Nintendo responds to Mario Club layoffs reports

Nintendo has responded to the reports of laying off employees at its subsidiary Mario Club ahead of the Switch 2 gaming console reveal.

Several Japanese media outlets had reported that the Kyoto-based gaming company had let go at least 150 Mario Club employees out of around 400 people.

Now, Nintendo has refuted the claims of employees being fired from the team which has been actively involved in game-testing and debugging for several titles.

“We have confirmed with Mario Club Co., Ltd. that the rumoured information in the report is untrue,” the company said in a brief statement.

The statement came amid speculations that the company was gearing up to reveal its highly-anticipated Switch 2 gaming console.

Speculations about the reveal of the gaming console intensified after Brazilian journalist Pedro Henrique Lutti Lippe who reported on Switch 2 being delayed to 2025, said that Nintendo was set to announce the gaming console in the week starting on October 28.

Speaking on his YouTube channel, Lippe narrowed down the reveal date to the week between October 28 and November 1.

It is worth mentioning here that Nintendo has not officially announced Switch 2, however, it has confirmed that a successor to its popular gaming console was in development.

Meanwhile, the company is working to feature remasters of popular games for its original Switch.

A day earlier, Nintendo announced that its original console was set to get a remaster of the survival game Xenoblade Chronicles X.

The Xenoblade Chronicles X: Definitive Edition, a remaster action RPG, will launch on the Switch on March 20, 2025, as per the Kyoto-based gaming company.

Additionally, reports made rounds on social media that the company was working to get the publishers of Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Driver to remaster their games for Switch.