GameCo Reviews

TYPICAL STARTUP Management is more interested in riding the Fortress Investment Group venture capital gravy train than succeeding. High turnover even among c-level management. Advice and warnings from project managers and engineers are ignored in favor of quickly shoving broken products out the door in the hopes of making a quick buck. Hardworking people who want to see GameCo succeed are routinely fired because someone has to pay for management's ineptitude. Nothing is planned or made properly. Instead of fixing the platform and releasing a stable game, broken games are ported to additional platforms, introducing new platform-specific problems. For these reasons (and others) GameCo's Nevada field trial lasted at least 4 months longer than it should have--and this was prior to COVID. In March 2020 half the company was fired when GameCo ran out of money. Again. CEO IS A HUSTLER, NOT A LEADER A snake oil salesman living like a rock star on the company's dime; uses multiple names and even toured Europe for a month promoting games that already failed in America. I'm told he doesn't fly coach. Uses the lobby as his office because he wanted a private entrance, which allows people to wonder in off the street through the unlocked side entrance peddling everything from candy to staffing services. When people arrive for legitimate reasons they don't know where to go. Surrounds himself with yes men and enablers who have no interest in reining in his spending. Destroys anyone in his path to reach that next payday. If your salary gets in the way of his rock star lifestyle, expect a significant pay cut or furlough, as was the case in late 2017 until Fortress funding came through in mid 2018. During this period of hardship, CEO bought himself a $900 office desk with company funds; I guess Costco was out of $60 folding tables. He then repeatedly reminded us that he "agonized" over the state of the company. Habitually "forgets" meetings, calls, demos, interviews etc or schedules said months in advance then cancels the morning of; inconveniencing everyone except himself. Asks interviewees their age, which isn't technically illegal, but advertises his lack of integrity. Early in 2020, CEO was accused of collusion, IP theft and patent fraud, allegedly having stolen GameCo's tech from someone else. Shortly thereafter, employees received instructions to go to an address because "guys are researching some GameCo topics." Turns out these "guys" are one of the largest law firms in the country and employees were being duped into interrogations without defensive counsel. Late in 2020, both CEO and GameCo are under investigation by the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB). Financially irresponsible, deceitful and possibly incapable of remorse or empathy--little things that separate us from the animals. According to DSM-5 (The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), this combination of behaviors is potentially sociopathic. TOXIC WORK ENVIRONMENT Lies and deceit run so deep in GameCo culture that people are constantly looking over their shoulders, not sure who to trust. Mentions of bonuses, back pay and "more substantial increases to compensation" never pan out. Promises of a "personal development" stipend turned out to be a professional development stipend, not anything like what we were lead to believe. See review titled "Cool job but not worth the headache." When someone is fired, the HR email claims "the position has been eliminated," then a few weeks later, someone else is filling that position. No promotion from within and not much in the way of mentoring. MISAPPROPRIATED FUNDS Management incapable or unwilling to project realistic demand figures, and approximately 100 gaming machines were purchased before any orders were received, then sat in the warehouse for years. This contributed to the aforementioned period of furloughs and salary reductions. GameCo loves to pay licensing fees for brands then never use them. This includes TV shows, celebrities and existing video games. Monthly staff travel stipends were discontinued AFTER Fortress funding was received. Shortly after the Fortress funding, GameCo performed a completely unnecessary re-dress of their trade show booth. This involved photo shoots with models, photographers and rented props, re-printing the booth's fabric walls with the new pictures and shipping one of the CEO's cars across the country to appear in said pictures. The re-brand yielded pictures of people riding a room service cart, eating with their bare hands, jumping on a bed in their underwear, etc. GameCo became the laughing stock of the Global Gaming Expo (G2E) while CEO touted that the re-brand was "very well received." GameCo has no idea what it is or what it wants to be, and constantly attempts to go in too many directions at once. Nothing gets done because everything is top priority. GameCo spends money to R&D 5 hardware platforms while also trying to branch into iGaming, e-sports and table gaming. Shipped staff and gaming machines with half-finished software to a European trade show called ICE, where the games broke just like they do on the floors of American casinos. But you need a password to print in color, because ink is expensive...