CSR Information

Continuous Support for the Starlight Children's Foundation

• Nintendo of America Inc.
• Nintendo of Canada Ltd.
• Nintendo of Europe GmbH (U.K.)
• Nintendo Australia Pty Limited

Nintendo of America, Nintendo of Canada, Nintendo of Europe (U.K.) and Nintendo Australia have long-standing partnerships with the Starlight Children's Foundation (referred to as “Starlight” below), a non-profit organization that provides support to seriously ill children who require long-term care and to their families.

Since 1992, Nintendo of America has partnered with Starlight to deliver smiles to seriously ill kids and their families through our line of Starlight Gaming Stations. Gaming Stations are entertainment devices that combine a Nintendo video game system with a TV and can be freely moved around a hospital. They can also be used beside a bed, so that the children can enjoy games with family and friends to reduce their anxiety levels while in the hospital and help them to feel more at home.

We have used a variety of Nintendo game systems in these devices, and, in 2019, Nintendo of America expanded the line to include the Nintendo Switch Gaming Handheld, featuring Nintendo Switch Lite. This new addition to the Starlight Gaming program allows children to play video games in areas of hospitals that may not have room for the traditional unit.

Since the launch of Nintendo Switch, Nintendo of America employees have designed and built over 600 Nintendo Switch Gaming Stations and over 650 Nintendo Switch Gaming Handhelds. In December 2022, Starlight staff joined Nintendo employees to help produce 300 Nintendo Switch Gaming Handhelds. Starlight places the Gaming Stations and Gaming Handhelds in their network of hospitals in both the U.S. and Canada.

Nintendo of America employees continue to support the Starlight Gaming program by providing technical support to hospital staff and Child Life Specialists^*1 by phone and e-mail. Team members help to troubleshoot issues, send out parts and help ensure Gaming Stations stay playable for many years.

Since launching the partnership around 30 years ago, Starlight and Nintendo of America have delivered more than 7,200 Starlight Gaming Stations to hundreds of hospitals across North America, helping to bring smiles to more than 11 million seriously ill children.

Nintendo of Europe (U.K.) has continued to work closely with Starlight throughout 2022 toward reaching the target of providing 1,200 Gaming Bundles to hospitals and hospices across the U.K. Since beginning our collaboration, we have sent out 600. The Gaming Bundles include a refurbished^*2 Nintendo Switch and Nintendo 3DS, plus two pieces of software. From Starlight’s impact surveys, 83% of respondents agree it creates a positive hospital experience for children, relieves boredom and reduces anxiety. 94% of people who responded agree it distracts the children. It is estimated that children and young people have played on a Gaming Bundle over 90,000 times.

Nintendo Australia partners with Starlight to provide Nintendo hardware and software to all Starlight rooms in children’s hospitals around Australia. We also have continued to offer support through donations of hardware, software and accessories to Starlight Wish Granting, a program designed to fulfill children’s wishes based on their unique needs, as well as to other Starlight events. In addition, in FY 2022, Nintendo Australia joined in Starlight’s Go BIG Challenge, in which participants can walk, run or roll as far as they can over a two-week period while raising funds for Starlight. Staff, family and friends of Nintendo Australia took up the challenge and raised over $4,000 for Starlight.

*1 Child Life Specialist

A specialist who provides psychological and social care to children in the hospital and their families.

*2 Refurbished

Refurbished products are used products that have been remanufactured and reused in order to promote circular use of resources.

“Starlight is proud to call Nintendo of America our partner. When COVID-19 hit in March 2020, hospitalized kids found themselves more isolated and scared than ever before. The thousands of Starlight Nintendo Gaming stations in hospitals across the country brought much-needed happiness, distraction and entertainment to these kids and their families.”

Exhibit at a Learning Facility in Kyoto

• Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Japan)

Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Japan) collaborates on a Kyoto Manufacturers' Hall of Creativity/Workshop program run by the Kyoto Board of Education for elementary school students with a booth exhibit in the Kyoto Manufacturers' Hall of Creativity. In the booth, there is information explaining the technology used in our video game systems and the jobs involved to create software so that students can learn about our approach to product creation. We have received positive feedback from the children visiting the booth.

Software to Experience the Fun of Programming

• Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Japan)

Game Builder Garage is a software title for Nintendo Switch that enables anyone to learn basic aspects of game programming by following step-by-step lessons. We developed this software with a focus on sharing the fun of programming so that even beginners can experience it naturally as if playing a game.

In Japan, where programming is now part of the mandatory elementary school curriculum, educators at one elementary school are using Game Builder Garage as an instructional tool. We have been told that, in addition to getting children enthusiastically involved in programming, this initiative has also received a positive response from parents and guardians, as well as educators.

We hope Game Builder Garage will continue to create opportunities for people to take up programming and experience the fun for themselves.

Cooperation with Game Industry Educational Programs

• Nintendo of Europe GmbH (U.K.)

Nintendo of Europe (U.K.) is the lead partner of the not-for-profit program, Digital Schoolhouse, which is delivered by Ukie, a U.K. game industry organization, and provides support, including gaming systems and software, to enable in-classroom programming lessons that feature games. This program for students offers opportunities to familiarize themselves with game programming and learn about teamwork through a variety of play-based educational experiences.

For example, there are workshops designed for elementary school students in a range of categories such as “Algorithms and Programming” and “Communication and the Internet.” Schools or teachers who would like to use the workshop material in their classes can download resources from the Digital Schoolhouse website. Digital Schoolhouse also offers workshops taught by specialists.

Support for an Ovarian Cancer Patients' Association

• Nintendo of Canada Ltd.

For eight consecutive years, Nintendo of Canada has participated in the Ovarian Cancer Canada (OCC) Walk of Hope. After two years of virtual events, 2022 saw the return of an in-person walk where participants came together in Vancouver for Nintendo of Canada’s first group event since 2019. The Walk brings communities together to raise funds to help women with ovarian cancer and all at risk of the disease to live fuller, better and longer lives. Due to the unfortunate passing of a beloved employee to ovarian cancer, the 2022 Walk saw an enormous increase in support from employees with around 90% participating in the initiative.

Nintendo of Canada supported all OCC walks nationwide by providing Nintendo Switch prize packages to promote youth participation at each event, and also teamed up with the Nintendo Cares program to do fundraising for the cause.

Community Outreach Through Nintendo Cares

• Nintendo of America Inc.

Nintendo of America has a dedicated program called Nintendo Cares which provides philanthropic support for our local communities.

To help our communities in 2022, Nintendo of America employees donated to nearly 1,000 U.S.-based non-profit organizations. Additionally, they volunteered over 2,400 combined hours, supporting 89 non-profits during the year. Employees have the option of taking time off during one workday per year to volunteer or to volunteer outside of scheduled work time. When employees volunteer on their own time, Nintendo of America rewards the non-profit benefactor for the employees’ volunteerism through a Dollars for Doers program. This program rewards the non-profit with an hourly donation rate based on the time each employee volunteers. Through these collective employee volunteer actions, we are able to give back to our local communities.

Nintendo of America participated in the Design for Impact 2022 online workshop delivered by non-profit partner Team4Tech to benefit Paraguay-based NGO Fundación Paraguaya’s Poverty Stoplight program (Semáforo de Eliminación de Pobreza). This program offers tools including digital surveys to help impoverished individuals track and advance their way out of poverty. During the Team4Tech workshop, employees utilized specialized design methodology to help identify and suggest ways to gamify Fundación Paraguaya’s Poverty Stoplight program. Ideas from Nintendo of America employees were used to enhance the existing tools.

Nintendo of America employees engaged in a full week of youth mentoring during the annual Month of Caring held in July 2022, with the focus on providing career mentoring to middle and high school youth. Four female employees presented their career journeys during a STEMConnect Career Panel hosted by non-profit partner, Techbridge Girls. Techbridge Girls works to propel girls from underserved communities and gender expansive youth into careers in STEM. In another collaboration, summer program students at New York-based Urban Arts Partnership attended a virtual masterclass hosted by two Nintendo of America employees to learn about their careers in the gaming industry. During the Month of Caring and Season of Giving, running from late November through December 2022, employees assembled snack kits and wrote cards of encouragement for over 200 youth supported by local non-profit, Youth Eastside Services (Y.E.S.). The kits are distributed at Y.E.S. and to local school counselors to help students in support groups who face depression, anxiety and other challenges.

On top of the financial donations and volunteering, Nintendo of America employees purchased goods to donate to non-profits to support children and families with swimsuits and gear, backpacks with school supplies, warm coats, Thanksgiving meals, clothing, toys and gaming.

Employees who volunteer with local non-profit organizations may also request corporate funding to benefit the non-profit which they support with their time. These one-time employee-recommended corporate donations are called Community Smiles Starter Seeding as they help smaller non-profits flourish and grow. Finally, Nintendo of America recognizes the value of collaboration, and teams may request through our Group Volunteer Guidelines up to eight hours each calendar year to volunteer with a non-profit.

Summer Learning Camps for Game Development

• Nintendo of America Inc.

In summer 2022, Nintendo of America supported its partnership with Girls Make Games (GMG). GMG hosts a series of virtual and in-person summer camps, workshops and game jams designed to teach and inspire the next generation of female game designers, creators and engineers.

To support GMG’s summer camps, Nintendo of America hosted special topical presentations by experienced employees, as well as product demonstrations focused on the 2019-released Nintendo Switch title, Super Mario Maker 2, in which players can learn about and practice video game design. This ongoing partnership with GMG helps contribute to interest in careers in gaming, building a more inclusive industry.

Digital Device Contribution Program in Germany

• Nintendo of Europe GmbH (Germany)

Many schools and other educational institutions in Europe still lack needed digital equipment and could benefit from additional support for digitalization, a challenge that became more pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic. Keeping up with school during lockdown or meeting with friends and teachers virtually was difficult for students without a laptop, especially for children from low-income or migrant families.

In order to support and bring smiles to children and young people in our region, the CSR team at Nintendo of Europe (Germany) started an IT donations project in 2021. Through this program, we clean and refurbish decommissioned company laptops and provide them to local charities and educational institutions. Each laptop we donate also comes in a Yoshi themed backpack. These facilities can receive IT onboarding sessions from our employees, if necessary. By extending the life cycle of these digital devices, the project also aims to promote the sustainable use of valuable resources.

Nintendo of Europe (Germany) completed a test run of the program in FY 2021, providing a total of 130 refurbished company laptops to schools in different cities and a charity organization for young people. In FY 2022, we continued the program with donations of an additional 90 laptops to four schools in the local Frankfurt area. The laptops have been well received by the various institutions and we plan to continue the program as a recurring CSR activity at Nintendo of Europe (Germany).