Pros
- Great benefits. Health, Dental, gym at work, fitness classes, etc. - Great perks. Free food, snacks, Blue Bottle coffee, Friday "Happy Hours," quarterly parties, free work android/iPhone - Awesome equipment to work with. Pretty much state-of-the-art anything you need. - "Anything goes" style work place. If you push hard enough for something you want, there's a decent chance you'll be able to achieve it. And they'll most likely reward you for it. - Perfect place for someone who is young, has few friends, no serious relationship, or children. - If you're a Product Manager, you'll love it here. This is a company built around product management. The more or less run the show, particularly on games that are already released. - If you're clever, you can hide beneath the radar, don't try too hard, and go home at a reasonable hour. You won't get any bonuses or "level-ups," but you may keep whatever life you have.
Cons
- Extremely chaotic. Very difficult at times to get into a "groove" and just do great work in a comfortable environment. Even though this place is often looked at as a "start up," 4 years into their lifespan, it's time to grow up and nail down some serious production pipelines. - Due to its extreme chaos, working 12 hour days is going to happen. A LOT. And for what will, at times, feel like no reason. - Seriously poor upper and middle management. One's mileage may vary, but for the most part if you have to work super late, something went wrong with scheduling. And most scheduling hiccups will occur if someone in the executive staff decides to suddenly "pivot" on something they've already committed to, and you have to scramble. The company uses it's perks (food, particularly) to smooth over sloppy scheduling, but that gets old after a while. Management has no interest in your personal well-being, and figures parties, free booze and food should make it all better. - Creative process is sorely lacking. Lots of talk about doing fresh and new ideas, but ultimately the proof is in the pudding: this company makes clones of themselves, and of other games. This makes the lack of pipeline even more frustrating, since the company basically makes the same games over and over again (when they're not buying other company's games, that is). One would think that efficiency would allow the company to create more content more quickly, but sadly there's no real interest in that. They just throw more people at the job. - There's something inherently sad and toxic about the work environment, that's hard to put your finger on. You can feel it when you walk into the office. People are powering through it, but ultimately the work will feel a bit "soulless." - If you're an artist who hopes to become a better one in the future, be prepared to deal with a whole lot of people with a whole lot of opinions and feedback (nitpicks) that are based in basically nothing. I don't know of anyone in the upper management that comes from a seriously art-based or creative background, so it feels strange to hear some fo their comments at times. If you aren't diligent outside of the workplace, your art will suffer. I've seen it happen, and it's sad. -If you're an engineer with any kind of above-average competence, be prepared to deal with what could be the worst thing about the company. The engineers have it worse than anyone else, and will pull the longest hours on average. Some of the tech is, from what I hear, sloppy, and a lot of times you'll be running around cleaning up someone else's mess. This is often caused by moving too quickly and not taking the time to make thoughtful tools that will benefit the team in the future. Depending on the kind of manager you get, you may be able to create a decent schedule and actually make something that is not only useful, but stable and well made, but that's tough to come by.