Frat boy humor, political thunderstorms, and undue penalties. - Anonymous employee Red 5 Studios Employee Review

1.0
Jun 12, 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

They are a super laid back company. I mean drinking at 10am on Monday through Fridays laid back.

Cons

Management. All upper management seems to care about is... not sure what they care about. Milestones are set but never achieved. No penalties for missing deadlines, no penalties for not working, but also no rewards for working. This is a classic company where 10% of the employees do 100% of the work. CEO is always missing in action. Employees are fired not for messing up, but for offending the CEO. In fact, as long as you're in good standing with the CEO, your job will be protected. Rumor has it that the CEO hired a friend with only experience working in a coffee shop with no technical experience or education to fill the role of a platform designer. The current game in development has been developing for the past 7 years and is barely starting open beta in 7/2013. Of course, open beta dates have been tossed around in prior years only to be continually pushed, so it would not be surprising if they push the date again.

Explore other reviews about Red 5 Studios

5.0
May 21, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great team atmosphere Good Management There is very good communication between CM and the players, Management gets loads of feedback from the forums and from in game. All employees here are friendly, charismatic and hard workers. It is very easy to get along with the Tribe, both Management and Developers are focused solely on one goal and thats to make Firefall great again. It really did make you want to come into work everyday

Cons

Pay isn't the greatest but with such a nice atmosphere it isn't too much of a problem CEO is quite hard when he wants things done, does ask for changes when we are half way through stuff.

1
1.0
Feb 8, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Despite all the negative aspects, there are a handful really great and hard-working individuals at Red 5 that are genuinely passionate about making a great game.

Cons

Hostile Work Environment: Because of the current development hierarchy/ structure, and a huge lack of management and leadership. the company environment/ atmosphere has literally become the wild west. (Cliques often form, quite often employees are left to their own devices, there is widespread company politics/backstabbing and practically close to no accountability for poor performance or unprofessional behavior.) Cliques/Favoritism/Politics: One case in which a particular group of employees went around on witch-hunts and singled out particular coworkers who didn't agree with their viewpoints. They would proceeded to bully particular individuals through verbal confrontation/harassment, and belittling/slandering their reputation during work hours and off. (Upper management often batting a blind eye to this because they viewed it as "motivation"/ an easier way to get results.) No HR Department: Upper management are often negligent and apathetic to your needs if they are not considered helpful/constructive to them or the project. Project Vision/ Direction constantly in flux: Even after 7 years of development, the project is still literally redesigned/ overhauled from scratch every few months. Upper-management have flat out refuse to recruit any producers: A good number of employees are on constant crunch-time with no end in sight because of this and a complete lack of a stable production pipeline and workflow. Very steep task/feature deadlines are made constantly and on the fly. A constant fear and doubt looming over you in regards to job security and the financial stability of the company.

5
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