Former Nintendo employees reveal secret job perks Mario & Pokemon fans would love
Nintendo Two former Nintendo employees have revealed several unique perks the company offered while they worked there.
Kit Ellis was the company’s Senior Public Relations Manager across the Americas for over 10 years. Krysta Yang served as Nintendo of America’s Public Relations Manager for six years.
The duo had their own weekly Nintendo talk show called Nintendo Minute. They both left Nintendo in 2022 and started The Kit and Krysta Podcast.
Ellis and Yang have a wealth of Nintendo knowledge from their years in the communications department, giving a peek behind the curtain regarding what kind of perks employees received.
NintendoKit and Krysta reveal Nintendo employee perks
In the 27th episode of the Kit and Krysta podcast, the pair revealed free games, consoles, and cheap vacations as company perks.
Most large companies offer incentives to their employees such as free travel, or hotel stays, but Nintendo does things a little differently.
Unsurprisingly, some Nintendo employees received free video games and sometimes got to get their hands on games weeks in advance. The developers publish a number of video games each year, from Mario to Pokemon titles.
Ellis said: “That was really nice and allowed me to play games I may have been on the fence about,” and Yang said she felt “spoiled.”
Not just games, but when it was hard to get a Wii or Switch, Nintendo helped their employees get free consoles in some cases as well.
Yang shared Nintendo has two properties; one in Hawaii and one in Canada for employees to vacation.
Nintendo holds a monthly lottery, allowing lucky winners to vacation at either house and only pay the taxes. Yang shared she stayed at both houses and even stayed next to former Nintendo president Reggie Fils-Aimé in Hawaii.
Yang revealed some employees got fired for misbehaving at the Hawaii house.
“It’s not like these are better or worse than what you get at typical companies, but it definitely was unique,” Yang said.
Most video game fans would gladly take free games and consoles for work.