Blizzard Entertainment Employee Reviews about "low pay"

Pros

Fun place to work and play

Cons

Pretty low pay but it was a college job

Pros

Because Blizzard makes several different, interconnected games on a variety of platforms, you will be able to gain significant experience working within complex game dev product cycles (unless you’re in Customer Service)., from early pre-prod stages (depending on your discipline) through the ongoing support of a product launch and onto GaaS. The Blizzard campus has some cool areas that you’ll geek out on…for a while, until the newness wears off You’ll get to interact with some of the best game designers, engineers, and artists in the industry. Company benefits are standard for most large corporations, though they are falling behind when compared to high tech specifically. Blizzard swag can be pretty cool at times, and you get discounts on ATVI/BLZ games. 1 week off at the end of the year You get to pretend you’re a celebrity each year when you attend/work BlizzCon wearing Blizz employee clothing.

Cons

- Some enormous egos get away with abhorrent behavior because they’re seen as valuable to the company. - The company culture is *beyond* toxic. In addition to what’s been in the news, devs on the major game teams are treated as gods. Most other disciplines, especially QA and CS, are treated like 2nd/3rd class, skillless, wholly replaceable bit players whose primary function is in service to devs. - Low pay across the board except for the rare few dozen who are either execs or particularly special/tenured devs. Blizz trades on its (former) reputation as a supposed leader in the industry in order to convince you that you should be happy to be able to work at Blizz and accept a lower salary for the “privilege” of being able to be here. They go out of their way to sell you on the company kool aid and try to brainwash you into believing Blizz is your “family,” knowing that, psychologically, this tactic increases retention rates. - High cost of living area coupled with Blizz’s reluctance (prior to pandemic…unsure what long term strat will end up being now) to allow remote work opportunities for almost anyone other than engineers and some designers only exacerbates the pay problem. - The depth of unbelievably poor / inexperienced / incompetent leadership in many departments is astounding. - Crunch is just a standard and accepted part of the job. - Nepotism / favoritism is rampant. There isn’t a place anywhere in the company you can go where the guys (guys specifically) getting all the positions of power and money are the ones making friends in the right places or are literally related to the powerful. - You get pigeonholed. It’s very tough to convince anyone you have skills and potential outside of the job/discipline you were hired for (unless, again, you make the right friends). - HR is complicit in the toxic culture. Their willingness to act on harassment or other claims is directly proportional to the level of “star” quality the accused holds.

Pros

Teams that were excited to work on the product. Attention to quality. Great benefits.

Cons

Low Pay Company culture was fun but masked some real problems with how executives treated female employees. Crunch

Pros

good team environment and good on resume

Cons

low pay for industry and the role

Pros

*My personal experience has been pretty good, though you can read about the serious problems others have had in the recent news headlines. I personally though have worked largely with friendly, competent people. Many people do have good experiences at Blizzard. Your experience, like anywhere, will largely be defined by who your immediate manager and co-workers are. *Good work-life balance *The campus is nice

Cons

*Low pay for the area and compared to alternative places to work. Irvine and the surrounding area is an expensive place to live, despite increased wild fires in the area (which will only get worse). About a third of Irvine had to get evacuated last year. I'd highly recommend pressing for remote options. *Obvious problems with systemic sexual harassment and even assault among the highest levels of management. Probably another reason to go for remote options. *Inability to release games on any sort of schedule that makes sense, leading to low profit sharing payouts among employees

Pros

Its a fun place to work.

Cons

Low pay for the similar positions in tech. Lots of good ol boy's club favoritism.

Pros

Fun culture, good perks and benefits

Cons

Abysmally low pay, zero career advancement potential

Pros

Great IPs, some last pockets of resistance that still value good products and care about the community.

Cons

Over the years, Activision started to infiltrate high-level executives into Blizzard until all the old guard was kicked-off. Then managed to layoff many employees around the world to consolidate publishing and other support groups into Activision. This corporate Game of Thrones might be generating great cost-savings, but at the same time, it killed everything that made Blizzard unique. Other than dev teams, everyone else reports to someone at Activision, making Blizzard's President a puppet figure in charge of delivering products with increasing obsession in microtransaction and predatory business models. And they aren't fixing Blizzard's previous issues, like low pay, almost impossible internal mobility, divisive 'woke' HR, people accumulating multiple functions with 80 hour weeks, and fundamental distrust in the high-level executives. You might see rosy reviews from newer employees, but those never had the chance to see how Blizzard was truly a special place. They are falling for the bs. If you grew up playing Blizzard games and dreamed of working there, sorry to be bearer of bad news: the Blizzard you love is dead.

Pros

gaming industry, great collogues, profit sharing

Cons

bad moral (old blizz vs. new activision), low pay

Pros

Great staff, there’s really not much more i just had to have 5 words.

Cons

Low pay, corporate red tape