Nintendo's Miscrediting Practices Are "Ridiculous", Say External Translators

Incredibly scummy practice - if a person worked on a project of any sort, they should be properly credited. End of discussion. The fact there are still crediting issues these days is frankly ridiculous.

There's no reason for this to happen, you can even just have a separate credit section in the game menu to list credits if they're too long.

Maybe the localisation agencies don't want their talent headhunted away from them so don't let them have individual credit? Whatever the case it's scummy

No excuse and they fact people can't even refer to work they have done on their CVs is ridiculous.

This is unfortunately not uncommon for all kinds of outsourced work in games.

I don't know why Nintendo would do it, but I know some other companies do it because of backlash from a toxic but vocal sections of their playerbase. There is a bizarre and completely incorrect assumption that if it's outsourced in any way, it's because the developer is lazy and doesn't care. Like they are doing it to be cheap. And as such they do stupid things like review bombing or harassing staff on socials.

The reality is often things are outsourced because they require specific specialty skills that they don't have on the team and they are actually very expensive. Sure sometimes there will be cost cuts involved, but with localisation especially it's not going to be that.

"Credits screens are more bloated than ever"
"Still don't mention everyone that worked on the game"

This isn’t a Nintendo issue, this is a contractor issue. If you freelance you work for the contractor company who negotiates with clients. Nintendo isn’t their client/employer, the translation agency is. So the translation agency can put that Nintendo is their client because they are. Which also means that Nintendo only really has to list the translation agency as the localization team or the head liaison.

If they don’t want that then they need to become independent contractors (different than freelancers) with their own LLC and negotiate their own contracts. But that means they have to do the leg work for getting their own clients. That is the trade off. You don’t have to do all the business work but you get a fast pass to applied work to do. And you often get referrals and networking that would take you forever to build alone.

Contract work 101.

Otherwise you have gained practical experience but you can’t put it on your resume beyond the generic title, your actual employer (in this case the translation agency) and duration. But if you talk well enough in an interview and provide other samples that shouldn’t be a huge issue. As that is a normal part of the job market. Also you build relationships with the people you work with. If someone remembers your name or sees you at a networking event that can turn into the foot in a door for your own client later. I have done the same in IT for years (literally how my job works now).

Welcome to the American workforce.

I get that NL is a UK publication but do y’all research workplace situations instead of stirring the pot? You have young readers and you are teaching them incorrect information about how the job market works (and a lot of this is global). That is irresponsible.

They can always turn down the contract if they don’t agree with the NDA. Did they cash the paychecks? That’s what they agreed to then.

Not being listed in the game credits as a contractor is unfortunate, but just part of how the business operates. They don't see contractors as real contributors, compared to employees, I guess.

However, if I understand the article correctly, you're not allowed to list the experience on your CV after the game's release? That seems needlessly draconian. What NDA-worthy secrets are you divulging by listing your contribution to an already-released game on your CV?

Sorry but I see this as a bitter individual, he was happy to agree terms at the outset. To complain after the fact it silly, complaint to yourself for taking it on in the first place!

This was a great article and well written by Ollie Reynolds.

@Ryu_Niiyama Well said! If you work for an outsourcing company unfortunately these are the things you have to deal with.

@Qwiff That is common practice. Usually done so that any internal policies/working conditions/anything doesn’t get leaked. Also gives the appearance of a smooth chain of operations.

Most companies don’t want it to be known that they outsource for expediency. They don’t often tell the internal employees depending on what is outsourced (HR for example…I hate dealing with outsourced HR but it is commonly used.).

@Ryu_Niiyama Fair enough, that makes sense. Thanks for the explanation.

@Spoony_Tech yeah I pull a dual role at my company. IT Director for them directly but I’m outsourced to clients as well. My resume says my company (my skills list everything I do though). But I point potential employers/clients to the company website where it brags about our clients. (That can actually work in my favor. We have a couple huge clients that I don’t work directly with but support tangentially because my team keeps the company IT infrastructure going. So they aren’t MY clients but I can get some of the pats as I help represent the company. You can do this in lower tier positions as well. Network and always learn. Backbone to climbing the ladder ethically.). And I do ear hustle on the meetings to learn names.

The contractors should have my issue lol, as I am an executive I know how much the clients pay hourly for my time (which is less than I am paid and I am salaried mind you) but again the trade off is I don’t have to negotiate the contracts and put in bids and all the Non IT mess I don’t wanna do/not good at anyway.

But because I am a physical person I can also network so that I moonlight the skills that don’t conflict with my NDAs while building my own consulting business on the side. But my resume is full of my skill set and code samples. That goes with you no matter what.

Personally I love it. I get exposed to various infrastructures (and thus gain job experience faster) while having a steady paycheck.

@RygelXVIII I don't care if it was a contractual agreement, people SHOULD be credited for their work on a project regardless of what they actually did and whether they were outsourced.

@dew12333 No, sorry but this is absolutely the worst and most privileged take you could have on such a topic. Work is work. Some people do not have the luxury to be picky and hope another opportunity is around the corner.
Next you'll tell me all retail workers should be happy with how they're treated because they accepted the job and ignore the fact that they needed to pay the bills no matter what. If you don't personally know the person in this article, then please refrain from making assumptions about their circumstances.

None of this sounds out of the norm to me. I've worked as an independent contractor and for a group. With group work, I didn't get to list my individual assignments, no matter how impactful my contributions were. It's what I knowingly signed up for, and why I'm trying to make a name for myself on my own independently.

Couldn’t the person who said they had large gaps in their employment history due to NDAs simply list the external agency they were working for during that time that got them the gig with Nintendo? That shows you were working without breaking any NDAs. Having gaps doesn’t make sense to me. At the very least just state NDA during that time.

Most credits simply list outside agencies/companies who contributed without listing every single person in that company who touched it. IMO, if your paycheck is coming directly from Nintendo, you should be in the credits. If it’s coming from an agency doing work for Nintendo the agency should be listed.

@JasonLee99 yes they can. They did work, for the translation agency. They signed a direct employment contract with them as a contractor. Means it goes on the resume. And you can put hook lines like “worked with several fortune 500 companies” in lieu of “worked with company a, b”. The point of a resume is to get an employer interested enough to interview you. The rest is on you.

For mine I have a section that says Independent Contractor and I list the companies that have contracted me (not their clients), including my LLC. Best part is it allows me to consolidate the work experience. You can actually do that to close “gaps” in work history. I took 6 months off from working full time as I was burnt out but worked contract work to keep a roof over my head. But because I was an active contractor that means I was working even in between gigs because my job wasn’t the gig, it is being a contractor. While I do less gig work (since I have a full time job and I don’t wanna die at my desk lol) I am still an active contractor now so every year that duration goes up. Heck both my LinkedIn and my resume lists my JLPT records (I am only N3 mind you) and I am not a translator for hire and i still get people asking me to either translate or do bilingual work. If a skill I don’t use to eat with still attracts attention you can’t tell me someone that translates as their trade can’t get attention.

Essentially these folks need to talk to a vocational specialist/resume editor about how to make their resume. Many people make their resumes incorrectly and wonder why they don’t get hired.

And still, people go out of their way to defend this. You don’t deserve nice things if you do.

@Ryu_Niiyama That's not just the American workplace, it's the same with contractors here in the UK too. I don't think it's right, but that's the way it can be at the moment.

Also I don't fully understand the 'gaps in your CV' because you can and should put the agency you work for for that period, even if you can't say the specifics of the clients. You just say something like:
20XX - 20YY I worked for 'Localisation Inc.' performing localisation for a variety of large and small clients in the gaming industry doing X,Y and Z.

There are plenty of projects I did work on that I either did not receive full or any credit. I was paid which is the main point of working. I also do freelance and direct compensation work. This is how business works and when people whine about “credit” as a contractor then obviously they are confused about who pays their wages.

@Ogbert good to know. I didn’t want to try to speak to the UK workforce since I am not a participant in it and I am not familiar with labor laws over there.

Yeah like I said the “gaps” are this person doesn’t know how to make a resume. It’s not like they were kidnapped and forced to work for free lol. They need to talk to an employment agency or a resume writer and learn that skill first and fix their resume. They are self sabotaging their career at this point.

""which also forbids us from listing those titles on our CVs."

Wait, why not? That sounds like baloney. There's no laws or even rules for what you can put on your CV/resume. You did the work, of course you can put it on there. At most, if you really feel the need, add "(uncredited)"

Also, if this is a normal practice, then the reasonable expectation you went into this with was that you would not be credited. That's what happened. Move on.

@Kyranosaurus I would suggest I am not , and I would also suggest that if you agree to somethinng and then expect more than that. then that is privelaged as you call it.
And no I am not rich or lucky enough to be able to wait for the next great oppurtunity either. And over the years I have had to do many things that I didn't want to do. But, like I said, I am not privelaged and I sucked it up and took one for the team.
Life sucks at times....

Yeah, that's just contract work in general in the US. Frankly, as a former contractor, I'm sick of seeing this being brought up over and over again. Either shut up and deal with it like the rest of us, or burn the entire system down already. All this wishy-washy complaining is more a nuisance to the consumer than the companies.

Actually this happens to businesses directly as well. I used to work for a company that has a huge contract with a major city and that company is not allowed to put that information on any of their marketing (which is a business CV, frankly). Internally we knew what city and what the project is but if it got out, the company I worked for could be sued for breach of contract. Not to mention lose all that money from having that city as a client.

(Ugh I am going back to bed. Too early for this.)

They signed the NDA though, they know how it works and what it entails.

While the translators absolutely should get individual credits on the games they worked, it seems like they should at least be able to put "Translator at Localsoft" on their CV's, and maybe a description like "Translation and localization for major video game projects". If the potential employer needs more details, they can call the translator's boss at Localsoft.

Are they at least allowed to say that details are unavailable due to NDA? I'd put that on my CV

Just your daily reminder that just because something is the way it is, doesn't mean it's the way it should be.
And yes, I've been a freelancer, too. And I had no issue in finding more work, though if it would have been easier if I could use the stuff I did in my portfolio. Much easier.
But whatever the contract says has no bearing on whether or not people should be credited for the work they do, if they do desire.

@Ryu_Niiyama That just sucks. Why do they even have NDAs for that anyways, especially 10+ years long? Just pointless if it's mostly for appearances.

Nature of the beast. I do work at my agency for a huge American financial company, we’re not allowed to show anything we’ve done with them on our website apart from their company logo, even though we’ve had billboards at Times Square and all around major financial centres in the states.

Not a direct one to one comparison, but as far as being in the credits and recognized, this Nintendo Life article didn’t even credit the individual who is the source of this story (Chris Kerr). They credit his/her company, Game Developer.

“This is according to a new article from Game Developer in which several anonymous freelance translators confessed to having to sign decade-spanning non-disclosure agreements by Nintendo, preventing them from being able to discuss their work.”

@RygelXVIII makes perfect sense but sometimes this site thrives on the clicks of people crying about how evil Nintendo is… 😉

@WiltonRoots But they are.

@RygelXVIII Except we're not talking about an infinite number of people. It has to be cut at some point... because you run out of names.

Nintendo need to sort this out.

@JasonLee99 excellent spot. I’ve been here a long time, but I don’t like this article, things like this bug me about NintendoLife, they know what they’re at.

@AmplifyMJ They're tied to a model of providing constant content, for example whenever a financial Q&A from Nintendo pops up, they split each question into 10 articles rather than one big juicy article where you can put your feet up and dig your teeth into. Me personally? I like the big long read...

@PinderSchloss I think in that case then you need to define "evil" in your eyes, and what physical, mental or financial damage that does to people who are just going about their everyday business in a real world scenario - where it involves things you need to do to survive on this planet, just so I can can gauge your definition.

I don't think our definitions quite match up.

@Ryu_Niiyama I agree with you that this is on their employer. And their employer should be allowing them to list something on the resume without naming the client. I work in government and have a ton of things on my resume that I'm not allowed to say who it was for, but there aren't going to be gaps.

@BTB20 All sorts of reasons to have NDAs that long. Patents, contracts (as in other contracts the business may have with other companies and IP), general legal liability (for everyone involved), depending on the information/use it can even involve HIPPA (health information privacy protection for those not from the US). Also franchises span decades. An NDA that long helps protect that.

Workers only know a super small part of why contracts are drawn up the way they are. And most don’t care beyond their paycheck.

If the folks the article is about violated their NDA (about company IP, not anything unethical or unsafe as I have no issues with whistleblowers) and that resulted in a legal storm for Nintendo or the translation agency (which can lead to hiring less, firings, loss of contracts or less pay increases for existing employees), I am willing to bet my next paycheck, they wouldn’t blink if it meant they got ahead in some fashion. Nintendo wasn’t the villain when they were working and getting paid but now they were “done wrong. “😑

@Iconoclysm honestly I would bet if we actually read the Employment Contract that was signed, they can.

No they likely can’t type: “Nintendo Localization Type editor: projects worked on Super Smash Brothers.”

But I will bet they can put: “Translation Agency: Freelance Type Editor (Japanese to English).”

When the interviewer asked what they did, they say “Oh I was a type editor for Japanese to English video game translation and localization and I have done projects for several major video game developers .” Then you talk about the work (not the client).

There is no such thing as you can’t put work history. The person in question just doesn’t know how to make their resume. Even government jobs where you have security clearance still allows you to put some sort of information to show that you didn’t just vanish for a period of time. They are just mad that they can’t brag that they did work with Nintendo. But they absolutely can make their resume in such a way that show cases their skills in order to get hired.

Then why work with Nintendo to begin with if you’re freelance…? I doubt Nintendo put a gun to their head and forced them into signing a NDA. Highly doubt the lack of credit was a surprise either and was literally explained in the paperwork. Let’s be real at the time they cared more about the money than credit anyway without thinking. You know like how typical freelance work goes: Money focused with flexible employers.

Feels silly to complain after the fact when they voluntarily signed the NDA at the time. At one point they considered the Pros better than the Cons for the job. Just feels like complaining for sake of complaining because they want to avoid responsibility for their own decisions. It’s just easier to complain about it anonymously to vent their frustrations. It’s not being “privileged” (I’m laughing if you actually think freelancers at Nintendo get paid remotely the same as someone working in entry retail. Dumb comparison to try to suit narrative.) like another silly commenter here tried to defend them for. It’s literally called being an adult and that is how most of us in real life have to deal with things on a daily basis. You make decisions on your own will power and you accept the benefits and consequences of said decisions.

Some of these commenters here really love to paint Nintendo as cartoony villain playing with their mustache laughing evil in the background to suit their narrative.

Which is ironic considering Nintendo objectively speaking is the company that treats their employees actually quite well compared to a lot of other companies. You know the company where the top takes pay cuts to try to retain veteran talent rather than mass layoffs like everyone else. Also there is a HUGE fundamental difference between a full time employee and a temp freelancer.

The latter expecting to reap the same benefits of an actual full time employee will just get you laughed out of the room regardless of what industry you work in.

@Ryu_Niiyama That's exactly what I would expect. Though this makes it seem as if this person has to claim they were just goofing off for a few years.

So many comments here ignoring who has all the leverage in a contractor-contractee dynamic.

The point of stories like this is to highlight standard industry practices that ought to be improved. It's stupid to blame workers for their own contracts being bad.

@WiltonRoots Anyone who disrespects others and feels no remorse is evil. They disrespect people’s salaries and loyalty all the time. As soon as you consumed, you are nothing to them.

I’m not saying they’re the most evil thing in this world, but they’re certainly on the wrong side of the spectrum.

"According to the external translators, who worked with Nintendo as CONTRACTORS THROUGH SERVICE PROVIDER Localsoft". That's all you need to know, to realize this is BS. They were contractors, freelancers, hired by an outsourcing company, NOT Nintendo. Also, they agreed to those terms by themselves, no one put a gun in their heads to sign on and do their jobs. You feel like you were robbed? You knew what you were signing off to do, like any other freelancer work. It's called REAL LIFE.

@PinderSchloss again it’s perspective. Me personally I find my energy company evil because they tripled my gas prices, when it’s cold I need central heating in the winter. Someone breaks into my house and takes all my stuff I worked hard for? That’s evil. Personally I can’t get mad over luxuries I can easily do without. Nintendo and its products are all luxuries to me, so I struggle to categorise them as evil. Life will always go on without them.

Food on the table. Essential. Happiness of the people you love? Essential. The ability to get through every year debt free with minimal hiccups? Essential. Video game company does something you dislike?

At the same time accept I am not arguing with you I’m trying to see where you’re coming from.

This reminds me of that issue with The Super Mario Bros. Movie where they just credited the game Donkey Kong 64 for the DK rap music instead of giving proper credit to the songs creators.

Ooof, that’s not good. Not good at all. Can’t really play devils advocate on this one.

At least they got paid. But the fact that it may have prevented them from landing other work… yuck, don’t like that.

A few of Nintendos policies are… frustrating. But this one has directly hurt people who work for them. Hopefully speaking up about it will lead to a change in policy. One can hope

Careful now, you wouldn’t want to end up like Working Designs.

@Ryu_Niiyama Came in here with outrage, but learned a lot just from reading your informed and insightful perspective. Thanks for sharing.

Also people gotta realize that there are many moving parts between Nintendo and that employee. Which would make it difficult to even get a name to credit in the first place.

If you go to a restaurant and your batch of Sprite tastes so good you want to thank the factory worker thad made that batch it would be literally impossible to track down that worker as a customer. And that is including that most factory work required workers to use some sort of identifier (usually a code of some sort) to identify if not them directly then their team (ask me how I know this). And even still it would be difficult to know exactly what that person did if several people are involved with making that Sprite.

Nintendo is that customer. There are several layers between them and a contractor. Even if they wanted the person fired the contractor company would have to locate them and conduct an internal investigation. There is no direct line between a client and a (sub)contractor. Which is for their protection. If Nintendo got mad at the contractor they might get rotated out but still get work from the translation company. Guess how that works if you work directly for Nintendo. You get fired. No different for recognition either.

The less layers there are between you and work the more liable you are but the more you can put your name on things. A small business owner that makes a product can slap their name on everything. But if something goes wrong they are the ones that deal with that fall out. If Nintendo gets in trouble because they let a word slide in a game (lets say some translator uses a game script to threaten to harm someone and it somehow got into the game), the contractor might get fired if it is traced to them but guess who deals with the fall out. Nintendo.

People are so weird when companies are involved. When the WiiU flopped folks blamed Iwata-dono. Nobody demanded the heads of the engineers that made the wiiu, the devs that made the games for the wiiu, the marketing team that marketed the wiiu or HR that hired any of the aforementioned people. Those layers of protection come from being an employee, be it direct or contract. Not saying there were no consequences but the public is distant to everyone involved. Folks love employment contracts when they get paid or can’t get sued for doing their job but one person complain because they can’t fill their resume out properly (because they don’t know how) and “oh no the Evil company”.

Try being a self employed business owner when all the liability and work is on you. You realize it isn’t so simple as “give me money and acknowledgement for the good stuff”. If there is some magic way to acknowledge everyone and I mean everyone that ever touched or facilitated a project, y’all gonna be mad when credits are 10 hours and unskippable.

that is awful. why would crediting everyone who worked on a game be hard?

On one hand, I definitely think they should credit everyone that worked on it, on the other hand, it seems they are very transparent that contractors won't be credited, so you are working on the project with the knowledge that you won't be credited and at that point choosing to be involved is on you.

That's just life. The outsourcing company gets the credit instead of keeping a list of every person that contributed some text over the course of a year or however long. The NDA is the sucky part. It makes since pre release, but after the game is out they aren't allowed to even reference their own work despite being in the credits in other circumstances