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    BioWare Reviews

    Updated July 18, 2018
    87 reviews

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    4.0
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    Recommend to a friend
    Approve of CEO
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    Andrew Wilson
    16 Ratings

    87 Employee Reviews

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    Pros

    • "Great people to work with, good focus on work life balance" (in 15 reviews)

    • "Great people, great live work balance" (in 8 reviews)

    Cons

    • "Employees are often brought in on contract and promised a full-time position if they perform to Bioware's standards" (in 8 reviews)

    • "Higher ups have extreme attitude problem" (in 3 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons

    1. "BioWare Lifer"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Austin, TX
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Austin, TX
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at BioWare full-time (More than 10 years)

      Pros

      BioWare has always had leadership that cares about its people. From the founders, Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk, to the current GM Aaryn Flynn. The company is focused on creating some of the best games in the world and it shows in its track record of games, including the recent Dragon Age: Inquisition (GOTY).

      BioWare's culture is defined by the statement "Quality in the Product and Quality in the Workplace". It is difficult to balance the needs of a project with the needs of the employees, but BioWare has done a good job of it over the years.

      Cons

      BioWare is a company that values open communication/critique. This can lead to stress as everyone's work is held to a high standard. If you enjoy a high performance culture, this might be a positive :-)

    2. Helpful (1)

      "Why Bioware is falling apart"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend
      Neutral Outlook

      I worked at BioWare full-time

      Pros

      Was previously a great company but the culture changed.

      Cons

      This culture change wasn't for the better either. It reshaped the company and a lot of infighting happened because of this.

      Advice to Management

      Work on getting the company together.

    3. Helpful (6)

      "A studio barely clinging to life"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I have been working at BioWare full-time

      Pros

      - Opportunities to work on famous and popular AAA franchises
      - EA's pay and benefits are tops in the industry
      - Good facilities with lots of perks
      - Inclusive workplace that values and promotes diversity
      - There's a sincere effort to ensure work-life balance, but that's the first thing to disappear when a project catches fire

      Cons

      - Studio leadership is untrustworthy, unaccountable and obsessed with politics
      - Bad creative and business decisions are allowed to survive for years and destroy the projects that get stuck with them
      - Sub-studios are the public scapegoats for the Edmonton mothership's failures
      - Constant high turnover at all levels, with many replacement hires being temp workers who don't receive any benefits
      - After years of high-profile failures, fans and EA have lost faith in BioWare and left its future in doubt

      Advice to Management

      - Reconnect with what made past BioWare games great and let it be the focus of future projects
      - Clean house in the upper management's ranks to bring in fresh blood that won't be distracted trying to settle old grudges
      - Give employees a good reason to stay besides the paycheck

    4. Helpful (3)

      "BioWare Austin could be great..."

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Austin, TX
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Austin, TX
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at BioWare full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      It's BioWare! We make amazing games that you and others will actually want to play.

      "One BioWare" collaboration between Edmonton, Austin, and Montreal is good stuff.

      HR is surprisingly awesome.

      Cons

      Beware the Marketing department. Yeesh, incompetence personified.

      Advice to Management

      Practice what you preach, RE: accountability.

      Salaries, bonuses, and promotions are not in line with industry standards if you're interested in attracting and retaining top talent.

    5. Helpful (1)

      "Was good until it wasn't"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Former Employee - Software Engineer in Austin, TX
      Former Employee - Software Engineer in Austin, TX

      I worked at BioWare full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      Great people to work with, good focus on work life balance. Very progressive in terms of people - very inclusive and goes out of their way to make sure that people feel taken care of. Felt like the top of the management tried to take care of all of the employees as a group.

      Cons

      Project-level leadership can act petty at times. Management shies from confrontation, which can result in employees feeling blindsided by things. When I was let go, I felt like I didn't really have a good metric of what it was that caused me to be let go - one manager was totally fine with me and gave me good reviews, while his replacement did not.

      Advice to Management

      Be more honest and straightforward with what you expect from your employees. If there is a problem with performance, try to set more measurable/quantifiable goals.

    6. "Designer"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Designer in Austin, TX
      Current Employee - Designer in Austin, TX

      I have been working at BioWare full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      A lot of talented people, a relaxed work environment, frequent meals provided, excellent benefits and options for ESPP and 401k, very little crunch, great work/life balance.

      Cons

      difficult career progression, low salary

    7. Helpful (3)

      "Decent perks, no windows"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Former Employee - Senior Visual Designer in Austin, TX
      Former Employee - Senior Visual Designer in Austin, TX
      Recommends

      I worked at BioWare (More than a year)

      Pros

      There were lots of fun events and milestone celebrations and such. The company definitely spent money on making the employees feel comfortable.

      Cons

      One entire side of the building has zero windows, and to me that got tiring after a while. I don't care how awesome the work is, if I feel like a nocturnal creature for 8 hrs a day that's not good.

    8. Helpful (5)

      "There are worse places to work"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Neutral Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at BioWare full-time

      Pros

      The company values work/life balance.
      Management genuinely seems to care about bringing employees into the fold in terms of decision making.

      Cons

      Constant change in upper management means a constant change in the studio direction.
      Not the best environment in the world to foster creativity.

      Advice to Management

      In my 6 years there, we had 6 different studio heads who all wanted to do 6 radically different things. Maybe just keep one guy around for more than a year.

    9. "Decent company to work for"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Quality Assurance Analyst in Austin, TX
      Current Employee - Quality Assurance Analyst in Austin, TX

      I have been working at BioWare full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      Decent work environment, nice team and nice culture.

      Cons

      Sometimes, the work can be a little bit stressful.

    10. Helpful (1)

      "The company takes care of it's people"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Austin, TX
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Austin, TX
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at BioWare full-time (More than 8 years)

      Pros

      A very professional work environment made up of senior developers who have been around the rodeo a few times. Extraordinarily talented people with a wealth of ideas and aspirations. One of the best places for a work/life balance

      Cons

      There is often a lack of higher direction or, more actually, and difficulty locking down that direction. The management tries to include everyone, which is nice but can be detrimental when schedule pressure you to set a course and stick to it.

      Advice to Management

      Management needs to establish direction sooner and make a commitment to that direction. They try with the best intentions and it is not an easy thing at all but that is the one area where I see frustration.

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