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Oh I can do one better: I've been inside. Nintendo's lobby is nothing like a hospital. It looks like a North Korean palace. Sparse with only 2-3 plants. Every
by Danieru 6y ago
Oh I can do one better: I've been inside.
Nintendo's lobby is nothing like a hospital. It looks like a North Korean palace. Sparse with only 2-3 plants. Every wall is marble. At the reception desk are 3 receptionists. The lobby is giant, consuming about 1/2 of the building's footprint. Maybe only 7 sets of low sitting executive style chairs. Absolutly zero Nintendo authored art or decor. Off the lobby to the left are meeting rooms. These meeting rooms are your usual corporate japan meeting rooms minus any large glass windows.
Nintendo is a young japan by Japanese standards combined with being from outside of the two major metro areas they have a chip on their shoulder. They are proud and want to be respected like a proper 500 year old japanese mega corp.
Compare this to the other game company's waiting rooms I've been in. Marvelous was the most "look at what we've made" with tons of products and brand merchandise lining the walls. Square Enix is more reserved, with maybe 10 figures from their brands in a glass case inset into the wall. Sony (near shinagawa) is yet more reserved, no brands, but examples of their hardware, again along the wall. Large logo behind the receptionist desk. Wargaming.net had large props reused from their promotional events, plus the fanciest and branded offices of anyone.
My experience is from the new-nintendo building. The prior Nintendo building, which itself is not the original wooden building you might remember from black and white photos, is a few blocks away. The old building is only QA now from my understanding. The new building is larger with the most premium of japanese features: large open gardens between the building and compound walls.
- donw 6y agoOne of my coworkers used to work for Nintendo here in Japan, and told us about his first day. Apparently, in the building you visited, there is a massive Nintendo museum -- everything they've ever made, all carefully curated. You get to visit this museum once, and only once: on your first day with the company. From that point forward, you are not allowed to go again. They do this because Nintendo believes that, while it is vital to understand your roots, to know where you came from, it is equally important to not become mired in the past and rest upon old glories, and instead to look forward to the future.
- Danieru 6y agoOh now that is super interesting. I've heard of Bandai's library, where they have copies of every game they've made plus consoles staff can borrow. Which is the exact opposite of Nintendo's theory.
- lupire 6y agoStrange yet common to have such a weird pseudo religious gimmick to indoctrinate new employees with a symbol that doesn't serve the purpose it purports to. It's like Amazon's door desks, a symbol of frugality that costs more than a regular desk because they insist on custom building imitation doors instead of regular (and ergonomic) desks.
- 1123581321 6y agoWhy doesn't the one-time museum visit serve the purpose? Are Nintendo employees disbelieving that the company is serious about that balance between legacy and future? How much do the Amazon custom doors cost?
- drschwabe 6y agoNeat! Thanks for sharing those experiences. To clarify, the North Korean palace you refer to - which is the new building; is the boring blue and gray square shaped hospital looking one (the one I describe with the official sign out front of the gated entrance) ? Fascinating to hear about it from the inside. I was excited to see the building and lay foot on the sidewalk of the compound but not the type to ask for a tour; I didn't want to be an annoying がいじん. Settled for a selfie and pictures of the outside; Kyoto on its own is has no end of photogenic opportunities so it was one of many.
- Danieru 6y agoNintendo does not do tours. I only got inside as the programmer on a team delivering a game for the Switch, early after release. We only even got access to the meeting and switch hardware through an executive's connections to a seperate major games company. Our taxi drove in after checking in at the gate, we got out, waited in the lobby for 10 minutes, then went to the meeting room for half an hour. In the meantime the only other visitor appeared to be a contractor meeting with his manager, showing off a poster for approval. Meaning even if one directly contracts with Nintendo good chances you'll never see more than the lobby. You must have been to the new building. The old building does not have a large Nintendo sign. The old building has almost no space between the compound walls and the building itself while the new one has a basketball court.
- drschwabe 6y agoRight on; well that is the best way to enter any area: with relevance. It's super neat you got the inside view on more than one front; hope your Switch project was a success. Yeah I must have been at the new building; again to clarify, you were at the new one too? I checked out / subscribed to updates for Railgrade. Looks great. Hope にほん life has been good for you despite the crazy year; I haven't been back in a while so have been worried that the little things I enjoyed/valued so much there such as the polite hustle and bustle and sea of smiling faces (now covered with masks) has well maybe vanished.
- 6y ago
- aikinai 6y agoThe lobby in the old building is the same, all white marble with a little reception desk in the middle.