Carbine Studios Reviews

Updated Sep 19, 2016

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2.7
33%
Recommend to a Friend
56%
Approve of CEO
Carbine Studios Orange County Site Executive Chauncey Gammage
Chauncey Gammage
4 Ratings
  1. Helpful (4)

    "Future Uncertain"

    5.0
    • Work/Life Balance
    • Culture & Values
    • Career Opportunities
    • Compensation and Benefits
    • Senior Management
    Former Employee - Software Engineer in Aliso Viejo, CA
    Recommends
    Neutral Outlook

    I worked at Carbine Studios full-time for more than a year

    Pros

    Good game Great talent Caring management Good community of developers Even in the layoffs they treated us well with severance packages. I'd work for them again.

    Cons

    There were layoffs recently so not as much of the "Pros" mentioned above, still some. Carbine may be a sinking ship at this point but they may yet turn things around. While the future may be uncertain right now, if things improve financially then I'd say go for it.

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  2. Helpful (6)

    "Studio with Potential"

    4.0
    • Work/Life Balance
    • Culture & Values
    • Career Opportunities
    • Compensation and Benefits
    • Senior Management
    Current Employee - Anonymous Employee 
    Recommends
    Positive Outlook
    No opinion of CEO

    I have been working at Carbine Studios full-time

    Pros

    - WIldstar is an amazing game - Free snacks and soda - Free SWAG for all employees - Food truck Wednesdays - Laid back environment - Superior benefits package - Open to employee suggestions - Nice area

    Cons

    - Management team needs to act like managers - Too many bugs in the game and our current process in place takes a long time to fix - Communication from top management is lacking - Not too many team/studio bonding activities

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  3. Helpful (3)

    "Hardwork and a holistic view of development will lead the company to success."

    5.0
    • Work/Life Balance
    • Culture & Values
    • Career Opportunities
    • Compensation and Benefits
    • Senior Management
    Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in Aliso Viejo, CA
    Recommends
    Positive Outlook
    No opinion of CEO

    I worked at Carbine Studios full-time for more than a year

    Pros

    Carbine houses some of the smartest and most talented developers working in games today. The passion and creativity is what keeps the studio breathing. The mix of our employees creates an incredibly fast-paced work environment that reminds me of a few start-ups I have worked with. Be prepared to wear many hats and if the initiatives you champion are successful, share their success with your fellow coworkers. Along this line, the studio has a cumulative wealth of experience that you will be challenged to learn from on a daily basis. I have never had such rapid learning and career growth as my time at Carbine and I am truly grateful for the opportunities that it afforded me. Akin to the concept mentioned earlier, be prepared to coach and teach as you learn and morph your ideas. There are many co-training opportunities at the studio and you can learn the nuances of all aspects of game development from Engineering, to Design, to Art, to QA. Company benefits were very competitive and as a family we were able to afford and safely provide for everyone. Along these lines, compensation is fairly average for the industry and the studio has been making a huge push to normalize and fix pay rates for employees to be comparable with changing industry trends. Our HR department is very active in pursuing these updates as well as overhauling yearly performance and merit based reviews. Carbine is on their way back to become a destination studio. After some bumps in the road, I am very confident that the team will be able to grow the studio and develop for many years to come. I will miss working with everyone and absolutely suggest that given the opportunity, people accept and offer to work here.

    Cons

    Compensation is average for industry and does not include equity, although the studio does have a profit sharing bonus structure. Furthermore, continued education funds are being slowly systemized at NCSoft and at the time of writing were very hard to justify and push through. Shifting gears to discuss corporate strategy, the company and NCWest as a whole, is still focusing very much on the short term and this is hurting us. We need to rectify our short term goals against our long term goals in order to realize and achieve success. Until we are able to do this, we will continue to run into unforeseen pitfalls and emergencies that arose from poor risk mitigation. Huge steps are being made in this regard and I'm excited for what the future holds.

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  4. Helpful (3)

    "Game Designer"

    4.0
    • Work/Life Balance
    • Culture & Values
    • Career Opportunities
    • Compensation and Benefits
    • Senior Management
    Game Designer in Aliso Viejo, CA
    Doesn't Recommend
    Positive Outlook
    No opinion of CEO

    I worked at Carbine Studios

    Pros

    Carbine has a talented team of developers, with a good blend of both veteran and junior staff. The tools team has put together an extremely robust engine that is easy to learn, but has a rich feature set for making complex content. Focus has transitioned from just getting the game out the door by any means possible to changing the corporate culture and development practices into something that attracts more top talent in the industry. These are critical changes that probably should have happened earlier, but I'm optimistic that continuing on this path and leaving egos at the door will lead to good things in the company's future.

    Cons

    The studio has always been much more reactive than proactive when it comes to dealing with potential problems. Be prepared to fight fires that you or someone else may have started a while back. If you are up to that task, you can thrive at the studio. Benefits are not fantastic. A review of the 401k compensation should be a top priority for HR. Salaries were not competitive during my employment, but this has seen a drastic change for the better in recent months.

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  5. Helpful (2)

    "Work hard- play hard"

    5.0
    • Work/Life Balance
    • Culture & Values
    • Career Opportunities
    • Compensation and Benefits
    • Senior Management
    Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in Aliso Viejo, CA
    Recommends
    Positive Outlook

    I have been working at Carbine Studios full-time

    Pros

    So many talented people that are driven to produce an awesome product.

    Cons

    Southern California can be a bit pricey as far as housing is concerned.

  6. Helpful (4)

    "Fine studio, hard genre, broken industry"

    3.0
    • Work/Life Balance
    • Culture & Values
    • Career Opportunities
    • Compensation and Benefits
    • Senior Management
    Former Employee - Artist in Lake Forest, CA
    Doesn't Recommend
    Negative Outlook
    Approves of CEO

    I worked at Carbine Studios full-time for more than 3 years

    Pros

    Great people, no insane pressure to put in long hours. Open to ideas and not stifling to creativity.

    Cons

    There was nowhere to go. There often isn't, in this industry. Veterans know this well. Wildstar had every chance to succeed. Everyone wants to blame someone or something: "the CEO!", "nobody listens!", "bad morale!". It was none of those things. At the end of the day the market just wasn't there. The fact is, it was a great team, and Chauncey (head honcho) did the best he could with a terrible situation. Many saw him as the "bad guy" because the first round of layoffs happened soon after he took over. Unfortunately, the numbers just didn't make sense. At the end of the day it's a business. Even a CEO with 100% approval cannot change the way math works. The MMO genre is very hard to build a sustainable product in, in 2016. Subscriptions are dead, production cycles are too long, and MTX is rarely enough to recoup the cost of a giant team for 5+ years. I simply think Wildstar was in the wrong place at the wrong time. The product, people, and execution was great. It's just too hard these days. But I understand people need to point fingers in order to cope with layoffs. I was not high up, for the record. I was quite low on the totem pole in fact. Survived the first round of layoffs and got hit by the second. Still unemployed. Sucks, but it's not Carbine's fault. They never wronged me or mistreated me. I will miss it dearly, and I wish Wildstar and Carbine's future ventures all the success possible.

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  7. Helpful (3)

    "Carbine Review"

    3.0
    • Work/Life Balance
    • Culture & Values
    • Career Opportunities
    • Compensation and Benefits
    • Senior Management
    QA Tester in Aliso Viejo, CA
    Recommends
    Negative Outlook
    No opinion of CEO

    I worked at Carbine Studios

    Pros

    A great work environment with a great team. Great benefits package this may have changed since I left. Very friendly teams with great attitudes.

    Cons

    Internal politics may keep you from moving out of QA. Former HR lead was combative when faced with issues dealing with company politics.

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  8. Helpful (3)

    "New Ideas needed"

    3.0
    Former Employee - Anonymous Employee 

    I worked at Carbine Studios part-time

    Pros

    Great group of people who work at Carbine. The art for the game is really good. The environment is friendly

    Cons

    They spent a lot of time and money making a game like World of Warcraft- but it took so long to create that there really was not the market for it. They need a new approach and new vision to get the company back on track.

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  9. Helpful (1)

    "AMAZING COMPANY"

    5.0
    • Work/Life Balance
    • Culture & Values
    • Career Opportunities
    • Compensation and Benefits
    • Senior Management
    UI Team in Aliso Viejo, CA
    Recommends
    Positive Outlook
    Approves of CEO

    I have been working at Carbine Studios

    Pros

    Amazing Company, great benefits , nice people and excellent game overall.

    Cons

    Needs Bonus compensation and work compensation.

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  10. Helpful (1)

    "Carbine Studios, and how it gave us a chance"

    5.0
    • Work/Life Balance
    • Culture & Values
    • Career Opportunities
    • Compensation and Benefits
    • Senior Management
    Former Employee - Senior Artist 
    Recommends
    Positive Outlook
    Approves of CEO

    I worked at Carbine Studios full-time for more than 5 years

    Pros

    Overall, the studio is a fun environment, where you as a content creator are enabled to be as creative as you can. I worked at the Carbine for almost seven years, and it was my first game shipped in the videogame industry. I was a green employee, and was given the chance to prove myself in a multitude of different ways. I have nothing but respect for the company, their leadership, and the overall culture. Some will disagree with me, but this is my overall experience under the NcSoft umbrella :) -Benefits are great -Great Salary (If you know what you are worth, and ask for it) -Incredible Learning Environment (Art) -Room for Promotions -Willingness to be there for you, no matter what

    Cons

    Communication is key! They have great communication from the top down, but the teams within the company could work on this. The team needs to be more open to conversations. Plenty of times I would have to find out, months later, that a slew of requests were thought to be "In Progress" Overall, my exp was great, I had no issues walking over to talk to designers/programmers. Some things slipped through the cracks, and left people upset.

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