While thousands are laid off across the industry, Nintendo's employee retention rate remains over 98%

Vaquilla

Vaquilla

Member
As of Nintendo's latest employee data, the turnover rate at their Japanese branch was just 1.9% from April 2024 to March 2025.
For Nintendo of America it was slightly higher, but still low at 5.1%.

The data also showed that the average employee tenure was 14 years for Nintendo of Japan, (the highest in the country) and 10 years for Nintendo of America.

nintendoeverything.com

Nintendo currently retaining 98% of its staff, plus other data

Nintendo has shared a ton of data about its employees including an important retention rate of 98%.
nintendoeverything.com nintendoeverything.com
 
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Institutional knowledge is the most valuable asset a company has. Nintendo is doing things right in that respect.

With respect to the pricing of their products however...
 
Hudo said:
Institutional knowledge is the most valuable asset a company has. Nintendo is doing things right in that respect.

With respect to the pricing of their products however...
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They know exactly what to charge since everything is sold out (hardware) and the games keep selling.

Nothing wrong for a company to know their worth and price accordingly.
 
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It must be so boring to work at Nintendo with endless sequels and the same mammy and daddy graphics and art style.
Still, to their credit,t they are the best run gaming corp and also have the best Q&A in the gaming business


Give me the madness of SEGA any day of the week
 
Tiago Rodrigues said:
They know exactly what to charge since everything is sold out (hardware) and the games keep selling.

Nothing wrong for a company to know their worth snd price accordingly.
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I know, from their perspective, they're doing it right.

I was talking about it from my perspective, where I tell every gaming publisher/developer who wants to charge 90€ for a video game to fuck off.
 
recognize big bang theory GIF
 
Hudo said:
Institutional knowledge is the most valuable asset a company has. Nintendo is doing things right in that respect.

With respect to the pricing of their products however...
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I take that over company completely stop making the games I enjoy….this basically my issue with current Sony.

For me there is nothing worse.
 
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Unknown Soldier said:
Japan's government wouldn't allow it, and even if they did, the various anti-trust authorities in other nations wouldn't allow it
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Apart from Bethesda buying Tango (a small studio) there's never been an instance of an American corporation buying out a Japanese gaming publisher.

Unlike the British government the Japanese don't sell their companies to the highest global bidder.
 
Team Andromeda said:
It must be so boring to work at Nintendo with endless sequels and the same mammy and daddy graphics and art style.
Still, to their credit,t they are the best run gaming corp and also have the best Q&A in the gaming business


Give me the madness of SEGA any day of the week
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Youre right about sequels, but pretty sure most normal people don't get bored of working on different art styles just because they have colour. Nor do they associate colour with their parents.
 
Woopah said:
Youre right about sequels, but pretty sure most normal people don't get bored of working on different art styles just because they have colour. Nor do they associate colour with their parents.
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I would imagine at Nintendo, they would be some petrol or fighting heads and look across to the likes of SEGA or Capcom and see that their staff were allowed to make such games and also have graphics for a more mature audience or with real life look to them. Nintendo haven't done the likes of that since 1080 on the N64

But I cant find any fault with how well Nintendo as a business is run mind
 
Danjin44 said:
I take that over company completely stop making the games I enjoy….this basically my issue with current Sony.

For me there is nothing worse.
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I agree. But it is also getting me to buy fewer games and be more picky. For example, I have not bought MK World, even though I do like Mario Kart. But I don't see it being worth 90€.

I have bought DK Bananza, however. It's great. But it will most likely be one of the very few Switch 2 titles I will buy this year.
 
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Makes sense, look at the money they invest in graphics and technology lol

If I was releasing playstation 2 graphics games I would survive too
 
Team Andromeda said:
It must be so boring to work at Nintendo with endless sequels and the same mammy and daddy graphics and art style.
Still, to their credit,t they are the best run gaming corp and also have the best Q&A in the gaming business


Give me the madness of SEGA any day of the week
Click to expand...

Look at how well that worked out for them, with that mindset along with the constant in fighting between regions it nearly destroyed them. Be glad they even exist at all nowadays.
 
Impotaku said:
Look at how well that worked out for them, with that mindset along with the constant in fighting between regions it nearly destroyed them. Be glad they even exist at all nowadays.
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You act like there's no in infighting at Nintendo that happens in any big corp or parts of GOV Ect,ect

And I wouldn't look to believe anything that comes out of that lying toss bag Tom Kalinske mouth ...
[h3][/h3]
 
Though in principle this is a very good thing, you also need a bit of change and staff rotation to let in new ideas. It's not easy to strike that balance. This extreme is preferably to the madness of Western studios, no doubt.
 
Angry_Megalodon said:
Though in principle this is a very good thing, you also need a bit of change and staff rotation to let in new ideas. It's not easy to strike that balance. This extreme is preferably to the madness of Western studios, no doubt.
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They do actually hire new people all the time; they've grown their studios a lot over the last decade.

Splatoon for instance came from some of the newer younger devs at EPD.
 
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It is pretty much impossible for a Nintendo game to fail. The IP is so big and the budgets are also relatively much smaller than the rest of the industry. It really is an apple and oranges comparison. Nintendo's framework cannot be replicated by any other major publisher
 
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At this point, it's probably a self-filling prophecy. Nintendo's workers know the rest of the industry is extremely unstable, and they know that Nintendo is stable. They end up staying with Nintendo because there is probably a 99% chance they'll only ever leave on their own accord. I'm not trying to diminish Nintendo either, if I was in the gaming industry and I had a chance to work there, I'd jump at that opportunity. Nintendo would have to drag me out of there in a body bag.
 
And to think gamers genuinly believe this is a worse gaming company than Sony, Microsoft and western AAAs, just because they shut down emulators (Which Sony would also do if they emulated PS5 games).
 
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MidGenRefresh said:
I wonder if the 'low desire society' phenomena in Japan plays any role in this.
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5% attrition in US doesn't really support that.
People stick around when company culture invites it - big-tech averages double digits voluntary attrition for instance (layoffs come in addition to that), with average tenures very short as well. And yes those figures persist in Asia as well.
 
Hudo said:
I know, from their perspective, they're doing it right.

I was talking about it from my perspective, where I tell every gaming publisher/developer who wants to charge 90€ for a video game to fuck off.
Click to expand...
Games are as valuable as people are willing to pay for it. If you can't afford it then don't buy it. it does not mean the price is wrong. The Market determine price and Nintendo knows the market better than you.
 
Gonzito said:
Makes sense, look at the money they invest in graphics and technology lol

If I was releasing playstation 2 graphics games I would survive too
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We both know you wouldn't cut it trying. That you will fail like 80% of indie devs. So knock it off and admit Nintendo do a good job. i still hate them for game lawyering of game mechanisms, but that is a separate matter to their solid software output.

You make it sound like you are some top paying game dev making COD.
 
Vaquilla said:
As of Nintendo's latest employee data, the turnover rate at their Japanese branch was just 1.9% from April 2024 to March 2025.
For Nintendo of America it was slightly higher, but still low at 5.1%.

The data also showed that the average employee tenure was 14 years for Nintendo of Japan, (the highest in the country) and 10 years for Nintendo of America.

nintendoeverything.com

Nintendo currently retaining 98% of its staff, plus other data

Nintendo has shared a ton of data about its employees including an important retention rate of 98%.
nintendoeverything.com nintendoeverything.com
Click to expand...
Do take note, all Japanese companies tend to have good retention rates. Because quitting your job and finding another one isn't seen as a good thing in Japan. Many companies simply won't hire you because you quit to look for something different or something better.
 
That is impossible, unless Nintendo literally have them slaved and even some confined and obligated in a basement because Nintendo bad, believe me!!!

Now srsly, I'd like to work on a Nintendo studio but unfortunately they only hire in place.
 
Kataploom said:
That is impossible, unless Nintendo literally have them slaved and even some confined and obligated in a basement because Nintendo bad, believe me!!!

Now srsly, I'd like to work on a Nintendo studio but unfortunately they only hire in place.
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Nah, ever since Nintendo used their ninjas to assassinate Gunpei Yokoi after he left and developed the Wonderswan. People towed the company line.

The current Nintendo's yakuza ties are likely almost nonexistent compared to the earlier days with Yamauchi though.
 
It shows in the quality of their games.
 
I'd be more interesting to see how that compares to other big Japanese publishers.
Aren't Japanese companies known for not really firing people unless absolutely necessary? You even read stories about some people being put in boring empty rooms with nothing for them to do in the hopes they eventually just quit.
 
Steve Holt said:
Wonder what the retention rate will be like if Phil ever gets his grubby hands on them.
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Nintendo holds a fuck load of shares, combined with stakes from the descendants of Yamauchi and other Japanese entities having stakes in Nintendo such as Kyoto financials and Mitsubishi holdings make it impossible for MS. Thank god.
 
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