GREE International Entertainment Reviews

Pros

Great place to work travel

Cons

Management need to listen to team

Pros

I joined a couple months ago and so far really impressed with everyone I've worked with at all levels. High integrity, great intellectual curiosity, respect for varied opinions and commitment to trying different things until they get things right. There's been a lot of transition but people seem to be embracing the opportunity to work faster and drive improvement in how things get done. There is a lot of support for exploring new ideas and growing people internally into new roles they are interested in. In the time I've been on the team two people have already moved roles based on their passions. Office space is really nice with lots of perks. Lunch every day, dinner four days a week, boundless snacks, lots of light, good location for access to parking & transit by AT&T park.

Cons

If you're comfortable in a static environment this may not be for you. Mobile dev & marketing require flexible thinking and fast decision making in a lot of new and evolving situations. If you prefer predictability in a static industry consider somewhere else. The office is also definitely on a dev-style schedule with few people in before 9:30 our out before 5:30 which could be a hurdle for some people (although individual managers do seem open to flexible schedules).

Pros

Free snacks and drinks, catered lunches and dinners, fun and smart coworkers, somewhat flexible hours, loosely tracked PTO (for engineers anyway). Good benefits. Fine compensation. Despite the cons listed, COO Andrew Sheppard seems to have turned the company around financially with the layoffs.

Cons

The company restructured so often that by the time we got used to one we would have another coming up (this practice may have changed). The games were mostly clones of other games and each other and designed to extract cash from rich people (aka whales) via pay-to-win mechanics, not to actually be fun, which didn't feel very fulfilling to work on. Everyone was waiting on promotions they deserved long ago. COO Andrew Sheppard is not a gamer and doesn't care about games, and after laying off large chunks of the company, filled the ranks with his former Kabam buddies. Our customers really didn't seem to like us.

Pros

There are some very talented and highly competent people working together on some great teams. While this might not apply company wide, I have been fortunate to learn a lot and have an impact despite coming to the company with little experience in gaming. Business intelligence and analytics is very strong and executives have had to make tough decisions to reorganize and cut some games. For some, this may seem like the company lacks direction but it is actually intelligent, calculated business strategy as far as I can tell. The ex-Funzio team really drives the organization and it is a good sign that many are so adaptable. The company also invests a great amount of time improving and optimizing the game after it is launched and the results show.

Cons

Making hard decisions along with acquisitions and reorganizations leaves some people jaded. This also contributes to significant turnover rate. With the size of the company and constant changes, politics inevitably comes into play for some promotions. Some people have been put in roles that don't really make sense or seem redundant. There is often a large disparity in how much people work and the impact they have.

Pros

Device reimbursement Free Lunch and Dinner Well stocked kitchen

Cons

The dinner was moved to a later time, after public transportation has slowed, to encourage working later hours. Execs do not seem to care about non-Exec suggestions. We build what we're told and we have no say it's development. Any new game idea is battered and beaten until it is a shadow of it's original self and is then killed off because of "other priorities". Those other priorities are always the game ideas produced by the execs themselves. Funzio runs the show now. The studio isn't fun anymore. Innovation has been completely stifled. The only tech allowed to be used is Funzio tech. There is a very clear cut separation between Funzio people and GREE people. Culture has been completely demolished. If you're not on the Funzio side, you won't move up the ladder. Funzio people get special treatment. New hires are placed on Funzio teams.

Pros

Great , bright , smart people Fast paced, hot industry , leader n mobile space Lovely China Basin offices Decent perks and overall benefits

Cons

Culture Lack of clarity of vision or communication from exec mgt about where the company is headed beyond the next acquisition HQ is in Tokyo, autonomy for the US office is hard won

Pros

Good benefits including health, dental, vision, 401k, device reimbursement

Cons

The people who made this company successful have all left. I have worked here for over 3 years and have only seen one game actually made (that was over 2 years ago) with at least 10 games canceled. Everything else was either acquired or developed by another company and published by GREE. Following the massive layoffs, morale has been extremely low. At least 2 people quit each week, and have been doing so for months. Nearly everyone who is still there is looking for a new job. Management (who is very new) makes no attempt to hide the disgusting amount of nepotism going on as they publicly discuss who to hire from the company they just left to replace people who were recently laid off. Interviews are simply formalities, whether the person is qualified or not has nothing on whether or not they are friends with the hiring manager. There is zero growth opportunity, and it seems the goal has shifted from being a game developer to becoming a game publisher as they've all but given up. I would not be surprised if this place shuts down within a year.

Pros

You can build your career. After having worked for couple of years, I have learnt how to build highly scalable, resilient and highly performant systems. Sr. engineers and leads on the team coach and mentor jr. staff really well. Almost all teams follow improvised SCRUM development model. Good work/life balance. Its a decent mid-size company. Company is doing its best to keep the start-up culture alive. They have hackathons every 3-4 months where engineers get to work on stuff they like to build.

Cons

There are some strong personalities and you need to know how to work around them.