Nintendo Of America Reportedly Lays Off Over 100 QA Testers

Josh Broadwell
·2 min read

nintendo-qa-tester-layoffs-2024

Nintendo of America is laying off over 100 quality assurance testers at its Washington headquarters, as first-party software reportedly dries up ahead of Switch 2. The news comes from a new Kotaku report, and while Nintendo’s response confirmed that the layoffs are happening, the company declined to say how many people the restructuring will affect.

“Nintendo of America (NOA) has reorganized its Product Testing functions to drive greater global integration in game development efforts,” Nintendo’s response to Kotaku reads. “The changes will also better align NOA with interregional testing procedures and operations.

These changes will involve some contractor assignments ending, as well as the creation of a significant number of new full-time employee positions. For all assignments that are ending, the contractors’ agencies, with NOA’s support, will offer severance packages and provide assistance during their transition.”

“For those contractor associates who will be leaving us, we are tremendously grateful for the important contributions they’ve made to our business, and we extend our heartfelt thanks for their hard work and service to Nintendo.”

Sources from Nintendo’s QA team who spoke with Kotaku said most of the new full-time positions are outside the testing department, which raises concerns over how effectively the remaining QA testers can perform their jobs – especially with complex games such as Tears of the Kingdom. Whether that specific issue will show up in the near future remains uncertain, though. Kotaku’s sources also said Nintendo has no first-party projects in the production pipeline, and no one the sources spoke with was aware of any Switch 2 testing in progress.

Nintendo has yet to publicly announce a Switch 2, or whatever it ends up being called. The company showcased new hardware to select partners at Gamescom 2023, but reports from earlier in 2024 suggested the company delayed production and announcements so the system could launch with a robust software lineup.