Multiple external translators who worked on games like Animal Crossing: New Horizons , Super Mario RPG and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom say that Nintendo's miscrediting policies have become "ridiculous" after the company repeatedly failed to credit their work. This is according to a new article from Game Developer in which several anonymous freelance translators confessed to having to sign decade-spanning non-disclosure agreements by Nintendo, preventing them from being able to discuss their work. "It is Nintendo's policy to not list the name of translators from external agencies in their game credits," one source told Game Developer, "which also forbids us from listing those titles on our CVs".
According to the external translators, who worked with Nintendo as contractors through service provider Localsoft, this practice is just "part of the business", though its effect is far greater than simply preventing them from being able to tell their friends and families about their current projects. With decade-long NDAs, these translators have large, unexplained gaps in their CVs which, some claim, have prevented them from getting more work afterwards. I felt I would benefit from being able to state I worked on the title when offering my services to new clients.
Not to mention that I actually spent a fair amount of time working almost exclusively for them. When the whole project was done, it took me months to get some steady work going again as I had been unavailable f.
