For all the secrets Nintendo keeps, one thing that is no secret is their strong adversion to publicity, or rather, any publicity not carefully controlled and released themselves. In keeping with that policy, Nintendo has fired a Nintendo Treehouse employee following an unauthorized appearance on a podcast.
In an erased post on Facebook, the now former Nintendo employee Chris Pranger went into detail about the decision, explaining that his participation in Part-Time Gamer's podcast initially went unnoticed but following a mention on GoNintendo went viral. Some of his comments, particularly those related to fans who request localization of obscure, mostly unsustainable titles, were seen as uncharitable to gamers and the issue only picked up steam from there. Whether or not the growing attention contributed to Nintendo's decision is unclear (it's possible they would have fired Pranger if they'd known about the podcast, regardless of the fan response) but for now, Pranger is out of a job.
The incident brings to mind Dan Adelman, the former head of the indie program over at Nintendo of America, who was barred by the company from using Twitter after expressing frustration with the 3DS' region locking. After leaving the company following nine years of employment he told Kotaku he'd felt stifled by their policies, saying:
"I think people were kind of on pins and needles about anything untoward I might say…And every once in a while, I'd give an answer that people didn't like, and some people would freak out, so they tried to scale things back. First they had me do interviews with someone from PR or marketing. Later they just decided that I shouldn't be in the press at all anymore."
With the firing of Chris Pranger, Nintendo makes it clear just how serious they are about their secrecy.
Photo via NintendoLIfe
