Nintendo game tester says they were reprimanded and eventually fired after asking leadership about unions

Back in April, we heard that a NLRB complaint was filed after an unnamed worker claimed that Nintendo and global hiring firm Aston Carter violated their legally protected right to unionize. Axios now has more information.

The complaint was filed on behalf of Mackenzie Clifton, a veteran Nintendo game tester. Clifton claims Nintendo and Aston Carter had them fired in February because they asked Nintendo management a question about unions.

At one point during a Q&A portion with Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser, Clifton asked for the company’s thoughts regarding the unionization trend in games QA. A response was not provided, and later that day, a supervisor from Aston Carter called them and said it was a “downer question”. They were advised to send such inquiries to the contracting firm rather than Nintendo. Clifton was fired less than a month later.

Nintendo has said that the tester was fired after publicly disclosing “confidential information.” According to Clifton, they were eventually shown a tweet leading to their dismissal from February 16, which stated: “in today’s build someone somewhere must have deleted every other texture in the game bc everything is now red. Just like, pure red. it’s very silly.” Clifton believes that is misdirection, and since the tweet is vague, there’s no way to properly guess what they were working on.

There were previously talks of a possible settlement, but Clifton was interested in receiving a letter of apology signed by Doug Bowser. But Nintendo apparently countered with an offer to speak to HR and offered a neutral letter of reference. The NLRB told them a letter wasn’t required as part of a settlement.