"OP is a thinking person capable of deciding what is and is not an appropriate "rumor.""

the same thing can be said about the people who read these rumors. they are a thinking people and are capable of deciding what is and is not a real rumor. there is no reason to get all edgy about it. specially when the OP himself puts doubt on the source he got his info from. im not saying i believe these rumors, but im saying no reason to get all edgy about it.

As I say, this is stuff I personally don't believe but I can guarantee you my friend does work for Nintendo. His role is quite junior though and I gather most of this is nonsense intended to wind me up or random office gossip. I only posted here as I was surprised to see a couple of things I was told turned out to be true.

I hope some of this is true. If Reggie is not quietly furious about the direction the company has being going then something is deeply wrong at NoA. Heck, anyone at Nintendo that is not quietly furious at the direction and performance of the company is either a Sony spy or about to retire and doesn't give a crap.

I remember when an insider claimed the Wii Zelda that became Skyward Sword was called Valley of the Flood and had steampunk-elements.

Interesting. I won't be surprised if most of this is actually true. Reggie's role fits perfectly in this, Iwata is the one ordering while Reggie just put his face.

I can actually believe the Retro's comment. There's no way Retro was more excited to do a DKCR sequel than a Metroid Prime one. No DK lovers, sorry but no. This was a decision from Iwata knowing it will cost less and sell more.

We already knew that TW101 was the most expensive project in PG history. If Bayonetta was considered a flop by Sega, it seems logic that TW101 needed to sell very well to be profitable, numbers aside.

And finally, I agree in the sentiment that Nintendo is heading in a direction most wouldn't like: 3D Mario focused on multiplayer, looks a direct sequel/uppres of the handheld iteration, big droughts after launch, "there wont be a price cut", very silence about their new projects, customers are the ones wrong because they don't understand the Wii U, etc.

At least it looks like they are trying to correct some of this, for example the new bundle and price cut, Mario launching in a better date than before. Now we need a new direct to show more about the console for 2014.

Not a single bit of good news? I don't believe any of this and I'm sure you would have to be pretty close to Reggie or Reggie himself to know his feelings on the higher ups. I'm sure he doesn't go around the office yelling his disapproval.

Everybody could write the stuff mentioned by the OP. It's just a mixture of articles which mentioned similiar things and things plausible for a Nintendo Hater. Every Nintendo hater and so called "Nintendo Fan" hates Iwata. Of course they made Dk cause it sells better. It's logical. Not far fetched at all.

"- Massive talent flight from EAD as employees feel Nintendo aren't trying to make critically acclaimed games. Decision making dictated by older higher ups.

- Miyamoto's "secret IP" is a widely held joke within the company. Will never result in a decent game as he is a shadow of the game designer he once was. Japanese branch continues funding the project much to the disdain of the American branch.

- Miyamoto had no real input into Pikmin 3."

These last three sound fairly ridiculous. Nintendo is most certainly not giving up on making critically-acclaimed games. That makes no sense whatsoever. They exist to be successful at what they do. I wouldn't be surprised if the Miyamoto IP was off-the-wall or something that wouldn't sell in the west, but I really, really doubt that he had no control over Pikmin 3, since he's the one that assembled the team and helped produce it.

I don't think anyone here is doubting the fact that your friend works at Nintendo. Heck, as you may know I know someone who works at Rockstar and has played a part in working on GTA V (not sure how big though), amongst other titles. And he just loves telling me nonsensical lies about the games and the company on the hope I'd do something like this. Sure, he gets the odd thing right, like being able to dive in the water and it being set in Los Santos again...but 95% of stuff he says aren't true. 

As such, I imagine your friend is playing you. That's not a bad thing, ofcourse. He may have been right on a couple of things, or he could have had some lucky guesses like I said earlier. Indeed, you could also suggest that the parts about frayed relations between NoA and NoJ are (somewhat) based on the truth. But everything seems so blatantly anti-Nintendo it's just hard to believe, particularly for someone who is in such a junior role as you say.

also Iwata mentioned he won't fire people. A smart man/woman doesn't give up a job when it's safe. We would have heard something about "massive talent flight" at this point lol.