Nintendo closing offices in California, Toronto

Nintendo is officially closing the doors of its Redwood City, California, and Toronto offices as the company continues to focus its presence on its main North America offices in Redmond, Washington, as well as Vancouver. 

This has been something that Nintendo has been working on for some time, and it claims that it is closing these “small satellite offices” in order to bring more of its employees and operations into its Redmond and Vancouver offices. 

Additionally, this closure saw the resignation of senior vice president of sales and marketing at Nintendo of America Nick Chavez, who announced he had taken a position with Kentucky Fried Chicken earlier today, according to Kotaku. Devon Pritchard, NoA’s executive vice president of business affairs and publisher relations, will fill Chavez’s previous position on an interim basis. Here is the full statement from Nintendo: 

“Nintendo of America headquarters are in Redmond, WA, and Vancouver, BC. We are moving more of our employees and operations into those headquarters and will be closing small satellite offices in Toronto, ON, and Redwood City, CA, over time,” NoA said. “Devon Pritchard, Executive Vice President, Business Affairs and Publisher Relations for Nintendo of America (NOA), will assume interim leadership of Sales, Marketing and Communications following the departure of Nick Chavez. Ms. Pritchard will oversee strategy and execution of sales, marketing, and communications across the U.S. and Canada.”

The affected offices are both listed as various sales-focused locations on the Nintendo NA job site, with the Redwood City location specifically being noted for sales and marketing departments that work with stores around NA. 

Nintendo did not clarify why the offices are being closed, how many jobs in total will be affected or if workers will be able to continue working remotely.

Kotaku has initially reported that the move is displacing around 100 employees from the California offices alone, though Nintendo’s statement implies that many could be making the move to their main offices shortly. Kotaku also notes that a source confirmed many of the now-displaced staff “were upset over the decision.”