Activision Blizzard Reviews

Pros

Good compensation, awesome colleagues, best in class top talent

Cons

Great corporate culture in paper, poor corporate culture in real life. Lack of commitment to develop talent.

Pros

I've met many awesome people during my 13 years of employment. Great medical benefits for non-contracted full time employees.

Cons

- No work/life balance - Lack of support from management - Lack of recognition for a job well done - Overtime comes without warning and can last for weeks/months at a time - Pay is well below market, yearly merit increases are a joke - QA are treated differently from the rest of the company - Very little room for advancement - No real control over your project

Pros

Video gaming industry generally attracts fun people such as geeks and nerds. Truly love some of my coworkers.

Cons

Management has no idea what they're doing. There's practically ZERO career progression. Pay is significantly lower than competitors. You will be asked to do just because work that makes no sense and there's no pushing back on it. Merit increases were 4 late and came in July. It was half of last years just because the money was skewed to pay devs more.

Pros

Coolish swag Dogs on campus!!! (Pre-COVID) Environment: Nothing better than being on Blizzard campus and being in front of the Orc statue!

Cons

Personally if I could have given Blizzard half a star I would have. Working for Blizzard is one of the most horrible experiences I ever had to go through. That feeling of,"OMG I want to work for Blizzard." Quickly changes when you start and becomes,"OMG what have I done?!" Management: Good ol boys club. 98% of management have been there for 10+ years and were a part of the company during its "golden years". Management is stale and tends to shun/discriminate against you if you do not agree to their every word. Their word is the bible and shall not be questioned! They hand out write-ups like its candy and tend to keep to the groups of tenured people. If you complain to HR, they say they listen but normally just ignore you and then say you never told them. Overall, management is just bad here. Fellow Employees: Some are cool I'll admit but most of them feel like they are high and mighty because they've been there for so long. If you're able to find a good click of people then thats great! I'm lucky I have but I have seen new employees come on board and are shunned and felt to be unwelcome. I was one of those people until I found a group I clicked with. "Diversity": Blizzard preaches that they are very diverse but when it comes to hiring, 8/10 will be men. There are barely any women in leadership roles and those that are tend to be ignored or overruled by those higher than them. The clubs that are on campus are run by fellow employees but even that is a mess. With the amount of work everyone has on their plate, their last thought is on groups. Many events will be "planned" and then cancelled which isn't necessarily anyone's fault but it proves that diversity and accepting those who are different really isn't a top priority. Advancement: Not gonna happen. Like I said, everyone in a management position has been there for 10+ years and they're not moving anywhere so your only option is to look for a better position outside the company. From what I have seen there is currently a very high turnover rate at Blizzard. Pay: Low of the low. If you work at Blizzard and want to live in Irvine, you'll either need a lot of roommates to cover the bills or someone who is throwing out money to you. Pay raises are very rare! Also, don't ask for a raise. If you ever do you're looked at with disgust and told to get back to work. Work/Life balance: LOL! Oh and never ask to work from home (Pre-COVID) Current higher management is very anti-work from home.

Pros

I have zero positives things to say about Activision.

Cons

Management is horrible. Chief Communication Officer is awful, even worse than the previous one. The CEO is a joke. This should be a great and fun company to work, in reality it is quite the opposite. The CCO has no clue of what she is doing, she hired a bunch of minions and beleives that by retweeting stuff online, her job is done. Compensation is pretty bad. I'm glad I got a better offer and was able to escape this hell hole.