Jun 16, 2016
Blizzard Entertainment
Part of Activision Blizzard
Engaged Employer
Blizzard Entertainment reviews
3.6
64% would recommend to a friend
Johanna Faries
70% approve of CEO
48% positive business outlook
Blizzard Entertainment has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 1,433 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Blizzard Entertainment employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Mídia e comunicação industry (3.7 stars).
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1K reviews
3.0
Mar 22, 2015
Recommend
Business Outlook
Pros
First and foremost, the product is fun and exciting. I can't tell you how much of a difference it makes sitting down at your desk when you are working on something you care about. Secondly I'd say is the perks. There are plenty of gamer perks, party perks, and money perks as long as business is going well.
Cons
Culture is the biggest struggle for me. It is a big company so this may vary by department. In my department people tended to be cold, stiff, and terse. I'll walk by and throw a friendly what's up as I walk down the hall and a surprising number of people will avert their gaze and not respond. It could be me, but I've worked for several companies and this is a new experience. I'm also new to the area and was hoping to make friends to socialize with outside of the workplace but the people here tend to be homebodies. To their credit they do try very hard to promote social networking. This may be a problem that is outside of their control. The other note that I would make is that pay scales are not competitive. They would argue that they pay close to nationwide average for a given title. But what they don't say is that holding a given title at Blizzard is much more demanding then holding the same title at other employers and the cost of living is a very large pill you will have to swallow. Lastly, the cafeteria food is bland school lunch grade stuff and there aren't any alternatives in walking distance. Coming from a down town location, this was a surprisingly big pain point.
3.0
Jan 14, 2015
Recommend
Business Outlook
Pros
The work is amazing. The amount of talent here is staggering. They bring in the best artists around the world and every one of them is impossibly nice. There are very few bad eggs and they are routed out quickly. The campus is great, right by a trail for walks. They have a cafe for quick easy food if you're not that picky. There are classes for artists that are very rewarding. The life drawing and sculpture classes are fantastic. They are great with employees who need help or develop issues with hands, etc., providing standing desks and ergonomic help. They have a decent healthcare plan and now provide a basic plan to contractors. Many teams have fun team building events and lunches. Playing games in encouraged if not required, even on teams not working directly with the games. Blizzcon is a ton of fun and one of the highlights of anyone's career. It beats any film premiere. The team is everything. Each team is like working at a different studio. My negative review below ONLY concerns the cinematics department. Other teams seem to have their pipelines working better than ours and even other parts of cinematics seem better than others. Try to find someone working on the team you are interested and ask them what it's like.
Cons
Make no mistake. This is a corporation. That means that no matter how much you love the games, no matter your talent, you are going to work under about 30 leads who have been here since the beginning of time. You will have no say in what you work on or what it looks like. There is little growth career wise and you might not want it. Most senior artists don't make OT which means it might make financial sense to be a regular artist if you are putting in long hours. If you are a real artist and want to make something of your own you might want to look at going to a smaller studio where you can have a bit more say in your art. There are many producers and they believe their job is to crack the whip rather than protect the artist. EA at least had DDs that keep the OT reasonable and the deadlines manageable. If you need any new software it will take months IF you get it. If you want to switch teams here you have to formally apply. You will even have to do a test and you are treated the same as an external person applying. If you leave Blizzard and want to come back you are given no favoritism. They are just as likely to hire someone who's never worked there even if you give them a decade.
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