Electronic Arts reviews

-Sad to say, but much of the Studio decision-making is awful. Legacy organizations such as EA Redwood Shores (now Visceral) are full of bitter veterans with huge egos constantly engaged in petty political battles among entrenched incumbents and others jockeying for power. See formation of Sledgehammer Games. Game team senior management does not think of what's best for their reports, the team, or even EA, but primarily on what will advance their career. -Zero accountability from almost all Senior Directors, Studio execs, and above -- they blame everyone else and never assume responsibility for their actions. Instead they find scapegoats, pin the problem on them, and discard them like trash. There's been tens of Millions wasted on killed projects (and subsequent layoffs) within the past 5 years, and no Exec has ever been held accountable for it. -It's a matter of due process that once you make it in the political good graces of a "Godfather," you "fail" into an executive promotion, typically at the expense of dozens of frontline employees during layoffs caused by aforementioned poor decisions. -Despite the notion of EA Values, the Work-Life balance remains unhealthy and dysfunctional especially during crunch times. While this is nothing new in the game industry, it culminated in the EA Spouse settlement and is still rampant to a large degree for exempt employees. EA also killed the Sabbatical program and didn't provide grandfathering for rehires. How's that for Values? -From a comp standpoint, there is enormous inequity in base salary depending on circumstance (e.g., the hiring need was immediate so cash was thrown at underqualified candidates with less experience and potential than existing employees who earn significantly less). Moreover, EA employees are underpaid (in the Bay Area) but are only given more compensation (beyond the annual 3% raise) when they threaten to leave. HR is part of the problem. -The political culture is stifling. If it serves the needs of those in power, then you're a rockstar and your ideas are golden. One "EA Employee of the Year" was awarded even before he shipped the game he was working on. Everyone was like, "huh??" This breeds further politics and reinforcement of dysfunctional behavior. If you don't want to play that game, then you just have to shut up and do your job. If you rock the boat, you're thrown out.

EA is known for killing employees to ship games - on brutal schedules. Before I continue, I'll admit that I am happy with my own experience at EA (see Pros). What follows is not sarcastic, but is an honest assessment of what I saw over 10 years of employment (at 3 different studios) Read with a "just the facts" tone - and ignore the cynicism that creeps in (after 10 years, it is impossible to avoid) EA does kill employees to ship games on brutal schedules. Seriously. The rumors wouldn't be so persistent if there wasn't truth there. Yes, many teams move into a mandatory 6 or 7 day work-week, with 12 hour days (with the occasional over-nighter). At the worst of crunch, I did several weeks of 14 hour days. With a 14 hour day, there is just enough time to get home, get enough sleep to stay alive, and go back to work. This *is* sustainable - for weeks on end, but isn't much fun. All shipping projects crunch. This was true in 1998, and in 2008 - and every year between. Usually, this is assumed - and everyone (silently) knows that it is coming. Sometimes, when morale in the studio is low, management will hold an 'all hands' meeting to launch "new development practices" - and a "more efficient project management system" .... and a promise of a decent work/life balance, and short (or zero) crunch. Employees like the sound of it, but are very skeptical. But, over the next few months, the discover that the Management promises were true!! Sure, there was that 'one big demo' that required some late nights, but - otherwise - the work/life balance isn't so bad!!! I'm not sure why - but everyone seems to forget that ALL PROJECTS START THAT WAY. The problems start when the team is actually approaching Alpha. Suddenly, the team realizes that major systems - although planned well - have serious integration issues. Oh, and performance issues. Engineers are very quick to blame themselves. They work 10, 11... 12 hour days to work out the 'critical' and 'blocking' problems. Then, it is back to finishing features (but - uh oh - the Alpha date passed!!) ... feature work continues into Alpha, and usually slips a bit into Beta. By this time, the entire team is working killer hours - meals are catered, and hundreds of wives are considering divorce. (Seriously, EA is not a safe place for your relationship). Anyway, by the time crunch arrives - everyone has LONG forgotten about the 'new project management' stuff. Who cares anyway?? The schedule is completely blown (because of multiple failures, it isn't possible to "fault" one person - or one group). Most of the team feels half-guilty for letting the top-management down, and are convinced that they somehow brought this major breakdown upon themselves. So, mandatory 7 day week. We must finish this thing. We'll learn from our mistakes. We know what went wrong, and we won't repeat it. But, right now, we need to get this thing Gold - and shipped to sony and microsoft for approval. QA is still finding class A bugs -- engineers yell at QA because the bug existed "since milestone 2!!" --- why are we just hearing about it TODAY? But, secretly, the engineer also feels guilty for making such a stupid mistake, and works an all-nighter to get it fixed. He looks like a hero, and management is pleased. Except - all he did is fix his own 'one-liner' bug, and it took him all night to track it down. Accomplishment? No. Paradoxical praise? You bet. (Pay close attention to what a company 'says' they value - and what they actually reward. EA rewards workers that kill themselves to get things done. Anyone that says differently is either hiding from that fact, or lying). So, the game finally ships, and everyone goes on a week or 2 of comp time (resembling a coma). The game ships, sales are huge, game goes platinum, screen-shots and press coverage is everywhere. It feels good. Management calls an 'all hands' meeting to discuss the upcoming cycle, and - maybe - promise some big changes. Will it ever change? Of course not. But, notice that EA employees will complain, but they don't actually quit. Like crack, it is easy to complain about - but very difficult to walk away from. (Did you look at the value of your vesting stock? Holy crap!! I made more on stock that my entire salary last year!!!!) But, this is sounding positive, read Pros for more.