Nintendo and iOS gaming recap: Breath of the Wild 2 spoiled and demoralizing workplace reports

Hello everyone and welcome to the latest Nintendo and iOS gaming recap. We might not have had any huge game releases this week, but there were plenty of announcements and unpleasant reports to fill a decade. First off, a few new games have been announced for iPhone and iPad that include familiar characters from other franchises.

In Nintendo news, a voice actor for Breath of the Wild 2 has apparently revealed some spoilers for the upcoming sequel. Speaking of leaks, it appears that the plot for the delayed Super Mario Bros. movie was posted online. Finally, some reports have come out detailing Nintendo of America's demoralizing workplace environment. There's even more to discuss, so let's a-go!

Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 seems to have been spoiled by voice actor

As reported by NintendoLife, Zelda fan, Emanuele, from the Lega Hyrule community recently interviewed one of the Italian voice actors for Breath of the Wild 2 and learned some interesting bits about the upcoming Switch game.

I will not dive into these spoilers here, as I don't want to ruin anything for those who want to experience the sequel blind. However, fans should be aware that the information is out there and that they'll need to be careful online if they don't want anything spoiled for them. Anyone who is interested enough to learn more can watch the Lega Hyrule YouTube video, which is in Italian but includes English subtitles.

Reports of Nintendo of America's demoralizing workplace

A couple of weeks ago, reports came out that Nintendo of America (NoA) had allegedly violated workers' rights to unionize, which resulted in many former and current workers posting about their experiences with the company online. Growing from these discontented reports, IGN's Kat Bailey interviewed former and current NoA workers for a look behind the scenes at the gaming company's work environment. It appears things aren't as happy as Mario might have you believe.

Apparently, conditions are incredibly stressful with many contracted workers feeling like "second-class citizens" who are given just as much work as full-timers but are overly micromanaged and heavily discouraged from taking time off, even for sickness or family emergencies.

A former contractor known as Jenn who had worked at Nintendo for 10 years noted that company culture had changed for the worse. She chose to leave the company when she was declined a promotion after being told that she had "attendance issues." The thing is, she had taken time off due to the death of her sister. Eventually, she realized that Nintendo was just exploiting its workers knowing they could easily be replaced with another fan.

"We loved working there, we were just being so exploited. We didn't really realize it until we left… At Nintendo I did it out of passion and a love of the product, and they know that there's a line out the door of people who will do exactly that for dog food. And that's the sad part. They know that if you complain and you don't want to be there, they can let you go and hire the next Jenn."

This is a problem that contractors face in several different areas of business, not just at Nintendo. That doesn't mean this kind of environment is acceptable or should be allowed. Considering the happy appearance that Nintendo exudes as a family video game company, it's especially in disheartening stark contrast to know what the work environment is like at NoA.

At the time of this writing, Nintendo had not responded to IGN's report and it's unclear if the company ever will. With so much negative attention brought to the NoA offices recently, it's possible that leaders at the Nintendo of Japan offices could reevaluate how things are being handled. We hope conditions improve for the workers currently employed, but we won't believe anything has been done to rectify things until we learn more.

Super Mario Bros. Movie delayed and plot spoilers apparently leak

Last week, the Nintendo of America Twitter account posted a message from Miyamoto stating that the Super Mario Bros. film, which had a planned holiday release, has now been delayed until Spring 2023. This means that Nintendo and Illumination are giving up that prime holiday release spot, so the movie really must need the extra time. It makes sense that Nintendo and Illumination wants to make sure this movie does well considering the Sonic movies have done so well and they want to keep up with the competition.

Hot off the heals of the delay, user VelVoxel_Raptor posted a link to major movie plot points on Reddit. The post has since been removed by Reddit's Legal Operations Team, which claimed it violated copyright, but not before people grabbed screenshots of the supposed leak. This of course, lends more credibility to the plot leak being real with the third party who reported it likely being Nintendo or Illumination themselves. Of course, movies tend to go through a lot of changes before arriving on the final product, so these spoilers might not be accurate by the time the movie comes out.

Warped Kart Racers coming to Apple Arcade with adult animation drivers

Have you ever played Mario Kart and thought to yourself, this game would be a whole lot more fun if there were adult cartoon characters in it? Well now your dreams can come true when Warped Kart Racers comes to Apple Arcade on May 20.

The roster of 20 playable drivers includes five characters each from four different shows: Family Guy, American Dad, King of the Hill, and Solar Opposites. Players will also be able to drive around 16 courses that show off familiar locales from each of the shows. All you need is an Apple Arcade subscription and an iOS device to play.

Warcraft Arclight Rumble revealed for mobile

This week Blizzard announced that a new Warcraft game is coming to iPhone and iPad, bringing with it a far sillier take on the fantasy gaming world. Warcraft Arclight Rumble is an action strategy game that allows players to collect Minis of familiar heroes and villains that look a lot like Nintendo amiibo. There are a number of modes to participate in, including solo campaigns and co-op raids with friends.

This mobile game is free-to-play but does offer in-app purchases, although they're not required to enjoy the game. Warcraft Arclight Rumble releases on iOS and Android devices sometime in 2022, but no exact date has been listed yet. It's also worth noting that this release window is subject to change pending the pandemic and development.

Nintendo Switch Sports players already damaging TVs and household appliances

It didn't take long after Nintendo Switch Sports released for people to report breaking their TVs or other items in their home by accidentally throwing their Joy-Con controllers. Nintendo stresses the importance of not only making sure you have a safe space to play where you won't hit anything but also for player to wear and tighten those Joy-Con straps before playing. I myself have had a Joy-Con slip from my hand when coming down in a tennis racquet swing, but fortunately, the strap prevented it from going very far.

Of course, with soccer being added into the game, a potential new problem is kicking your shoe off at the TV or other breakables in your home, as IGN's Kat Bailey discovered a few weeks ago.

That's all for now

It's been an incredibly busy week but now that it's the weekend, I'll finally spend time reading Reggie Fils-Aimé's new book, Disrupting the Game. It's been a while since he was President of Nintendo of America, but he left a lasting impression on many of us and likely has some interesting stories to share.

Regardless of how you spend this weekend, I hope you find it relaxing and have a pleasant couple of days.

Until next time.

- Rebecca Spear