Major Shakeup in Nintendo of America Brass? 82
Last month Game Informer Online was reporting that Nintendo of America's (NoA) marketing and sales team was being moved away from the company headquarters in Redmond. The likely new home cities for staffers were either New York or San Francisco. Either way, it seems as if that choice didn't sit well. GI is now saying that 90% of the folks in those departments have opted not to move, and instead are taking severance packages. Surprisingly, this includes three of NoA's biggest names: Senior Director of Public Relations Beth Llewelyn; Vice President, Marking and Corporate Affairs Perrin Kaplan; and Senior Vice President, Marketing and Corporate Communications George Harrison. At the moment there is no official confirmation from Nintendo, but if true this would constitute huge change in the message from the company in North America.
huh (Score:2, Funny)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3, Funny)
A lot of people like watching reality TV. A lot of people can't read. What a lot of people do can't even be remotely construed as a good thing.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I could think of three good reasons for moving from Redmond.
The fact that 90% of their employees seem unwilling to move seems to indicate that their options in Redmond seem pretty good and that they don't really love Nintendo that much anyways.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Or maybe there was a good reason and this is just icing on the cake.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1, Flamebait)
Or maybe they just don't want to get shot.
Hold up on the "get shot" comment... (Score:1)
http://oaklandca.areaconnect.com/crime/compare.htm ?c1=Oakland&s1=CA&c2=San+Francisco&s2=CA [areaconnect.com]
Of course, New York is a bit safer than San Francisco in a general sense...
http://oaklandca.areaconnect.com/crime/c [areaconnect.com]
Re: (Score:1)
http://oaklandca.areaconnect.com/crime/compare.ht
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Ok, that's just not so. New York, in September-early November, and in like April-July, has beautiful weather. And Redmond isn't exactly an eternal springtime, it's June and still 52 degrees there.
Re:huh (Score:5, Funny)
- Earthquakes
- Not sure what else...
- Gay pride marches
- Exciting car chases starring Steve McQueen
- Massive cascades of small, brightly-coloured balls
Re: (Score:2)
Massive cascades of small, brightly-coloured balls? Seems redundant, since you already mentioned the gay pride marches.
Re: (Score:2)
But you can get out of the Seattle cityscape very quickly. There is really some very pretty areas around Seattle. I don't know how fast you can get out of San Fransisco to the country but I know that there are also some very pretty areas around there I just have never been to SF so I don't know the details.
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Some answers to your question are.
1. Cost of living. Yea Seattle is expensive but I think San Francisco is worse.
2. Quality of living. As big cities go Seattle is much nicer to live in than New York from my point of view. I have spent time in both and I like Seattle a lot more.
3. Family, friends, and opportunities. If you have lived in a place for years you have roots, you may have kids in school that you don't want to uproot.
4. Moving Tax. If you bought
Re: (Score:2)
See, I think that not so many others would pick your solution. I've been to Seattle, I've lived in Austin and visited Dallas a few times, and I've lived in SF. So long as you can afford off-street parking (or plan to ditch your car) I'd choose SF out of all of those places simply because of the weather. It gets cold there, especially in
Re: (Score:2)
I've never quite understand why people say this. I grew up about half and half in the SF area (when I was a younger child) and near Seattle (when I was a teenager), and the Seattle weather was really nice for the most part -- pretty sunny in the summer but not oppressively hot, with very mild winters. I'd describe Seattle weather as bei
Re: (Score:1)
--Mark Twain
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The DART and the busses are "real" I guess, but are drops in the bucket. Their capacity for transporting people is no where near enough to alleviate the massive congestion.
I moved down here from Massachusetts a year ago, so maybe I'm spoiled by the T. However, it still amazes me that Rush Hour lasts from 3 until 7 here.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm not an expert, but it seems that we must also consider the greater metropoliton area within which each draws it's commuters. The Dallas-Ft Worth-Arlington area is 9,249 sq. mi. with 6,003,967 (2006 est.) people, a density of 634/sq. mi. The Boston-Cambridge-Quincy area is 4,674 sq. mi. with 4,411
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Based on your reply, I'm not sure which city you're actually defending.
Re: (Score:2)
A load of.... (Score:2)
To be fair, they *would* have sold more, but they couldn't keep up with demand, even after downing heroic quantities of laxative tablets.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
People have families and other commitments.
I wouldn't move half way across the country for any company either unless they made it REALLY worthwhile to me and my family.
Re: (Score:1)
So... (Score:5, Funny)
Re: (Score:1)
What the hell? Why? (Score:4, Interesting)
Marketing seems to me to be one of those departments that would be about as effective regardless of the geographic location of its employees. Is this just a thinly veiled way to lay off a lot of people without making themselves look like the bad guys?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Re:What the hell? Why? (Score:5, Interesting)
-This change was mandated by some crazy executive in Japan without caring about what the US division said. This would probably mean the move will be a complete disaster for Nintendo of America.
-Maybe our good friend Reggie, who used to be head of Marketing, thinks that their marketing and sales department is full of bozos, and did this just because he'd get high attrition rates. On the new cities, he already has new management lined up, so the old figureheads take the severance now instead of just getting fired or demoted later. If this is the case, it could be good or bad: Maybe they really were under-performing.
Your typical option number three, an executive wants to move to a nicer city, and who cares about all his underlings, seems very unlikely given how many executives are leaving.
Re: (Score:2)
Possible. Pre DS and Wii, Nintendo was failing in the US, and even now, Japan seems to be unhappy with how the US is developing, compared to the other two large markets...
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
This is all purely speculation, of course.
Re: (Score:2)
Just speculation based on Nintendo's past attitudes, though, but it may have changed with Yamauchi gone (but
Re: (Score:2)
First, to get closer to Japan from Seattle, I think NYC would be near the bottom of the list.
Second, any flights out of SFO to get to Japan go north along the coast, over Washington (Seattle/Redmond) and then cut over through part of Alaska (depending on the Jet Stream). They are in just about the best location they can be for access to Japan.
Good for them (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Maybe my area is the exception rather than the norm. Either case, want to send one my way?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
There was even a slashdot article on it.
Re: (Score:2)
Really? I've got one because I lucked out and found a store that had 2 left, there were 2 other people in line, and one had their credit card declined. My sister tho, is still looking for one at all the stores.
Are you sure you're thinking of the right console? The Wii is a smallish white box and
Re: (Score:2)
That doesn't seem like they are struggling to sell them to me.
Also, I just spent the whole of today playing on my wii - so I've not left it untouched for months
From a business perspective (Score:1)
Re: (Score:2)
Veracity? (Score:3, Interesting)
I realize Game Informer is a major gaming magazine, but it still seems really odd. "Sources" or no, Harrison and Kaplan are pretty important in the hierarchy of NoA, and I find it really weird that Nintendo would silently move/remove all of these people without announcing anything at all.
Not to mention how little sense it makes to move marketing so far away from headquarters.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Please remember that Game Informer was once a product of FuncoLand, and as such is now a product of GameStop. As an experiment, visit your local GameStop and ask the friendly clerk about Nintendo products. When you feel
NOA can't take many more shakeups! (Score:2)
Marketing (Score:2)
A lot of the NA people left NY to come to Seattle (Score:1)
We get a lot of refugees from there and Cali.
Who else has a headquarters near Redmond? (Score:2)
Or perhaps it was the other way around? Did anyone else think it odd that Nintendo had named their box the "Revolution" and MS named theirs the "360?"
Think about it.
--
Toro
A Wii is not hard to come by (Score:1)