Nintendo subsidiary Mario Club Co., Ltd. isn’t laying off employees.
Earlier this week, a report from Japanese outlet Leakpress claimed Mario Club Co., Ltd. was letting go of approximately 150 of its 400 employees. It was said the layoffs were happening across various groups within the company.
However, in the time since this initial report, Nintendo has debunked these claims. In a statement provided to Eurogamer, a Nintendo spokesperson said:
“We have confirmed with Mario Club Co., Ltd. that the rumoured information in the report is untrue.”
Mario Club Co., Ltd. is a game-testing and debugging team for many of Nintendo’s games. Its credits include Luigi’s Mansion 2 HD, Princess Peach: Showtime! and Super Mario Bros. Wonder, to name just a few.
The initial report claiming layoffs at Mario Club Co., Ltd. said the condition was a little different from so-called ‘eviction rooms’, which is something Bandai Namco was recently accused of.
Earlier this month, it was reported Bandai Namco staff were not being laid off directly, but were rather being sent to rooms with nothing to do. Essentially, the company was said to be putting pressure on staff to resign voluntarily, to avoid having to formally lay them off.
Elsewhere in Nintendo news, yesterday the company announced Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, a souped up version of the acclaimed 2015 sci-fi action-RPG released on Wii U, which will bring enhanced visuals and more on its Nintendo Switch release next year.