Nintendo Fires Outspoken Employee

http://mynintendonews.com/2015/08/13/chris-pranger-the-nintendo-treehouse-localiser-has-been-fired/

I feel sorry for the guy, losing his dream job and all, but he really brought it upon himself. He basically told us what we already knew: that games like Xenoblade don't sell on Nintendo platforms. Thus, they don't get localized. A fact that sheep refuse to acknowledge here, on SW.

For Ninty to bring a game like XB to the west, they have to eat the costs somewhere else. How sad is that? Still, it's one thing for me to say it, but an employee? This man has balls of fucking steel...

Eh...he sounds more stupid than courageous....

Nintendo in general should understand this is 2015 and follow the trends ... I get the impression more and more thru latest years they stacked to late 80s / early 90s mentality era

He's an idiot. But an honest one, at least!

He's not exactly wrong, but it did cost him his job.

Oh, I'm sure Fatal Frame fans will "love" him too...

They don't pay people to be honest, so he sucks at his job.

The article mentions his outspoken views "HERE, HERE and HERE", which is basically two links for the same article about him defending the Wii U name, and one about him saying Xenoblade Chronicles doesn't sell enough to warrant localization. He doesn't sound like anybody I should care is being fired even if I agree with him. At this point, Nintendo has to keep releasing stuff just to appease their most loyal fanbase that owns the Wii U and supports its titles despite it weak place in the market. Lose that demographic by not delivering games that only need be localized, and they risk losing their biggest cheerleaders when the NX launches. Releasing stuff for the Wii U has bigger implications than short term goals like whether such games are profitable by themselves.

People need to shut up and stay off the internet when it comes to your job.

Games like Xeno tend to sell better in overseas markets, such as the US. It makes sense to localize them. Even with that, though, they won't sell enough to cover everything. So developing them in the first place is a money sink.

It's his own fault that he lost his job.

I think it's the same at most corporations, keep your head low and your mouth shut.

I can see why Nintendo did this tho, statements like this reflect poorly on them although firing I feel is a bit extreme.

It's gotta feel pretty awful to get fired from Nintendo. I mean damn, that's like having your childhood kick you in the balls.

Guy is an idiot, probably the best job he will ever have in his life and he's lost it because he didn't think.

Yes Nintendo need to take hits on games and hardware to win back people, too bad profits and pleasing the board and chairmen comes before pleasing the people.

@lamprey263 Not just his views, but the views of Nintendo of America. Which is why he got fired.

He basically confirmed, for all to hear, that NoA doesn't give two shits about these "niche titles" and the people who want them. And that they should consider themselves lucky to be given some scraps (aka Xenoblade).

Dude's crazy...

Good riddance.

I feel bad for him, but man, people are idiots when it comes to their jobs and the internet.

dont bite the hand that feeds you.

its a shame companies get so defensive but these are multi million dollar projects. its ok to voice concerns internally but publically....best game ever. industry standard.

sadly he is right about games like xenoblade. i hope it sells enough that nintendo see a solid return. its never going to be a GTA killer and a money printing machine like pokemon but they can still be worthwhile.

i certainly hope it gets better treatment than bayonetta 2.

yeah, i agree with this.

He is talking about the original Xenoblade. it has already sold enough for Nintendo to admit that it beat expectations, and take a more proactive stance on localization, which has yielded us games like Bravely Default and Fire Emblem Awakening, as well as a sequel for Xenoblade itself.

I wonder what brought the original Xenoblade up. The article was from last week.

Also, every single copy of Xenoblade Chronicles Nintendo put on the market in America sold. If they wanted more sales, they should have printed more copies.

I never understood the localisation argument, how much does it cost just to translate the text, most people would just be happy with subtitles.

lesson hear is, never say something unless its something your cool with it getting out, as chances are you were recorded/heard and it could be used agaisnt you later.

He is right about everything he said. Nintendo fans don't like JRPGs, and Xenoblade wasn't a complete failure on the Wii, but a failure nonetheless. Has it been on PC, Playstation, it would be a completely different story, and the world would be singing Xenoblade songs like they do with Dark Souls. Perhaps it would've sold 4 million copies like a Dark Souls game does.

But even though I feel bad for the guy, he was an idiot and it wasn't surprising that he got fired. Still a damn shame.

Keep the internet and your work separate. There's just no point in risking your livelihood.

While I get what he is saying, and I know how the "Public" can be annoying as hell and don't understand how a business actually works. But he is putting Nintendo in a bad light with his response even if it has some truth to it. Overall I don't agree with him. The Wii-U name was a horrid choice that confused the mainstream. It was a horrid name in that it reminded the "core" audience of the Wii. As far as I know all copies of Xenoblade were sold in NA. Europe localized it way before the US got it, which is why most were confused and outraged that it wasn't being released in the US as it was already translated into English for the European release. The work had already been done.

The sequel is already coming out in Europe and US without hesitation now, so that must mean Xenoblade must have met expectations in sales in Europe and the U.S. So while yes they don't make as much as a Mario or Zelda game, there is enough of an English speaking audience to support the localization. Namco learned this with Tales. They left the U.S. and Europe to dry for a while until their Facebook was overrun with disgruntled English speaking fans and now we have gotten pretty much every iteration of Tales.

JRPG's don't bring in the cash like they used too, but the cost of localization isn't that much and they usually sell enough copies to make a small return. The problem is these companies expect every game to pull in 5-10 million copies in the US alone and the ones that don't get shoved aside. Slowly they are realizing that any profit is good, even if its a million and not 5-10 million.

"Nintendo fans don't like JRPG's"

Pokemon remains a hit and remains in Nintendo's "triforce", with a Trainer and his monsters in Samus' place since 1996.

"Had it been released on PlayStation and PC, it would be a different story and the world would be singing Xenoblade songs like they do Dark Souls."

lol NO! Sony already has so many dang JRPG's in their consoles, it would go unnoticed while Namco's Tales, Square's Final Fantasy, and Atlus' SMT/Persona remain the top in that genre.

The Sonic the Hedgehog Twitter had this to say about the ordeal.

Nintendo's not the only company to have done this, nor will they be the last. Word to the unwise: don't talk on the net about your business if you value your job. Not that hard to grasp.

If he was Japanese, he would have been forgiven and kept his job. Since he's a "dumb" western, he lost his job

If he was Japanese , he will have to bow so hard , he makes a hole in the floor.

...Or, they just give him the Yokoi treatment by just moving his desk and have everyone ignore him so he can think about his great shame until he decides to leave the company.

Pretty much should just do this for all localisation..instead of wasting money on bad english voice dubbed. English subtitle is cheaper & faster. :P

He stuffed up...& that can pretty much get you fired. :P

Can't say I blame Nintendo. Really any Company would fire a spokesperson like that.

Still I'll blame Nintendo for not doing enough on Localizations on games like Xenoblade and Fatal Frame.

If it wasn't for Xseed we would have never seen Pandora's Tower and The Last Story.

You gotta know your place, and your business wouldn't be talked about online. He had to learn the hard way. Its kind of ignorant not to think nothing would come of it.

Man is a fool! If you work for a company that's always in the media's light, don't ever say anything that hasn't been OK'd.

It would cost a lot to do a decent translation of a text heavy JRPG. Then there's distribution, advertising, bla bla. It costs a lot when not many people are going to buy it. Now that things could potentially be Digital only that could help with some of the costs I guess but it's still expensive.

It's true, but why the hell say such things so openly?

Thankfully Xenoblade sold more in the US than in Japan. In fact, it sold out. The sequel wouldn't have been localized otherwise.

The Wii U name is still shit.

@hernandezzzz: that sucks, i think this was harsh

@Chozofication: You're watching Samurai Champloo? Good shit.

Nothing he said was that disrespectful to Nintendo as a whole, he spoke up against how silly fans are when they say "Nintendo doesn't want my money"...if anything he defended Nintendo's decision making.

No they wouldn't, most people want to hear a game in their own language. It definitely widens the appeal, especially for a video game.

Would games like Metal Gear Solid or Resident Evil be popular in the west if they released with just subtitles? Most likely not.

Given that there are apparently so few gamers who like Nintendo games it is pretty interesting when people point out that Nintendo gamers don't like something good.
If that's a shortcoming, it's one that non-Nintendo gamers should be very familiar with.

Yeah it's a classic. Nujabes wrote some great music

My favorite track.

He shouldn't have said anything if he couldn't keep company perspectives private. If he didn't say anything he would still be there and no one would know who he is. Nintendo would have supported him and his family for the rest of his life without issue. Hopefully he lands on his feet soon, but he should have known better. Its why almost everyone never left the chocolate factory. They didn't listen to Wonka.

If a game is good it gets noticed. No matter how many other games there are in the genre. You're basically saying no FPS will ever again be noticed because there are already so many. That's nonsense.

Clearly this gent never took lessons from Reggie when it came to brown-nosing and saying the "correct" things.

Your 2 statements contradict each other. If the game sold more in the US than Japan and sold out, then it's not true.

I wouldn't open my damn mouth at work unless it was related directly to the safety of the company or it's employees.

Guy's a moron.

@93BlackHawk93: Nice one, this would be mine