GREE International Entertainment Employee Reviews about "gree"

Pros

- Great offices - Lunch every day, dinner every night except for Fridays - $250/month transportation stipend - $400/year device reimbursement - 2% 401k matching - Well stocked kitchen and snacks - Good monthly parties and quarterly off-sites - Good pay (but no equity piece)

Cons

The last 3 reviews seem so glaringly fake that I felt compelled to write about the truth of the matter. GREE International is a company that is milking the last of it's cash cows. The company has done fairly well in the last 3-4 years in large part due to its $210M acquisition of Funzio. Funzio created a portfolio of addictive and profitable games that have been the majority of revenue but that is now beginning to decline rapidly as these games are really starting to show their age. User retention is falling and new user acquisition has been an uphill struggle for the last couple of years. The people who made these successful games are also all nearly gone. The 4 founders of Funzio left nearly a year ago and there has been a steady exodus of Funzio employees as their options have vested. Product pipeline is soft at best and there have been numerous delays for upcoming games. Several unreleased games were simply re-skins that crashed and burned during beta and never saw the light of day. Product portfolio isn't great but company culture, especially at the top, is even worse. A recent reorganization has brought in a megalomaniac leader (search Kabam's review 'What happened to this place?') who attempts to inspire but instead micromanages and drives fear throughout the organization. Decisions are made and changed with little to no warning with subordinates taking the fall while leadership blames and points fingers, despite the fact that subordinates did exactly what was asked. The other VPs are not much better. What many of them do on a day-to-day basis is a mystery to most people and most rank and file employees look at them with disdain. Promotions are given to those who pander to the execs the most, not to those who do the best work. This results in managers who often have an over-inflated sense of self worth and are completely clueless about the division/product they now run. The best skill you can have to succeed in this company is not product management, analytical reasoning, or design but rather how well you can navigate a treacherous corporate culture. Due to the lack of new games and the dependence on antiquated ones, the company is now at a point where revenue is monitored on a day-by-day basis and any sort of deviation below target is dealt with a scathing postmortem meeting and usually solved with an aggressive sale shortly thereafter. This is the start of a vicious downward cycle as revenue typically plummets post-sale which is then made up by another (you guessed it) sale. Players aren't stupid and end up buying only during sale periods which creates an incredibly spiky revenue profile and increasingly difficult to hit monthly targets. Because of the monthly pressures to meet revenue targets, product development is stifled as there is no breathing room to try new and innovative features; only optimize existing ones. Many people who are still working there are looking for a way out and the ones who are not are either new hires or content to ride the gravy train to the bitter end. As most people know, gaming is very much a hits driven industry. If the next couple of games do not knock it out of the park, it would not be surprising to see GREE have a mass layoff like DeNA (it's neighbor across the courtyard) within the next 9-12 months.

Pros

If you have the ambition and the ability to take on a challenge, GREE usually lets you do it. This makes it possible for talented people to rise pretty fast. Interesting technical challenges, learning how to write code to handle hundreds of thousands of players in a game at one time. Free catered food every day! Funny and talented co-workers. I like almost all the people I work with. Monthly company parties and team events. Great benefits.

Cons

Our games could be more original. The newer games are continuing to get more innovative though. Every desk is out in the open, so it can get noisy sometimes.

Pros

The front-line people working at GREE are great

Cons

Dishonest, clueless management. No concept of how to run an engineering org.

Pros

Smart and passionate people work at GREE International. The company attempts to offer a wide variety of of work/life balance options, which is a plus for job seekers in the ever-changing SF Bay Area marketplace.

Cons

With a handful of surprisingly durable "elder" mobile games on both iOS and Android platforms, GREE International struggles to find ways to leverage its talent in order to bring new, fresh, durable titles to market.

Pros

- The recruiters are great at their jobs - Device reimbursement - Transportation allowance - Free meals, snacks, and drinks - High salaries

Cons

- The recruiters are great at their jobs Perks and salary are the only good things about working at GREE. But even those are pretty standard in the Bay Area these days. I'd gladly give up all the perks for a company where I actually like what I do and the people I work with. Free meals? Yeah, you save a lot of $$, but you also never go outside or get a real break from the job. If you're looking to make a difference or a company that is innovativeIf you're looking to make a difference or a company that is innovativeIf you're looking to make a differa differa difference or a company that is innovative, steer clear from GREE. New ideas are basically ignored and there is no interest in what you think or say, unless you follow the status quo. While the people may be nice to your face, some teams are run via popularity contests and there are those who won't hesitate to throw you under the bus to save their own ass. And forget working things out; they'll tell you what you want to hear to your face and talk about you behind your back. It's like being in high school. Other than that, there is no culture at GREE. Due to numerous acquisitions, multiple companies have been thrown together, with no structure or interest in building one. Basically, there is Funzio and everyone else, and for some reason, the Funzio folks are being allowed to run the show. This leads to monotony, lack of imagination, and COMPLETE boredom, because all the games are based on an identical model and little to nothing deviates from that model. The only goal is to get get games done, not make them better. Don't believe me? Download and play their games. Or go ahead and work there. You literally won't have to use your brain, except to navigate all the politics and BS. It's astounding how many people are employed there with little to nothing to do, yet who all seem and claim to be busy. Money is literally being wasted every day and everyone thinks they know how to do everyone else's job. But it's also humorous how many people are so open about hating their jobs; seriously, it's not a secret that nearly everyone is looking to get out and not afraid to talk about it.

Pros

GREE has great benefitsgreat benefitsgreat benefits and perks - lunches and dinners daily, free snacks, free commuter benefits.

Cons

There is no work/life balance at GREE, and the company does not empower their employees to make decisions. Managers don't even have power to manage their teams properly, as all decisions appear to be made by the executives. There is lack of communication from upper management down to the employees. Performance reviews are a joke here since no one gets to know how well they do.