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    PlayStation Reviews

    Updated 13 January 2019
    613 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
    42 Ratings

    Employee Reviews

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    Pros

    • "Relaxed environment with great work-life balance" (in 57 reviews)

    • "A good mixture of corporate and relax work environment" (in 44 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 (US)
      Current Employee - Associate Production Manager in San Diego, CA (US)
      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. "Great place to work but not a great deal of opportunity to progress"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee

      Pros

      Great people, culture and generally a fun place to work

      Cons

      Not a lot of opportunity to progress and can end up pigeon holed in the industry. Generally systems and technology aren't at the level you would expect. Salaries and packages aren't at the level you would expect

      Advice to Management

      More attractive salaries and more opportunities to grow in the business would help retain staff

      3. Join the PlayStation team
      See Our Latest Jobs

    3. "Challenging & Frustrating"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Recommends
      Negative Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

      I worked at PlayStation full-time

      Pros

      Amazing products, world renown brand, great culture, fantastic people, great office location, constantly changing landscape.

      Cons

      There is a real lack of real leadership with constant changes in direction and strategy. Senior management tends to micromanage and does not allow staff to make critical decisions. Everything was run by committee having to go through 3 or 4 people to get a decision made.

      Advice to Management

      Stop micro-managing people and empower them to make decisions that they are employed to make.

    4. "Amazing organization!"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Francisco, CA (US)
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Francisco, CA (US)
      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

    5. "Group Manager"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Mateo, CA (US)
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in San Mateo, CA (US)
      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.

    6. "4+ years at SIEE."

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in London, England (UK)
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee in London, England (UK)
      Doesn't Recommend
      Positive Outlook
      Approves of CEO

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

      Pros

      Relaxed, friendly environment with potential to move to other departments easily.

      Cons

      No career progression, low salaries compared to similar roles elsewhere and very little personal development.

      Advice to Management

      Review salaries and provide career progression, to keep talented employees.

    7. "marketing manager"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Current Employee - Anonymous Employee
      Doesn't Recommend
      Negative Outlook
      Disapproves of CEO

      I have been working at PlayStation full-time

      Pros

      more than 25 days anuel leave
      big brand
      nice colluages

      Cons

      stupit culture
      working over time
      long distance

      Advice to Management

      no thing to say

    8. Helpful (8)

      "Great Brand, Great People, Poor Management"

      StarStarStarStarStar
      • Work/Life Balance
      • Culture & Values
      • Career Opportunities
      • Comp & Benefits
      • Senior Management
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in London, England (UK)
      Former Employee - Anonymous Employee in London, England (UK)
      Doesn't Recommend
      Positive Outlook
      No opinion of CEO

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

      Pros

      One of the coolest brands in the world and amazing products with a healthy financial outlook. Great people and working culture in EU.

      Cons

      Middle Aged White Men's club.
      A lot of management have been there more than 10 years and lacking diversity in both management style and ideas.
      How well you get on with your seniors more important than your output. Literally no performance management, have many examples of people coasting for years doing nothing.
      Trying to be a global company but nowhere near in terms of organising themselves wasting loads of resources and time.
      IT services in Europe stuck in 90s (example migrated from Lotus Notes to Outlook only 3 years ago!)

      Advice to Management

      Needs a shake-up in senior and middle management and a proper well-though global organisation.

    9. 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 (US)
      Former Employee - Senior Creative in San Mateo, CA (US)
      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.

    10. Helpful (5)

      "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 (US)
      Current Employee - Product Manager in San Francisco, CA (US)
      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.