Activision Reviews

Pros

Activision is a friendly are relaxed place to work. There is a really lenient dress code and people are free to express themselves as they choose. Activision will either cover parking pass or a bus pass for one to get to and from work. Working overtime occurs commonly as a QA Tester, which can either be seen as a pro or con depending on how you look at it. Wages goes to $15 during overtime and they will cover a meal for the day which was always nice.

Cons

Activision often produces games to make money rather than put quality in them. Lots of the action based games are repetitive and are no fun to test.
As a tester, the working conditions aren't the most pleasant. Working in the downstairs basement, or "the dungeon" is dark and has a odd odor to it. The break room does have a pool table and free soda, but no snacks or food are provided.

Advice to Senior Management

Provided a clear scale of how you rate testers and give them perks for finding critical bugs in beta and submission stages.

Pros

Get a paycheck making games

Cons

Tries to make games by rote.

Advice to Senior Management

Get some people who have made games in more senior roles.

Pros

You're working at the leading game publisher in the industry after its merger with Vivendi/Blizzard. There are some very interesting upcoming projects that you can work on. The hours are good, and very flexible, you can come in when you want and leave when you want as long as you get the work done.

Cons

Activision runs a developer studio system so that each studio is fairly independent. This is good and bad, since it retains each studio's culture but allows for differences in quality, both in terms of developed content and the proficiency of managers. Since studios often have their own HR reps, there is sometimes a disconnect and delay in the hiring process.

Advice to Senior Management

Visit the studios regularly and offer leadership and teamwork training readily to those who need it.