Pros: Good benefits and social events

Cons: I joined Blizzard, even though it is an extremely low-paying company. Shortly after joining, I felt that the work environment was similar to that of a startup company. I had a difficult time working in the Battle.net client team because of the unorganized process and unsupportive team. Working at Blizzard comes with its own challenges.

Pros: Blizzard is far and away the best company in the game business. They allow their game teams enough time to make their games great before releasing them. Every single game they release is top-notch, and they are all hits. Crunch/overtime is minimal to non-existent. They pay well. They treat employees well. They don't have layoffs. The Irvine main campus has every perk you can imagine. If you want to work in the game industry, Blizzard is absolutely the gold standard. Other companies will rise and fall, but Blizzard has been at the top forever and will be there long after all the others fall to the wayside because they do things the right way.

Cons: The 401k matching is pretty underwhelming: a 25% match. I was disappointed with that, but I think that comes from the parent company (Activision-Blizzard) rather than Blizzard itself. It's in Orange County. The weather is great all year round, but it is a very conservative area, so that may bother some people. Within Blizzard itself, however, it feels much more progressive. And how often do you really need to know or care what the political beliefs of your neighbors are?

Pros: Great work-life balance. You work with people who are nerds about video games.

Cons: Not enough diversity. The company is working on it, but recent news would scare more candidates, I think. Not paying like MANGA (FAANG) so it's reasonable people leave.