"A stimulating company that focuses on quality of life over speed of production."
StarStarStarStarStar
Work/Life Balance
Culture & Values
Career Opportunities
Compensation and Benefits
Senior Management
Former Employee - Associate Designerin Austin, TX
Recommends
Neutral Outlook
Approves of CEO
I worked at BioWare full-time for more than a year
Pros
Food, comfort, and happy people. BioWare is a comfortable place to work and a happy environment. You must find a healthy place in the corporate structure where creativity is allowed to thrive and corporate needs are sheltered by strong leads. There are some really creative people at BioWare, and it is an absolutely amazing environment to wet one's feet or season one's skills.
Cons
The large corporate mogul of EA opens doors but closes independent thought. Only on the micro-level may creativity thrive, for revolutionary ideas that can be iterated on rapidly in a small company setting turn into months-long trudge of certification, documentation, and stagnation. Long "assembly-line" like production pipelines turn great ideas into watered-down results, quashing the desire for creativity into... production, as the outcome of both becomes identical.
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Advice to Management
Decrease employee turnover to perfect their skills instead of firing and re-hiring temporary workers. Eliminate work-flow pipeline issues by seasoning your people and unifying your technology. It should not take 6 months for a new designer to learn the ropes, and another 6 to master them. That's 4 and 8 months too long, where employees are gratuitously unproductive in comparison to seasoned veterans. On top of that,... the forced turnover rate eliminates many of the seasoned workers before they can share their wealth of accumulated knowledge, leading to a downward spiral of production that can only end in one way.
BioWare has a great work culture, especially considering it's in the infamously hard-working games industry.
The developers there are great to work with, and being under the Electronic Arts umbrella gives you access to teams across the world.
The teams across the BioWare studios all collaborate very well.
Some interns were given full, genuine projects to helm themselves from start to finish, as opposed to "intern... work" that people usually expect.
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Cons
Working under Electronic Arts can be demoralizing if you like to read public opinion.
If you're looking to put in a lot of passion and above-and-beyond effort into your work, not many of your coworkers will join you in that.
I worked at BioWare full-time for more than 8 years
Pros
The pay and benefits were good.
Cons
Most disorganized art department I've ever worked for. Incredibly stressful and cut-throat work environment.
Advice to Management
Listen to your team members when they bring up concerns and issues. Not only will it improve morale but it'll save money, improve the project and reduce turnover.
BioWare
Part of Electronic ArtsEmployee Review
"A stimulating company that focuses on quality of life over speed of production."
I worked at BioWare full-time for more than a year
Pros
Food, comfort, and happy people. BioWare is a comfortable place to work and a happy environment. You must find a healthy place in the corporate structure where creativity is allowed to thrive and corporate needs are sheltered by strong leads. There are some really creative people at BioWare, and it is an absolutely amazing environment to wet one's feet or season one's skills.
Cons
The large corporate mogul of EA opens doors but closes independent thought. Only on the micro-level may creativity thrive, for revolutionary ideas that can be iterated on rapidly in a small company setting turn into months-long trudge of certification, documentation, and stagnation. Long "assembly-line" like production pipelines turn great ideas into watered-down results, quashing the desire for creativity into... production, as the outcome of both becomes identical.
Show MoreAdvice to Management
Decrease employee turnover to perfect their skills instead of firing and re-hiring temporary workers. Eliminate work-flow pipeline issues by seasoning your people and unifying your technology. It should not take 6 months for a new designer to learn the ropes, and another 6 to master them. That's 4 and 8 months too long, where employees are gratuitously unproductive in comparison to seasoned veterans. On top of that,... the forced turnover rate eliminates many of the seasoned workers before they can share their wealth of accumulated knowledge, leading to a downward spiral of production that can only end in one way.
Show MoreOther Employee Reviews
"Great Work Culture in Games"
I worked at BioWare for less than a year
Pros
BioWare has a great work culture, especially considering it's in the infamously hard-working games industry. The developers there are great to work with, and being under the Electronic Arts umbrella gives you access to teams across the world. The teams across the BioWare studios all collaborate very well. Some interns were given full, genuine projects to helm themselves from start to finish, as opposed to "intern... work" that people usually expect.
Show MoreCons
Working under Electronic Arts can be demoralizing if you like to read public opinion. If you're looking to put in a lot of passion and above-and-beyond effort into your work, not many of your coworkers will join you in that.
"Lord of the Flies Management Style."
I worked at BioWare full-time for more than 8 years
Pros
The pay and benefits were good.
Cons
Most disorganized art department I've ever worked for. Incredibly stressful and cut-throat work environment.
Advice to Management
Listen to your team members when they bring up concerns and issues. Not only will it improve morale but it'll save money, improve the project and reduce turnover.
Discover more reviews about BioWare.