of the PR machine. Not saying that they are corrupt but they are just too scared to do something like asking about how workers are treated or if conflict minerals are used in the making of the consoles. If they do that then they will no longer get review copies of games.

Journalism issues aside(and there are indeed massive problems with it regarding videogames, but that's just not the problem here), it's a lot simpler than that. When you work for large companies, even those that don't have much of a public presence, restrictions on what you can speak about publicly regarding the company and how you represent yourself and your employer are generally made very clear. The commentary made being positive, negative, or even neutral has nothing to do with it.

Like MartinX said, this can even be a legal issue with regards to publicly traded companies. On top of that, just because what one employee thinks isn't a big deal, doesn't mean that statements cannot cause problems for the company later(financially, competition, etc.). It may sound harsh, but it's not as if this guy was unaware of it, and apparently the group he worked with at Nintendo makes it even more ridiculous that he would even consider it.
 
What exactly did he say that was sooooo bad?

HE merely laid out the reality that the hardcore "fans" of this obscure Japanese focused gam es don't seem to understand, even if you are very very "vocal" about wanting a game to be brought over, it's simply not economically feasible for Nintendo to do it in most cases because they aren't enough people.

Why would saying that get him fired??? like this is some big taboo or sacred thing?

The fact that he said anything at all is what got him fired.

As for economic feasibility of niche games… the games are niche in large part because Nintendo doesn't advertise them. Most people who wound up buying Xenoblade hadn't heard of it before Operation Rainfall. A little marketing muscle goes a long way. NoA under Fils-Aime doesn't do that.
 
Back
Top