Declining sandbox pioneers - Producer Fenris Creations Employee Review

2.0
22 Apr 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

What attracts people to CCP is EVE Online, as a game and as a unique, sandbox MMO design flagship. The people are friendly and the work environment used to be ambitious, free of politics and a good combination of working hard, partying hard. Company's grassroots culture reflects the ambitious and strong design vision. The company generally presents itself well towards the players, with honesty and as much transparency as it can. Tech talent especially is awesome.

Cons

Executive and senior management has been the failure point of CCP for years. Last years have been sadly a string of failed releases due to executive management's business decisions, and poor ability to support and provide experienced steering for the projects. In practice the same board that handles day-to-day operations from HR to Marketing has acted as the steering committee and purse strings for entire new game projects. Recent external executive hires are opposed to the company culture and game design. The dev staff is poorly supported by the processes and spread thin, compensated below industry average and still somehow manages to perform extremely well. Two big rounds of layoffs and studio closures have resulted from these systemic mistakes.

Explore other reviews about Fenris Creations

5.0
15 Apr 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good people work with and nice office.

Cons

too many meeting and panning

3.0
7 Nov 2012
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Talented, passionate people working there. Easy to make great friends. Fantastic folks to work with. A real love for making games that people want to play. Even when laying employees off, they provided a great deal of support in the process: HR went above and beyond to help place former employees where they could. Pay wasn't super-competitive, but benefits like the cantina are incredible.

Cons

Not enough trust given to the American employees. We had veterans who'd been in the field for a decade or more being told their experience didn't mean anything; they had to do things in accordance with the Reykjavik way. There was a distinct feeling of the Old Boys Club. Difficult to advance internally. Some positions had no job descriptions attached to them -- nothing outlining their responsibilities and skillsets -- for years. Management had difficulty accepting the possibility they might be wrong. The most heartfelt admission of making mistakes happened only when 20% of the company had to be let go. By then, it was too late.

5
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