San Francisco, Oct 30 (IANS): Japanese gaming giant Nintendo has confirmed that it is closing its Redwood City, California and Toronto, Canada offices.

"Nintendo of America headquarters are in Redmond, Washington, and Vancouver, British Columbia," the company confirmed in a statement to The Verge.

"We are moving more of our employees and operations into those headquarters and will be closing small satellite offices in Toronto, Ontario, and Redwood City, California, over time," it added.

Devon Pritchard, Executive Vice President, Business Affairs and Publisher Relations for Nintendo of America (NOA), will assume interim leadership of Sales, Marketing and Communications following the departure of Nick Chavez.

Pritchard will oversee strategy and execution of sales, marketing and communications across the US and Canada.

Kotaku reports that about 100 employees have been displaced in the Redwood City offices as a result of the decision.

Nintendo declined to comment on how many employees would be affected by the move, but its statement does suggest some employees will be able to relocate. It's not clear why the offices are being closed, the report said.

The Redwood City office is still shown on a map of Nintendo's office locations on the company's jobs website.

"Here you will find the Sales and Marketing departments, as well as NMI, a dedicated merchandising field team who work with retail stores across the country," a description reads.

The Toronto office is also still on the site, described as a "sales office for NOCL".

Given that the Redwood City office was focused on sales, marketing and merchandising, it likely won't affect the development of Nintendo's games or hardware, the report said.

Most of Nintendo's games are developed overseas, though it also has developer Retro Studios in Texas, it added.

The closure comes just weeks after the launch of the Nintendo Switch with an OLED screen and Metroid Dread, one of Nintendo's biggest games of the year.