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Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser investigating sexual misconduct allegations

After Kotaku shared a report on sexual harassment and misconduct at Nintendo of America, president Doug Bowser has since vowed to look into the claims.

Morgan Shaver

August 17, 2022 1:25 PM

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Following a harrowing report from Kotaku that outlines instances of sexual misconduct and harassment that took place at Nintendo of America’s headquarters in Redmond, Washington, President Doug Bowser has come out with a statement addressing the matter. According to Bowser in a post on Nintendo’s SharePoint account, Nintendo of America is taking the allegations seriously and are investigating the claims.

This investigation comes after former Nintendo of America contractors revealed to Kotaku details that paint the company as a hostile workplace for female employees. According to those that spoke with Kotaku, two managers were accused of instances of misconduct, while the general workplace culture was described as being akin to a “frat house.”

Women were noticeably underrepresented among Nintendo’s hired contractors, in addition to many being passed up for full time positions. According to Kotaku’s report, the estimated percentage of female contractors in game testing sat around 10 percent. Among full time employees, only 37 percent are women, and women make up only 23.7 percent of Nintendo’s managers globally.

The report gets even more disconcerting as you continue to read through it as it goes on to detail things including stalking allegations that led to an employee reportedly crying at her desk and experiencing panic attacks, on top of her being told she’d be fired if she tried to report the harassment. Other aspects detail one manager, Forrest, having a history of making inappropriate comments and advances on female game testers.

There’s a lot to process in the report, so we recommend checking it out in full over on Kotaku. With all that being said, it’s good to hear that Doug Bowser and Nintendo of America are now looking into these allegations. Hopefully it’ll lead to real solutions for female employees, and an improvement in workplace culture. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as more information comes to light regarding the situation.

For more on Nintendo, you can also look through some of our previous coverage on other topics including news of the Smash World Tour 2022 Championships taking place later this December.

Morgan Shaver

Senior Editor

Morgan is a writer from the frozen wastelands of Maine who enjoys metal music, kpop, horror, and indie games. They're also a Tetris fanatic who's fiercely competitive in games like Tetris 99... and all games in general. But mostly Tetris. You can follow Morgan on Twitter @Author_MShaver.