It’s fine but political and tiring - Publishing Marketing Riot Games Employee Review

3.0
Feb 21, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Beautiful campus, pay is good. As with most video game companies, the creativity in the campaigns makes it a more palatable corporate experience.

Cons

Everything beyond the creativity, good pay, and beautiful campus varies wildly by department. In publishing-marketing the quarterly review process has become more important than any other part of the job. The obsession with OKRs is tiring. Regional offices waste company money using smoke and mirrors to try and prove their value. A person can’t just work passionately and do a good job to be considered successful. They have to constantly re-prove their value over and over again from scratch, which leads to teams continually reinventing the wheel to show that their wheel is better than someone else’s, and regional offices inventing wheels no one needs, even if it’s not really a good idea to be changing the wheel in the first place. To further the analogy, imagine wheels on the roof of a car in case it flips over, or on a boat in case it ever needs to roll around the ocean floor. You have to try and impress higher ups with nonsense even if you know that something simpler or more logical would actually be better. Regional publishing-marketing is not connected to the global plan a lot of the time, and global higher ups are too afraid to take control, regional offices are scared to lose control, so things are messy and nonsensical. A job where you’re never at peace not because you’re challenging yourself, but because the higher ups are forever trying to out-do each other and regions are constantly circling the wagons to protect themselves even if it’s not in service to players or in the reality of a modern global market.

Explore other reviews about Riot Games

5.0
Mar 21, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Best games in the industry, top tier talent, solid pay, strong wlb and flexible organization. Lots of opportunities to drive impact and realize your vision.

Cons

Relationship based organization means that there's alot of meetings and some orgs are in a far worse state than others. Increased trend of layoffs.

2.0
Feb 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Ambitious company willing to take bold risks and invest in large ideas. It attracts strong talent from diverse backgrounds, and the people I worked with were generally humble, kind, and highly capable. The on-campus environment is especially supportive for early-career developers or those relocating, offering many opportunities to build community across teams. Benefits are competitive, including strong bonuses, generous matching, mental health support through online therapy, gym or fitness reimbursements, and charitable matching. There are also frequent morale-boosting and social events for those who enjoy a more active campus culture.

Cons

Limited growth opportunities and a significant gap in communication and transparency between leadership and individual contributors across multiple teams. Earlier in my time there, the culture encouraged psychological safety—asking questions and raising concerns was supported when goals or management styles were unclear. Following financial challenges, that culture noticeably shifted. I observed employees being discouraged or penalized for asking reasonable questions about timelines, and individuals were held responsible for missed deadlines despite approval bottlenecks caused by sudden and excessive micromanagement. Over time, trust eroded across teams and disciplines. I personally experienced an environment that felt unsafe and, at times, discriminatory. Attempts to address these concerns through HR were ineffective, as responses consistently aligned with leadership rather than focusing on rebuilding trust. Feedback from leadership was often delivered privately in ways that felt personal rather than professional. Employees who raised concerns with HR were later laid off, and much of the HR team departed shortly afterward. Overall, the experience was distressing, and based on this, I would not recommend the company as a workplace.

5
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