Niantic reviews

Very easy to fall between the cracks and just sort of shuffle around and exist if you're not an outspoken and passionate person, which can be a double-edged sword. (Obviously not a con for everyone, but it should be mentioned) This also leads to what feels like a lot of filler and middle-management positions, with a few talented engineers, designers, artists, etc. carrying the load for many. Forced RTO policies post-pandemic, pointing at it as one of the reasons why products were underperforming, while not acknowledging the actual reasons they were (poor design decisions, executive whims overwriting feedback from players/internal feedback). Reliance on a bloated technology stack that has accrued a completely untenable amount of tech debt. Everyone who made it no longer works at the company, and it's such a broad platform that there likely isn't a single person who understands how it all works start to finish. High degree of internal executive politics you are either forced to be at the whims of, or you are going to get in some drag out fights to enact the changes you believe to be positive. This leads to a pervasive attitude of frustration among a lot of the staff. Communication outside of official company channels between coworkers is reflects this negativity and frustration. A lot of coworkers got mysterious pay bumps as soon as the California law passed requiring them to display salary ranges. Upon investigation, a lot of these pay bumps were to the bottom of the newly listed pay bracket, furthering mistrust that many junior staff were being underpaid. Video game development is a passion industry, but that doesn't mean that workers should be unfairly compensated for their labor. Hopefully the forced visibility change will lead to a more positive outcome on this front.

Completely unqualified and inept leadership. They are running the company like a tech company, but trying to hire game developers to make games. The company keeps acquiring a bunch of tech start ups to shove more tech into our games instead of making our games fun. Which is why every single one of our games fail except for Pokemon Go. The hierarchy makes no sense (Art and Design are considered the same thing because its "not Engineering"), the career ladders make no sense (Execs have to approve all promotion requests which mean people who doesn't know you or what you do gets to decide your future), and they are forcing everyone back into the office. There was already huge turnover in the year 2021 due to backlash from forcing people back to office. The execs have said in an all-hands meeting that they only want people who want to be at Niantic to work at Niantic, and if we don't want to return to office then we can find another job. You are also paid on the lower end of market rate. Also, depending on the team and role, there is crunch. I don't know any other mobile gaming studio that makes their team crunch for months. It's pretty shocking. Leadership keeps comparing themselves to Google. Google is making people return so they do too. Well, Google isn't a game studio and almost all game studios are letting people work remotely. Niantic is also not paying Google levels of salary either.