Former Nintendo playtester Mackenzie Clifton was recently interviewed by Axios about the labor complaint they filed against Nintendo and its hiring firm, Aston Carter. According to this veteran playtester, they were fired after asking questions about unions.
Clifton states they traced their firing back to an online company meeting that included hundreds of Nintendo testers in January this year. According to the interview, Clifton asked “What does NoS think about the unionization trend in AQ in the games industry as of late?” and the question wasn’t answered at the meeting. Afterward, a supervisor from Aston Carter called them to say it was a “downer question,” which should only be asked to them and not Nintendo. Less than one month later, Clifton was fired.
Nintendo continues to claim that Clifton was fired for publicly disclosing “confidential information” and cites a Twitter post. The post did not reference a specific game but did mention a texture problem in the recent build they’ve been given.
