DeNA Reviews
72% would recommend to a friend
(180 total reviews)
Shintaro Asako
69% approve of CEO
Top Review Highlights by Sentiment
Excerpts from user reviews, not authored by Glassdoor
- "This is an awesome work environment with an energetic and passionate culture that gets sh!t done." (in 5 reviews)
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Found 180 of over 185 reviews
Updated Nov 26, 2023
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- 5.0Jun 17, 2023BaristaFormer Employee
Pros
everything it was an amazing experience
Cons
nothing i’m not sure lol
- 4.0Nov 26, 2023Product ManagerFormer EmployeeJapan, PA
Pros
Be able to work with smart enployee
Cons
The business growth is slow
- 1.0Nov 12, 2022Anonymous EmployeeCurrent Employee, less than 1 year
Pros
Good hours and good pay.
Cons
Corrupt by their own bad ideas. Recycles models from games that date back to 2013 even if they are complained about being racist like a Ku Klux Klan Night Hawk Zekrom design that made it out to the public. Don’t worry, we got Black Kyurem that’s pretty much the same thing. This company milks an idea until it becomes dry. The only thing keeping this company afloat is the Pokémon fandom.
1 - 4.0Mar 28, 2022Anonymous EmployeeFormer Employee
Pros
Really liked that the company has an open arm attitude towards employees
Cons
Not so much, but not really a start-up company anymore.
- 3.0Feb 10, 2022Lead EngineerFormer Employee, more than 3 yearsSouth San Francisco, CA
Pros
Meals, Pin pon table, Monthly events
Cons
Crazy hours, work/life balance, no commuting benefits
- 3.0Mar 23, 2021Registered NurseCurrent Employee, more than 3 yearsLayton, UT
Pros
Everyone here works really well together. It's very much like a little family—there is not any gossip or underhanding that goes on among the coworkers.
Cons
Management are "yes" people. They will not advocate for the employees but will agree with anything upper Management wants. It can be hard not having your director not advocate for your team. In addition to this pay is not very lovely, but the company is wonderful and even though management is "yes," people they overall act kindly to the workers.
- 2.0Mar 17, 2013Software EngineerCurrent Employee, more than 1 yearSan Francisco, CA
Pros
Excellent benefits Catered meals Nice snacks Generally, people are nice Pleasant office in a nice location SOMA Excellent core values (though not fully embraced) Many intelligent and well-spoken people There is a lot of potential
Cons
Technical work in first party game development always requires crunch time (long hours, week-ends) Platform has significant technical debt Some of the engineers are over-confident and difficult to work with Many of the best people are leaving at noticeable rate and, with slow hiring, technical workers get extra work The work is challenging in the wrong ways: tight schedules, poor code quality, constant emergencies due to poor/no planning. The most technically challenging thing you will do is the interview Working with counter-parts in Tokyo is difficult due to language barrier and time difference People can be discharged at any moment, equally true for middle management or line workers The success of technical work is, at best, mixed Platform/Core technology is too engineering-lead and out of touch with product needs First party development is too product-lead and has trouble delivering quality technology There is a lot of pressure to conform to the local culture which includes drinking, playing games during work, nerf darts - it can be tough to fit in, if you just want to enjoy your work Not much ethnic/gender diversity in the technical staff
4 - 5.0Jun 24, 2014Anonymous EmployeeCurrent Employee, more than 1 yearSan Francisco, CA
Pros
The people are awesome and the culture is awesome! There are people from all walks of life that have come from mobile, console and many other places to work here. If you want to get promoted, you will. Speak up and work hard and you'll be rewarded. Too many people are obsessed with immediate satisfaction and don't stay with the company long enough to really see the upside. Work hard, have fun and you'll have a job you will enjoy for years to come. Work/Life balance is awesome. I enjoy working within my own hours and not required hours that are set arbitrarily . The food is pretty amazing too...
Cons
The pay isn't the best. The office is a little meh...not your typical gaming company office space. No real hit titles yet, but they're coming! The desk pods are a bit annoying and not really conducive to communication. No real centralized area to play and engage with your coworkers (a MUST for a gaming company). Needs a proper centralized gaming area (not just tucked away in the corner of the office).
1 - 4.0Sep 23, 2014Systems EngineerCurrent Employee, more than 3 yearsSan Francisco, CA
Pros
The operations team at DeNA is a highly collaborative group of intelligent and experienced individuals. While it's nice to talk about war stories and bond over the battle wounds of operational hellfire past. This team would rather talk over lunch about their weekend plans or go on a movie outing, because frankly they are smart enough to avoid most of the brimstone that you find in other large infrastructure deployments. It's true that their hardware is not magic and their tools are no different than the rest of the industries, but they are able to handle outages and more importantly the people that are affected by them with, dare I say it, a bit of grace?! Think of your worst experience with an IT/Operations team then think about what made you feel that way. That's what this team thinks about every time it meets to consider how we can make our clients lives a little easier, and frankly how we can keep our lives easy.
Cons
As with any team that can see across the entire organization, the problems that recur are the most disheartening. The entire organization would be better off if it would take more cues from the operations and infrastructure team.
3 - 1.0Jul 31, 2015Anonymous EmployeeFormer EmployeeSan Francisco, CA
Pros
- China Basin office location next to the ballpark is good - Usual SF office perks in terms of snacks and meals - At least SF will get to claim they're "successful" once they help promote Nintendo games in the West
Cons
- Senior leadership team that is all Japanese and has failed on so many levels since DENA acquired ngmoco. - Retention has been awful. It's been a revolving door of people coming and going once they realize the abysmal situation. - Leadership has blacklisted people who "speak-up" or have basically driven them out of the studio. - Horrible product decisions from crappy rushed games to spending millions on user acquisition campaigns with extremely poor returns on investment. - Transferred some employees from the failed Vancouver studio who are clearly not happy to be here and are apparently just going along with it because they got fat raises or they're work/immigration paperwork is controlled by DENA. - CEO's knowledge of games and the industry is laughable. Just a hollow figurehead being controlled by Japanese HQ because he can speak fluent English and Japanese. - Quality and execution on the tech side is a joke. - It honestly feels that if you're not Japanese or one of their few puppets left, there is no chance for advancement or having impact in this studio.
4
DeNA Response9yThank you for your candid thoughts regarding DeNA West management and practices. Many companies deal with employees leaving for other opportunities and that simply is the reality of running a business. I am proud to say that we have a strong percentage of team members who have been with the company since our inception and several new hires seeking us out to to join the company. We take all of our DeNA qualities to heart and “speaking-up” is one that is encouraged and practiced at DeNA. We continually listen and have conversations with our team members and appreciate their suggestions, direction and vision. If you’d like to discuss any of this further, do not hesitate to reach out to me.
DeNA Reviews FAQs
DeNA has an overall rating of 4.1 out of 5, based on over 185 reviews left anonymously by employees. 72% of employees would recommend working at DeNA to a friend and 38% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has improved by 9% over the last 12 months.
72% of DeNA employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees also rated DeNA 3.9 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.8 for culture and values and 4.2 for career opportunities.
According to reviews on Glassdoor, employees commonly mention the pros of working at DeNA to be career development, culture, benefits and the cons to be senior leadership, management.
