Rumor: Pokemon game translator fired by Nintendo

According to the Pokemon game translator himself, Nob Ogasawara, Nintendo has told him that his services are no longer needed. Ogasawara will no longer be in charge of translating the Pokemon games. Instead, Nintendo plans on doing any translation work internally. Said Ogasawara, “So, after nearly a dozen years and nineteen Pokemon games later, I am out. I was told that my services were no longer needed because translation work will be handled internally hereafter. They assured me it’s not a quality issue, but because of some bureaucratic thing. OK, cool, whatever. As a career-long-and-not-about-to-change freelancer, I always expected this day to come, but not for this reason. But such is life…”

The main reason why I’m marking this as a rumor is because I can’t say with 100% certainty (although it’s highly likely) that Mr. Ogasawara is indeed the poster of the news and we haven’t heard anything official from Nintendo. Nevertheless, hearing about Nob Ogasawara leaving is a bit saddening, since he’s been there since the beginning of the Pokemon games.

Thanks to Ohnoes for the tip.