Nintendo of America has made the decision to outsource its customer support services, resulting in hundreds of contractors losing their jobs amid concerns Nintendo’s customer support will suffer as the Nintendo Switch 2 enters its first holiday season.
IGN has spoken to multiple sources impacted by the decision, who spoke to us on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal. All of them painted a picture of a formerly rigorous structure for training and maintaining customer support services in the U.S. that was suffering significantly due to language barriers, poor communication, and Nintendo’s overall decision-making on how to handle the transition from U.S.-based support to outsourced support from South America.
Sources say that historically, Nintendo of America has contracted with primarily two U.S.-based agencies to fill roles in back office customer support. That includes, according to one source I spoke to and verified by others, “back office teams, fraud, financials, chargebacks, customer services, chatlogs, customer phone and email support, refunds, account bans, remote data transfers, repair support, everything customer support. There are a few people remaining on-site overseeing it, but essentially it’s all going away.”
Though the people in these roles were contract employees, those we spoke to say many workers had been there for years. In order to skirt laws that would have required them to hire workers full time, Nintendo of America would contract them for 11 months at a time. At the end of the contract, they’d be “let go” for two months, during which they could draw unemployment, before having their contract consistently renewed, often at a higher pay rate each time. Contractors received some health benefits through the agency, with the only Nintendo-provided benefits being occasional free or discounted games. “Everyone that I have worked with has worked here for years,” said one contractor.
As a result, IGN understands many of these contractors were highly skilled and experienced, specifically in working with Nintendo of America’s systems and procedures. However, in March, workers were told their contracts were being cut, to be phased out entirely this month. Those I spoke to were unsure of the total number of individuals impacted, but estimated in the ballpark of 200 workers total. Contractors were informed through their respective agencies; sources tell me contractors never received any direct communication from Nintendo of America on this subject. “Not a thank you, not an I’m sorry, nothing,” said one. Because they are contract employees, they do not receive severance pay, even if their contracts are ending early.
Contractors whose contracts run through September are still working their usual jobs, but with a new duty added: they now have to help train their replacements.
Those we spoke to shared that Nintendo of America appears to have cut contracts in the U.S. only to outsource the jobs to workers in South America, primarily Brazil but also other countries such as Argentina and Nicaragua. While Nintendo of America has previously employed support staff in these countries, in the past, they were limited to first-line contacts, who would then pass information to departments in the U.S. for cases to be handled in full. But now, these workers are more fully taking on customer support cases. While they are receiving assistance from the U.S. workers, those I spoke to say this process has been challenging and frustrating for everyone involved, and there are concerns that customer support quality will suffer long-term.
For one, U.S. contractors tell me that Nintendo of America has previously had rigorous standards it held customer support workers to. However, they say those standards seem to be different – less rigorous – for the new hires, and the U.S. contractors report often being called in to resolve issues on their behalf. One U.S. contractor also told me that feedback provided to supervisors of the new group of contractors did not seem to be making it to the agents.
“The training of our replacements by existing agents is something that has never been done with new hires before,” they said. “New hires were previously brought on in large groups and whittled down to the best three to seven agents. While help was always available to new agents, there was always an expectation to see a contact through to the end (unless something urgent or sensitive was found) in order to ensure that every agent knew how to do everything. Now we are expected to finish contacts that are deemed ‘too difficult’ for new agents.”
Another issue is the language barrier. While the new contract employees speak English, those I spoke to say their skills are often understandably weaker than those of a native speaker. This has caused a number of communication issues internally, but also has resulted in a noticeable increase in customers becoming irate, belligerent, and even racially abusive toward agents. One person specifically recalled seeing customers using racial slurs toward the new agents on multiple occasions.
Everyone we spoke to expressed concern that this change would result in, at least in the immediate term, a noticeable drop in support quality for Nintendo of America customers, especially once the trained U.S. agents were no longer around to support. As they pointed out, this is coming at a time when Nintendo might be keen to have strong customer support, with the Nintendo Switch 2 having just launched and preparing to head into its first holiday season. But instead, Nintendo seems to be prioritizing cost saving. As one former employee put it:
We feel pretty cheated by the whole process — Nintendo just released a highly popular console and they’re making plenty of money, yet the minimum wage in the areas they are hiring from equates to about $1/hr in USD [Author’s note: The general minimum wage in Brazil is R$1,518.00 per month, which equates to $245 USD per month or approximately $1.53 an hour. Minimum wage in the state of Washington is $16.66 per hour.] They are basically sacrificing the quality of well trained agents to save a bunch of money, and it’s left us all feeling very… Vulnerable? Crappy? Obviously we knew taking contract jobs that this could happen and there was no guarantee to return after contract breaks, but I personally feel as though Nintendo could have easily hired on a bunch of the contractors as FTE and had better results while still saving money from having to use the agencies (which obviously take a cut of the money) — so I guess it’s made us feel worthless. It’s also such a volatile economy to be dumping all of us out into.
When asked about the claims in this article, Nintendo provided the following statement to IGN:
While we have nothing to announce about our internal business activities, the claims shared with IGN include inaccurate information. At Nintendo of America, we are extremely thankful to have partnered with several companies and their talented contractors over the years to deliver high-quality customer service experiences. We continue to evolve and expand our customer service model with external partners that have deep experience in all the markets we serve across the Americas. This approach allows us to support the full scope of our customer service mission in both North America and our growing Latin American markets, and better scale to seasonal needs for consistent support. As always, our top priority is to provide excellent customer support, and we are pleased that customer satisfaction with the service provided by all our partners remains positive.
I asked Nintendo to specify which claims in this article were inaccurate, but the company did not respond. I also reached out to the contract agencies mentioned by my sources for this piece. Neither responded to my digital inquiries, one didn’t answer the phone nor return my voicemail, and the other answered the phone but was unable to connect me with anyone who could answer my questions.
The individuals I spoke to also expressed concern and fear about the job market they were about to enter, especially given the growing use of generative AI in customer support industry-wide. They pointed out that due to a rise in generative AI replacing human workers in their industry, it could be extremely challenging for those impacted by this to find work. That same source added that Nintendo’s customer support environment had been, by and large, a positive working environment for employees who are members of the LGBTQ community, and attracted a diverse workforce over time. But consequentially, they say, those diverse individuals are now especially struggling with the impact of these reductions due to the current political climate in the U.S. “You’re putting us all back out on a market that makes it clear we are not welcome,” they said. “A lot of us are feeling betrayed, empty, like almost led-on in a way. Who knows what the next couple years will look like?”
“It’s hard to see a post from Doug Bowser thanking his direct team for how much this has impacted him,” they added. “You’re thanking the wrong team.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to [email protected].
