Support NeoGAF

[IbizaPocholo]

Nintendo of America President Speaks Out Against Activision Blizzard

Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser responds and speaks out against Activision Blizzard amidst its discrimination and harassment lawsuits.

gamerant.com

Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser took over the position in 2019 for fan-favorite Reggie Fils-Aime. Bowser has not taken center stage as often as Reggie did during his tenure. But he appears to have taken a strong leadership stance in relation to the ongoing Activision Blizzard situation, calling it "distressing and disturbing."

According to Fanbyte, Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser recently sent out an email to all Nintendo of America employees and internal development teams, including the likes of Retro Studios and Next-Level Games. In the email, Bowser shared how the toxicity and sexual harassment within Activision Blizzard runs counter to what Nintendo stands for. He also noted that Nintendo is a company that stands for openness and inclusiveness, and that it even is working with the ESA to strengthen its stance against harassment and abuse in the workplace.

Along with all of you, I’ve been following the latest developments with Activision Blizzard and the ongoing reports of sexual harassment and toxicity at the company. I find these accounts distressing and disturbing, They run counter to my values as well as Nintendo’s beliefs, values and policies.

 

[Elder Legend]

 

[Halo is Back]

 

[Dr Bass]

Why do they even need to comment on this? Weird.

 

[Closer]

Activision is gonna tell someone Nintendo is an important partner and yaddayadda and keep releasing no games to their platform.

 

[Mobile Suit Gooch]

Another one

 

[Clear]

Dear mob: Please don't come after us, we bend the knee.

That all 3 platform holders have come out with these insincere, boilerplate declarations just proves the lie about how its all about "speaking truth to power".

They are the power.

 

[Rusty Shackelford]

Maybe Sony, MS, and Nintendo need to ban all games made by Activision/Blizzard for the foreseeable future. Of course all 3 would have to do it, or it would be suicide for the lone console manufacturer that did.

 

[megamerican]

Well the other two companies did it so here's our extremely powerful obligatory statement.

 

[TexMex]

Why do they even need to comment on this? Weird.

Because someone already did and now every major game company is going to trip over each other trying to ensure that they aren’t the last to finger wag at them for the good PR.

 

[kyliethicc]

Based chad Jimbo leads the virgins Phil & Doug in the disappointed corporate daddy email contest.

 

[Ryu Kaiba]

"distressing and disturbing"


Saying nothing would've said more than this copy paste response.

 

[Kagero]

The dudes last name is Bowser and he works for Nintendo. Let this be a lesson kids that if you put your mind to it, you can be anything you want.

 

[Hendrick's]

 

[JimboJones]

 

[LOLCats]

Strange stuff

 

[Kilau]

He’s serious enough to stop them from putting Call of Duty on Switch. Shape up activision.

 

[*Nightwing]

THE NINTENDO AMERICA PRESIDENT IS NAMED BOWSER?!?!

Instantly googled to my disappointment they didn’t hire a Mario to be president of Nintendo Europe

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

 

[hybrid_birth]

THE NINTENDO AMERICA PRESIDENT IS NAMED BOWSER?!?!

Instantly googled to my disappointment they didn’t hire a Mario to be president of Nintendo Europe

 

[Marty-McFly]

Bowser now runs Nintendo and soon the world

Watch out Mario

 

[AJUMP23]

Everyone saying you should not harass people is brave.

 

[Pejo]

So which one of the big 3 do we think is going to get hit with the next round of sexual harassment allegations? I mean they've basically set themselves up for it at this point.

 

[fart town usa]

So which one of the big 3 do we think is going to get hit with the next round of sexual harassment allegations? I mean they've basically set themselves up for it at this point.

Hopefully Naughty Dog.

 

[tkscz]

Would've been more sincere if done internally only in order to boost morale among employees. Once you say it on the internet, it's just for brownie points. It's not like Nintendo gets that many games from activition

 

[Codes 208]

THE NINTENDO AMERICA PRESIDENT IS NAMED BOWSER?!?!

Instantly googled to my disappointment they didn’t hire a Mario to be president of Nintendo Europe

He took over reggie’s spot over a year ago. Hes aware of the jokes (during his inauguration vlog, he had plushies of mario and luigi tied up behind him)

 

[Darlingcognito]

Well what else are they gunna do? This tactic doesn't seem to be doing much to move him on tbh.

 

[nush]

Bowser shared how the toxicity and sexual harassment within Activision Blizzard runs counter to what Nintendo stands for. He also noted that Nintendo is a company that stands for openness and inclusiveness,

Sure about that Bowser?

 

[MrA]

Hopefully Naughty Dog.

already happened, everybody forgot

 

[It's all in the wrist]

Hopefully Naughty Dog.

Less talented devs would love that. I'm sure Nintendo and Microsoft would gladly chime in, too.

 

[Fare thee well]

Dats bad mistah bobby. You get two frowny stickers. Don't do this again.

 

[jigglet]

Activision: suppose we’ll give you the token game every 17 years

Nintendo: well…well…I didn’t like you anyway

 

[ParaSeoul]

I like how they act like it was just a few derogatory comments when those sickos were monitoring female employees ovulation cycles and bobby kotick himself threatened to have an employee killed

 

[captainraincoat]

Maybe Sony, MS, and Nintendo need to ban all games made by Activision/Blizzard for the foreseeable future. Of course all 3 would have to do it, or it would be suicide for the lone console manufacturer that did.

Oh no…we wouldn’t get the yearly recycled cod game

 

[ManaByte]

 

[Bernkastel]

THE NINTENDO AMERICA PRESIDENT IS NAMED BOWSER?!?!

Instantly googled to my disappointment they didn’t hire a Mario to be president of Nintendo Europe

Mario is named after a real life guy for renting them a warehouse.

Mario Segale - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[00_Zer0]

Hey look, Gamexplain is being brave too! They refuse to review Activision games till ol' Bobby is gone. All this social commentary coming from these corporate companies sound fake and insincere. Gotta raise that social credit score I guess? Sorry, in the age of outrage mobs, and wokism I don't believe any of them.

 

[Kiddo Cabbusses]

Considering Bowser's basically been a big nothing compared to Reggie, this seems like this he took the chance to make a token statement just to draw attention to himself.

It kinda bothers me that this is all he's accomplished for Nintendo in all his years so far when Reggie made an impact right on day 1.

 

[SkylineRKR]

So if you don't comment, you're not against it or something?

What usually happens is that for the crowd, they'll make a stand, and when the dust settles they just continue on being partners as if nothing happened. The same happened with a local TV show, they said something nasty, sponsors backed out, and after a month silently renewed. This means nothing.

 

[MagiusNecros]

Considering Bowser's basically been a big nothing compared to Reggie, this seems like this he took the chance to make a token statement just to draw attention to himself.

It kinda bothers me that this is all he's accomplished for Nintendo in all his years so far when Reggie made an impact right on day 1.

No one is going to come close to the paragons that Reggie and Iwata were. Doug Bowser has big shoes to fill and he isn't going to succeed.

 

[SlimeGooGoo]

.

 

[Flutta]

 

[NiiloPielinen]

Well the other two companies did it so here's our extremely powerful obligatory statement.

 

[I Love Rock 'n' Roll]

And no Ubisoft? Why? What a corps of loosers!

 

[Dr.D00p]

Pack the bags, we're jumping on the band wagon...

 

[GymWolf]

Imagine talking shit about that when your only job for the past 30 years was kidnapping princesses...

 

[Majukun]

having worked for a big dev, i think this is kind of standard procedure

Would've been more sincere if done internally only in order to boost morale among employees. Once you say it on the internet, it's just for brownie points. It's not like Nintendo gets that many games from activition

as far as i understand it was internal, someone just found out about it

 

[STARSBarry]

Would've been more sincere if done internally only in order to boost morale among employees. Once you say it on the internet, it's just for brownie points. It's not like Nintendo gets that many games from activition

Err... that's exactly what happened, if you read the story someone who worked for Nintendo who was sent this internal only email then leaked it out to some YouTube group who reported on it and its now out in the open...

How's anything meant to stay internal in that kind of environment? So unless you want to say that he knew that it was going to be leaked, or that he leaked it on purpose for brownie points which is only a theory at best, what you said would make it sincere is exactly what happened.

 

[Ellery]

They are all so brave now that Bobby Kotick is down and an easy target, but they all kept their mouth shut for months when they didn't want to risk their connections and moneyflow.

Still glad they are doing it and I think Bobby deserves prison. He also ruined Blizzard, which was basically (the greatest?) american video game studio that brought us Starcraft, Warcraft and Diablo which made my early PC gamer days very happy.

 

[Skifi28]

Stunning and brave statement.