Nintendo of America testers claim they suffered years of abuse

Female game testers at Nintendo headquarters in the US allege years of harassment, abuse and lack of opportunities, according to a stunning new report.

A shocking report alleges that many former contractors of Nintendo of America suffered years of sexual harassment and abuse, ranging from inappropriate sexual humour to stalking and threats.

The report by gaming website Kotaku alleges many female contractors came forward to talk about their experiences at Nintendo of America headquarters.

One woman, a former game tester using the fake name Hannah, says she quit after a male employee allegedly started posting in a work group chat about video game characters in an inappropriate way, such as having sex with a Pokemon or how he believed it was OK to be attracted to childlike game characters, such as Paimon from Genshin Impact.

“Nintendo was almost like a nightmare. It’s sad because I love Nintendo; I grew up with Nintendo. I was so excited to join Nintendo when I first got there, and I thought I was going somewhere,” Hannah said.

However, when she reported the incident to her supervisors at Aerotek, which is now named Aston Carter, the contracting company that Hannah worked for, she was allegedly told to be less outspoken, and ostracised by her work group for reporting the incident.

Nintendo Switch is one of Nintendo’s most popular console releases. Picture: Nintendo

In a previous encounter, Hannah recalled, she did see a co-worker fired after they commented on the colour of Hannah’s underwear.

However, the male employee discussing Pokemon sex was a full-time Nintendo employee and she claimed his only punishment was additional sexual harassment training.

A key factor in this is that contractors often do not have proper recourse to challenge full-time employees, the report claimed.

Nicknamed ‘Red Badges’, on account of their employee ID cards having a visibly red stripe on them, full-time employees enjoy a certain amount of protection and less scrutiny than contractors.

According to the report, a full-time employee who had credits in popular games such as Metroid Prime and Donkey Kong Country, was said to have made inappropriate gestures and advances towards women during his tenure at Nintendo.

“It was pretty common knowledge that he would make comments” and “hit on people”. Another former tester stated that he “went after all the associate girls”, and that associates had to warn newer employees to stay away from him.

The report suggested that staff felt compelled to stay on good terms with him.

“If you were friendly with him, you are more likely to be brought back sooner or less likely to be laid off,” one source, named Allison, said.

Nintendo games, such as Super Smash Bros. Brawl from 2008, are popular enough to retain audiences even to this day. Picture: Nintendo

Other sources recalled the treatment of women, especially queer women, as being severe enough to make them cry, or leave their jobs altogether.

Aerotek is on the receiving end of several labour lawsuits and settling an anti-discrimination lawsuit of more than $A4.2 million.

Nintendo did not respond to Kotaku’s requests for comments.

The company chief Doug Bowser has, however, previously addressed reports about Activision Blizzard’s sexist “frat boy” culture in an internal memo.

“Along with all of you, I’ve been following the latest developments with Activision Blizzard and the ongoing reports of sexual harassment and toxicity at the company. I find these accounts distressing and disturbing. They run counter to my values as well as Nintendo’s beliefs, values and policies,” he said.

Written by Junior Miyai on behalf of GLHF