Nintendo has just denied a recent rumor that employees at its Mario Club Co., Ltd subsidiary are being laid off. Layoffs have become an increasing occurrence throughout the game industry over the past year or so, with big-name studios and indie developers reportedly cutting down on their workforces due to low sales, corporate downsizing, or other reasons. For example, Velan Studios, which worked with Nintendo on Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, sent layoff notices to about a third of its workers back in March following the cancelation of a major project.

This wasn’t the only Nintendo-related company faced with news of layoffs, as it was claimed that Mario Club Co., Ltd. was letting go of roughly 150 of its 400 employees earlier this week. For the uninitiated, Mario Club Co., Ltd. is a game-testing and debugging team that has worked on many Nintendo games since Dr. Mario back in 1990, with some of its most recent projects including Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, Princess Peach: Showtime, and Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

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However, it looks like these layoffs might not be happening after all. A Nintendo spokesperson recently provided a statement to Eurogamer debunking the claims of layoffs happening at Mario Club Co., Ltd. “We have confirmed with Mario Club Co., Ltd. that the rumoured information in the report is untrue,” the statement reads. The rumor in question originated from a Japanese publication named Leakpress (as translated by GoNintendo), which claimed that the layoffs were being done to remove employees who “cause trouble” and “drag their colleagues down.”

Nintendo Says Layoff Rumors Aren’t True

The report that started these rumors also claimed that Nintendo would handle these supposed layoffs differently than Bandai Namco, which reportedly banished some of its Japanese staff to so-called “eviction rooms” with nothing to work on. This would basically pressure the employees in question to leave Bandai Namco on their own rather than be laid off, and sources claimed that roughly 100 have done so.

Meanwhile, Nintendo is assuring the public that nobody at Mario Club Co., Ltd. is being laid off at the moment, either directly or through this so-called “eviction room” method. Nintendo has seen plenty of financial success thanks to the Nintendo Switch, and it seems like the Big N has a big year planned for 2025. The tentatively titled Switch 2 console is reportedly set to be revealed sometime before March, and highly-anticipated games like Donkey Kong Country Returns HD and Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition are launching right at the start of the year.

Nintendo

Date Founded

September 23, 1889

Headquarters

Kyoto, Kyoto, Japan

Parent Company

Nintendo

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