Home Gaming Nintendo delays game to prioritise employee health, loses $1bn in market value

Nintendo delays game to prioritise employee health, loses $1bn in market value

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capitalism

During its E3 Direct, Nintendo announced that it had delayed its impending social simulator Animal Crossing: New Horizons to 2020. Fans of the series weren’t actually too upset from what I’ve seen, especially when Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser explained that the company wanted to avoid excessive crunch, and bring a bit of work-life balance to Nintendo employee’s lives.

“For us, one of our key tenets is that we bring smiles to people’s faces, and we talk about that all the time,” he told IGN. “For us, that applies to our own employees. We need to make sure that our employees have good work-life balance.

“One of those examples is, we will not bring a game to market before it’s ready. We just talked about one example [in Animal Crossing’s delay]. It’s really important that we have that balance in our world. It’s actually something we’re proud of.”

This was met by praise from consumers and most within the gaming industry. But, because capitalism is what it is, favouring profits over people, the market has not reacted well to the news of Animal Crossing’s delay. Since that was revealed, Nintendo’s market value has apparently dropped by $1bn, with the Financial Times directly citing the delay as the key cause. Of course, it’s worth noting that the Nikkei, in general, was down, but it really seems bizarre that Nintendo’s lost value because it decided to prioritise making a good game and its people over profits.

That said, the $1bn drop represents just a 3.53% loss in the company’s value. Nintendo is one of the oldest existing companies on the planet though, and they’ve always looked towards steady income over quick profits. It’s one of the reasons you can never count Nintendo out.

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Last Updated: June 14, 2019

11 Comments

  1. For the Emperor!

    June 14, 2019 at 11:16

    Good for them! I am fine with capitalism, but I really do not like capitalism without a conscience. They have a conscience, and although I do not buy their products, I applaud them!

    Reply

  2. Alien Emperor Trevor

    June 14, 2019 at 11:17

    Just another demonstration of how fucked up and backwards the financial market really is.

    Nintendo: “We want to release a high quality product and also care for our employees.”
    Financial Sector: “Nani?!”

    Reply

    • Guz

      June 14, 2019 at 11:17

      Omae wa mou shindeiru!

      Reply

      • Alien Emperor Trevor

        June 14, 2019 at 11:17

        I luff it when you talk weeb.

        Reply

        • Guz

          June 14, 2019 at 11:17

          Shhhhhhhhhh………I definitively 100% guaranteed don’t watch anime……….

          Reply

  3. Guz

    June 14, 2019 at 11:17

    Bravo! ?

    Reply

  4. Original Heretic

    June 14, 2019 at 11:45

    Fucking hell…
    This is why I hate big business. The fucking currency is always more important than people.

    Reply

  5. Craig "Crios" Boonzaier

    June 14, 2019 at 12:00

    The gaming industry has been plagued with some extremely horrible working conditions. When a company decides that their employees well-being is better for delivering a game is seen as out of the norm. It is not a good sign.

    Reply

  6. Yahtzee

    June 14, 2019 at 11:45

    They will make that up real fast with all the copy write strikes they send out on youtube and twitch

    Reply

  7. Gr8_Balls_o_Fire

    June 18, 2019 at 09:48

    The value didn’t drop because capitalism favours profits over people. That is incredibly short-sighted. It is due to actuality not meeting forecasts. It’s purely economics. If it wasn’t forecasted, it wouldn’t have had an effect on all the other financial planning that goes on behind the scenes.

    Reply

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