Inside the Growing Discontent Behind Nintendo’s Fun Facade

In 2010, Nintendo of America opened its brand-new headquarters in Redmond, Washington on a 10-acre plot owned by the company since the early 1980s. The late Satoru Iwata cut the ribbon on the state-of-the-art facility alongside then-Washington State governor Chris Gregoire on a "gleaming 300,000 square foot facility" with "cushioned benches shaped like d-pads" and a "Mario Kart-themed parking garage." It was everything a Nintendo fan could imagine, right down to the main boardroom being known as "The Master Sword."

Across the way, past a soccer pitch of the sort one often sees on West Coast tech campuses, is a much older building that isn't nearly as well-known. A former warehouse that houses a hodge-podge of departments ranging from data science to Product Testing and Development (PDT), it in some ways hearkens back to the days when NOA was simply an arcade distributor operating out of New Jersey. The warehouse doors are still visible, and the freight elevator near the greeting desk will sometimes get stuck open and make loud grinding noises. While Nintendo has spruced up the decoration with some Mario-themed diagrams, it's otherwise a nondescript work area with an atmosphere akin to a library.

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