A report from The Seattle Times has appeared to confirm that around 80 Nintendo of America staff will be relocated from the company’s Redmond offices, though the Wii creator itself is not commenting on the Seattle Times-sourced accounts relayed from city officials.
The
Seattle Times article indicates that Nintendo intends to relocate around eighty staff from its sales, marketing and advertising teams to New York City or San Francisco, according to comments from Redmond deputy planning director Jim Roberts - following a discussion with Nintendo executive Bruce Meyer.
Nintendo of America first moved to Redmond, near Seattle, in 1982. Coincidentally, the company’s offices are situated just a short distance from Microsoft’s own headquarters, although at the time of the initial move there was no overlap between the two companies’ businesses. As of last year Nintendo of America employed around a thousand staff at the offices.
In January 2006 Nintendo of America announced
plans to expand their headquarters by more than 550,000 square feet, while working with city planners to address the subsequent impact on traffic and the environment. According to Roberts, these talks have now been halted. The Seattle Times report further suggest that Nintendo may have decided to sell the additional land it had intended to use for the expansion.
No official comment on the situation has been forthcoming from Nintendo, although Redmond mayor Rosemarie Ives has indicated that the lost positions would be replaced and that the company would not be moving from Redmond.
