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    PlayStation Reviews

    Updated February 12, 2019
    620 reviews

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    3.5
    StarStarStarStarStar
    Rating TrendsRating Trends
    Recommend to a friend
    Approve of CEO
    PlayStation President and Chief Executive Officer John Kodera
    John Kodera
    44 Ratings

    Employee Reviews

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    Pros

    • "The work life balance on my team is fantastic, and I get great benefits" (in 58 reviews)

    • "A good mixture of corporate and relax work environment" (in 45 reviews)

    Cons

    • "Work/life balance is a struggle" (in 20 reviews)

    • "senior management is incentivized to prioritize department performance over overall business performance" (in 26 reviews)

    More Pros and Cons
    1. Featured Review

      Helpful (4)

      "Excited to work every single day"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Associate Production Manager in San Diego, CA
      Current Employee - Associate Production Manager in San Diego, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I have been working at PlayStation (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      Work with amazingly talented people who are world-class at their craft and still down to earth.

      Cons

      Some times it can be a drag to get things done due to too many processes

      Advice to Management

      Keep hiring amazing people. Remove friction created unnecessary procedures

    2. "Awesome"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Current Employee - Software Engineer in San Francisco, CA
      Current Employee - Software Engineer in San Francisco, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at PlayStation full-time (Less than a year)

      Pros

      One the best areas to work at

      Cons

      You have to pay for your lunches

      3. Join the PlayStation team
      See Our Latest Jobs

    3. "Great place to play and work!"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Current Employee - Senior Software Engineer
      Current Employee - Senior Software Engineer
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at PlayStation full-time (More than a year)

      Pros

      Everyone seems passionate about contributing to both a fun product and a great place to work. The work life balance on my team is fantastic, and I get great benefits.

      Cons

      I don't have anything negative that is worth contributing here.

    4. "Group Manager"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Mateo, CA
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Mateo, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at PlayStation full-time (More than 8 years)

      Pros

      Great team, great benefits, great products.

      Cons

      Lots of cooks in the kitchen can lead to turgid processes. Great for people who like a firm solid base, but frustrating for those wanting to drive change and innovate.

    5. "Amazing organization!"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Francisco, CA
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Francisco, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at PlayStation full-time (More than 8 years)

      Pros

      By far the best place to work! Amazing, engaged team, great products, newest technology stack

      Cons

      Obviously, some of what we work on is confidential - so however much I'd like to explain what I do, I'm not able to discuss it

    6. Helpful (1)

      "Changes are not for the better"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Senior Project Manager in San Mateo, CA
      Current Employee - Senior Project Manager in San Mateo, CA
      Doesn't Recommend
      Neutral Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I have been working at PlayStation full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      - Competitive and plentiful benefits
      - Up to 3.5% matching for 401K
      - Easy going immediate coworkers
      - Flexibility of schedule from immediate management
      - Frequently Giveaways and Campus events
      - Free Game Content for select teams
      - Easy Parking
      - Lots of love for brand culture

      Cons

      - Lots of critical scrutiny from upper non-US based management
      - Lower than average wages for many positions
      - Many slacker teams
      - Not much visibility with the frequent reorganizations until after the fact
      - Poor career progression paths

      Advice to Management

      - Make the town halls less vague and more plan-driven based.
      - Provide more team-building opportunities for large teams
      - Build career-enhancing programs

    7. Helpful (1)

      "Great experience and made life long friends along the way"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Senior Creative in San Mateo, CA
      Former Employee - Senior Creative in San Mateo, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at PlayStation full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      The people I worked with. Be prepared to work hard but have fun at the same time. I worked at Playstation for about 5 years and I grew professionally and personally at this company. The pay was OK but there are plenty of benefits when working for a company like this. They have a great campus and the location is set not to far from the San Francisco airport.

      Cons

      There are some office politics that go on here. And I did see and experience some shady moves happen. But in a company or organization you will see it.

      Advice to Management

      Remain humble and keep doing great things.

    8. Helpful (9)

      "Great gamer culture, great growth opportunities, some shortcomings"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Product Manager in San Francisco, CA
      Current Employee - Product Manager in San Francisco, CA
      Recommends
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

      I have been working at PlayStation full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      - Great educational, medical and transportation perks
      - Great bonuses and employee discounts on PlayStation and Sony products
      - Lots of opportunities to travel overseas, particularly to Tokyo or London
      - Supportive leadership that lets employees explore different career paths and grow
      - Passionate coworkers who love gaming and are really into what they are doing
      - A low-conflict environment with a strong drive for consensus and respect
      - Agile development practices with continuous improvement, hackathons and quick adjustments based on lessons learned
      - Work from home opportunities in the U.S. and management focused on results, not attendance
      - A quirky and creative environment typical of the gaming industry
      - A company that encourages playing games at work
      - A very approachable CEO and most other top leaders
      - Lots of women in leadership positions, even in Japan (mostly up to Sr. Director level but also some VPs)

      Cons

      - Incompetence is sometimes tolerated indefinitely, true to the life-employment model of Japan
      - Managers frequently lack the most fundamental people management skills and don't know how to motivate their employees
      - Lack of open conflict leads to a lot of back-channeling, politics and having to read between the lines
      - In the Tokyo office, expectations about work hours are insane and no one can work from home, which leads to female workers still largely being forced to choose between having career success and being single, or having a decent but unimpressive job at PlayStation and having a family
      - The super-Agile style of the San Fransisco office frequently clashes with the Waterfall thinking of Tokyo
      - As of 2018, analytics is still not a big part of decision making and a lot of product managers are weak
      - Employee performance management is unpredictable and convoluted. There are no company-wide OKRs and it's hard to understand how performance goals are measured

      Advice to Management

      Focus on training your managers in people management skills, particularly if they manage people from different work cultures. Normalize work expectations across different regional offices to reduce bias, such as "everyone in San Francisco is lazy". Raise the bar for the Product Management organization and train your PdMs to be true product leaders. Stop protecting poor performers just because they have been with the company for a long time - it's bad for everyone's morale. Make VPs and Sr. Directors get out of their offices and talk to each other and their teams - they are not on the same page most of the time. Reduce hierarchical and cocky behavior in the London office, which is contrary to the spirit of PlayStation.

    9. Helpful (12)

      "bad place for women engineers!"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Senior Engineering Manager in San Francisco, CA
      Former Employee - Senior Engineering Manager in San Francisco, CA
      Doesn't Recommend
      Neutral Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at PlayStation full-time (More than 5 years)

      Pros

      company is doing pretty good. Decent salary and benefits.

      Cons

      Playstation is a horrible place for women engineers. All the directors, senior directors and vice presidents in SIE- SF engineering division are men.

      Advice to Management

      encourage women!

    10. "Great Place. Still lots of potential."

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee

      I have been working at PlayStation full-time (More than 10 years)

      Pros

      A great place to work.

      Cons

      Still lots of potential here.