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BioWare Reviews
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Full-timePart-timeApprove of CEO
Andrew Wilson
14 Ratings
Pros
Great people to work with, good focus on work life balance (in 14 reviews)
Positive helpful work environment (in 13 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)
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"BioWare Lifer"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI 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 :-)
BioWare 2016-12-13 12:15 PSTHelpful (6)
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"A studio barely clinging to life"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookNo opinion of CEOI 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 fireCons
- 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 doubtAdvice 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 paycheckBioWare 2017-09-23 09:51 PDTHelpful (3)
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"BioWare Austin could be great..."
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI 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.BioWare 2016-11-21 15:28 PSTHelpful (1)
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"Was good until it wasn't"
StarStarStarStarStarI 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.
BioWare 2016-05-11 14:29 PDT![BioWare Logo]()
"Designer"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
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
BioWare 2016-04-27 11:24 PDTHelpful (3)
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"Decent perks, no windows"
StarStarStarStarStarRecommendsI 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.
BioWare 2016-02-08 08:28 PSTHelpful (4)
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"There are worse places to work"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNeutral OutlookNo opinion of CEOI 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.
BioWare 2015-11-29 09:31 PST![BioWare Logo]()
"Decent company to work for"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
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.
BioWare 2015-11-08 20:11 PSTHelpful (1)
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"The company takes care of it's people"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI 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.
BioWare 2015-07-27 22:21 PDTHelpful (2)
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"Interesting experience"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookNo opinion of CEOI worked at BioWare full-time (More than a year)
Pros
There were a lot of very top notch engineers working there.
The people were generally nice
Great work / life balance compared to other game studiosCons
The tiered title hierarchy made it hard to move up
Lots of contractors coming and going
Not afraid to lay people off and rehire replacementsAdvice to Management
Focus on employee growth more
BioWare 2015-07-03 15:13 PDT
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