Hello. Interviewing for a “Game Services: Game system” role within Battle.net Curious what people in blizzard think of this org/team. I would be taking a pretty large pay cut, but I’m hoping that I could internally move to a game team (which would make that cut worth it to me). I know the recent news with Blizzard isn’t good whatsoever, but I love the games and if I can be a part of the change in culture, I would happily do so. Thanks TC: 160K YOE:1.5 years #gaming #blizzard
Activision pays very low; like lower than EA even (see levels.fyi) and definitely way lower than Amazon Games, Riot, Epic Games, Roblox, etc. Checks levels.fyi site and look at the pay scales. Compare it to other companies. Battle.net was an ok org when I was there. I know 2-3 employees that are pretty happy there although I suspect they just have no clue they are being paid way below market (ignorance is bliss and all). Due to the low pay and other factors, Blz-Austin has fairly high attrition lately. I mean- this company has a 2.8 Blind rating out of 5. That's really low. But if you cant find a better gig; gotta take what you can get. Out of all the jobs I worked at in the past I'd place Blz really low; if not the lowest. I was willing to overlook the games have mostly all gotten scummy (lootboxes) but besides that the culture felt a bit racist and backstabbing seemed the norm to climb the ladder
Do you think things are changing internally given the recent negative publicity? The reason I ask is that I was given a range of 180k - 218k TC for around 6 YOE, remote out of the ATX location. This seemed reasonable enough given the COL in Austin. I just wasn't sure if this was a glimmer of hope, or if I should pass.
@Amazon, That's pretty high for Blizzard. Never heard of them paying an eng that much. Don't want to pry- just going to assume you must be looking at management position. My buddy that works at Blz-Austin hasn't mentioned any internal changes but he's been doing a lot of work with the Irvine office. So his only complaint was about the pay. Maybe we both just got lowballed. That TC is still much lower than Twitch though. L5 top end hovers around 266k+ (equiv of mid). Twitch L6 (senior equiv) is typically around 330k+. But we dont have a ton of remote openings sadly. But our Irvine office is right by the Blizzard-Irvine Campus (10 mins drive or so). I know a lot of people have left lately from Blz-Austin for sure. They lost several top talent in past year (senior PM, tech director, two other directors, several ICs). But all that said, I do know a couple of folks are happy there. Hell, I was happy there before I switched teams. Should've stayed with my old team but it worked out in the long run. more than doubled my salary after I left
Blizzard seems to be ramping up their average pay in order to compete. There's been a massive rollover of upper management as well.This is bringing alot of change. My direct management has been listening more as well. I like it here. Lots of cool things going on. The shuffle of talent across the games industry has led to more opportunities within the company for older and newer artists alike. Lots of talented people are here that are great to work with. Just my two cents.
That’s great for artists! I was more curious about the engineering orgs like Battle.net. I’m sure things could look very different for different roles
One common thing in games is that the pay sucks :)
As long as you mean Game studios that's not Amazon Games, Riot, Epic Games, and Roblox then sure I'll give you a 👍 I know a guy at Amazon Games thats doing well (hes an IC)
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Not an answer to your question, but I'm curious to see if anyone has feedback. I also have an interview coming up for the Battle.net team. For what it's worth, the recruiter that reached out to me gave a very encouraging salary range that they are considering, especially considering that the role is remote and in Texas.