The company confirmed that it is closing its Redwood City offices in California and Toronto offices in Canada, in a statement to The Verge. Kotaku had earlier reported on Friday about the closing of Redwood City's offices.
The complete statement of the company regarding the decision is here:
The headquarters of Nintendo of America are located in Redmond WA and Vancouver BC. We will be moving more employees and operations to these headquarters. In the meantime, we will close small satellite offices in Toronto (ON) and Redwood City (CA). Following Nick Chavez's departure, Devon Pritchard, Executive vice president, Business Affairs and Publisher relations for Nintendo of America (NOA), will take over interim leadership of Sales, Marketing and Communications. Ms. Pritchard will be responsible for the strategy and execution in sales, marketing, and communications across Canada and the U.S.
Kotaku reports that around 100 people have been relocated from Redwood City offices due to the decision. Nintendo did not respond to our question about how many employees would be affected, but the statement above suggests that some employees will be able relocate. It is not clear why these offices will be closed.
On the company's job website, you can still see the Redwood City office on a map showing all of Nintendos offices. This is where you will find the Sales and Marketing department, along with NMI, which is a dedicated merchandising team that works with retailers across the country. Also, the Toronto office remains on site. It is a NOCL sales office.
There were no open positions for Redwood City as of today. However, Google caches indicate that the company had an open position for a Specialist in Experiential Marketing two days ago.
The Redwood City office was primarily focused on marketing, sales, and merchandising. This won't likely affect the development or hardware of Nintendo's games. Although most of Nintendo's games are made overseas, Retro Studios is based in Texas.
This closure comes only weeks after the launch Nintendo Switch with OLED screens and Metroid Dread. It was one of the most popular games in the year.
