Nintendo is a "haven for geniuses" but "hell for an average person", former worker says

[John Elden Ring]

A former Nintendo of Japan employee has publically spoken about his time working at the company, calling it a "haven for superhumans and geniuses", but "hell for an ordinary person" like himself.

Koichi Miura worked at Nintendo from 2019 to 2023 in game production and is now a freelance CG designer and YouTuber. On Twitter, he wrote about his experience at the company. It's rare to see former employees openly talking in an industry which is known for a culture of keeping quiet.

"Nintendo was a great company but I wouldn't recommend it lightly to others.

He described it as a "haven of superhumans and genuises" able to create successively amazing games, but felt it was "hell for an average person" such as himself. His time at Nintendo helped him realise it wasn't the right career for him, he said, and helped him find the confidence to take his career down a different path.

"That's my biggest accomplishment from working at Nintendo. I have no regrets in deciding to work there, achieving that, and then leaving."

Miura reiterated he has no bad feelings towards Nintendo.

"Let me repeat this so there are no misunderstandings," he continued, "I thought it was a really great company and the employees were wonderful people".

In a statement to Encount, Miura said he hopes people don't see his experience as a negative one, but as a positive message.

Transcript via Eurogamer

 

[Snes nes]

It’s not surprising that devs are worked that hard tbh.

 

[Dick Jones]

Uncle Koichi left Nintendo. Oh no, where will I get my Nintendo leaks from now?

 

[historia]

It’s not surprising that devs are worked that hard tbh.

Nintendo have lowest pay for backend programmes, they are lower than fking web designers other place.

Not to mention their game programmers are not high either, Cygame, Koei Tecmo or Bandai Namco pay as much as double that.

 

[Snes nes]

Nintendo have lowest pay for backend programmes, they are lower than fking web designers other place.

Not to mention their game programmers are not high either, Cygame, Koei Tecmo or Bandai Namco pay as much as double that.

idk it’s a high paying job with a lot of things going on. I recall a lot of those tech jobs are pretty high paying. It’s like 80-100 thousand a year for most iirc.

 

[anonpuffs]

Nintendo have lowest pay for backend programmes, they are lower than fking web designers other place.

Not to mention their game programmers are not high either, Cygame, Koei Tecmo or Bandai Namco pay as much as double that.

it is like the blizzard of japan
legendary games but underpays the industry by 50-70%. but blizzard fell apart bc western politics and japanese workers are too conservative/afraid of change to leave nintendo

 

[historia]

it is like the blizzard of japan
legendary games but underpays the industry by 50-70%. but blizzard fell apart bc western politics and japanese workers are too conservative/afraid of change to leave nintendo

They do?

I mean Nintendo got good retention. Games industry have tendency to spin occupations real fast.

Also nowadays every big publishers, studios outsourcing to SEA like hell.

SIE got one Malaysia, Bandai got one in Filipine, and Koei Tecmo got one in Vietcong(I think that's what it calls?)

 

[anonpuffs]

They do?

I mean Nintendo got good retention. Games industry have tendency to spin occupations real fast.

Also nowadays every big publishers, studios outsourcing to SEA like hell.

SIE got one Malaysia, Bandai got one in Filipine, and Koei Tecmo got one in Vietcong(I think that's what it calls?)

vietcong is the name of the north vietnamese communist military/paramilitary during the vietnam war lol

 

[historia]

vietcong is the name of the north vietnamese communist military/paramilitary during the vietnam war lol

I think they still running on commie like China?
Eh, what is the different anyway.

Anyway, outsourcing in theory should make the cost go down and more pay day but well, you know how executive board run.

Also the who Iwata and Miyamoto cutting wage is kinda bullshit to brighten their public image. Nintendo is the most skimpy video games company probably ever. They sold their games on evergreen model, their hardware sold at the profit, their infracstructure sucks, yet they still skimp their employees.