This is just a brief post in wake of former localizer Chris Pranger being laid off from Nintendo due to some recent comments he made on a podcast last week.
It was a little sad reading the heartfelt remarks from his facebook post (now deleted). His dream of working for the company resonated with me, and I would have never thought that his few remarks in the podcast would ever lead to him losing his job.
Well, turned out it did. I cannot even begin to imagine how that feels, after all that post of his gives the harsh realities of being laid off in general. Health, family, all that goes right out the window. I know that people get laid off everyday and go unheard of (though if we actually had a glimpse of all their stories, our hearts would probably melt the same way). It is just that this one was made more public via gaming media, and especially in a way that has resonated with me too.
Fan response has been quite mixed. On one hand people say he deserved it for breaking an NDA’s (Non-Disclosure Agreements). This makes sense indeed, an NDA must be adhered too no matter what company you are in. However, it becomes a question of what was violated and what happened as a response. It seems that the ridiculing of the fanbase (mostly targeting the “why do you hate money Nintendo?” comments) was a blow in terms of public relations (according to what people said) which led to this.
Personally, I would say a warning of the violation or another strike off would have been more fair before directly canning him from his dream job. But of course, we would not know the full story. It is possible, as fans state, that this could have been the last straw after several other violations. Who knows? Much like the articles I write on localization, it’s all speculation that will not go one way or the other.
It has been nice to see an out pour of sympathy though.
These things happen, and there is not much that we as observers can do beyond learn from them.
I wish him (and people in similar situations) all the best and hope he can get through these hard times and move on to a job he may not have realized was a dream until he got there.
