Profile of SturmtigerCobra

"One bad game away from the studio shutting down"
https://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Relic-Entertainment-Reviews-E533032.htm
I have been working at Relic Entertainment full-time
Doesn't Recommend - Negative Outlook - Disapproves of CEO

Pros

- Relic has a talented and hardworking engineering team that is the backbone for keeping Relic up and running.
- Reasonable annual bonuses have been provided even though the studio hasn't been profitable.
-Overtime isn't crazy for the most part outside of the necessary crunches before a milestone or game launch.
- Solid history of successful and well-known games in the back catalog.
- Good effort at promoting social events from the big events like Summer BBQ and Xmas Party and small ones like movie and gaming nights.
- Nice central location in Yaletown close to transit hubs and restaurants, but the office itself isn't great as there's always funky smells from the restaurants below and a lack of office perks like ping-pong, massage chairs and casual spaces.
Show Less

Cons

- There's a lack of career growth opportunities with no structure or guidance in place to help people advance their careers.
- Annual compensation increases for cost of living and inflation are very poor (around 1% or less each year)
- There's no great office perks or benefits to take advantage of aside from the gym membership discount.
- There's some serious cultural and people issues that need to be addressed (see advice below).
Show Less

Advice to Management

The Game Side
The RTS and Strategy genre is pretty much dead and unprofitable outside of a few titles like Total War and Starcraft. As a studio we need to evolve or die and unfortunately we haven't chosen to really evolve and make games that people want to play in this current market. We should take a very serious look at what the landscape for RTS and Strategy games are and assess if we have the right people and technology to create hit games.
The People Side
I think the biggest issue with our current leadership team is that we may have the wrong people in key decision making roles when it comes to the game's direction. We don't understand what gamers want and end-up over-analyzing what we think they want. There's no culture or support for speaking-up as a couple of people on a team will make decisions that everyone has to follow. This has led to a culture of distrust and apathy.
Advice
- Don't do these post-mortems and bring in experts if there's never going to be a proper follow-up or attempt to change and improve things. It frustrates the team when we do this big show around self-review and wanting to change and then never doing anything afterward. It's good to see that we're aware that there are problems that need fixing, but it's a real downer to see that we don't follow through at all with improving things.
- We need to look at a different system of developing games where the balance of power and decision making isn't placed on a couple of people who ignore team feedback and lead us down the wrong path. It caused a critical failure with Dawn of War 3 and it's now causing our next big game to be an epic failure as well because the team's opinions simply don't matter. It's insane that a couple of team members decide the entire direction of the game without any real effort to get input and buy-in from the team. This approach could work if we had the right visionary type people, but we don't - instead we have design leadership who are invisible, out-of-touch or who are extremely difficult to work with due to their arrogance and bully-like approach.

The Bottom Line
A lot of us love working at Relic and working with each other. But we're all honestly saddened by the direction the studio has taken over the past few years. It's clear we lack an identity, a positive culture and the right leadership to inspire and guide us forward. There is a heavy feeling in the studio that if and when our next big game releases and is a flop then it's game over for Relic. We're not going to get a 2nd or 3rd chance especially after the Dawn of War 3 fiasco. Talk to your people and really dig-in to what worries them and keeps them up at night. There will be a common concern that we simply aren't equipped with the right leadership to lead us to success.

Relic Entertainment Response Jan 15, 2018 – General Manager
Hey,

First, I want to say thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts, I really do appreciate it. Many of the points laid out here we’re aware of, but you’ve given me a lot to think about as well.

We’ve been growing a lot as we gear up for our new projects. This is a really great thing for the future of Relic, but with that comes growing pains as well. I totally hear where you’re coming from regarding the dynamic with your leaders and managers. I’m not happy that you (and likely other employees) feel that you’re not being heard. Our games are the product of each and every person in the studio and I don’t believe we can be successful if we aren’t listening.

Given that you’re a current employee, I have a favor to ask of you – keep the feedback coming! Speak up at our AMAs, we can go grab a quick coffee, or you can just send me an email. I always want to hear your thoughts, not only about the good things, but also where we can improve and if I’ve let you down. Especially if I’ve let you down.

I’m proud to work with some of the most talented people in the industry, and it really will take all of us to keep Relic great.

Justin

Gareth Edmondson joins Creative Assembly as COO - Formerly the managing director of Ubisoft Reflections and the CEO of Thumbstar, Edmondson will bring 20 years of industry experience to his new role as the COO of one of the UK's leading development studios. Edmondson replaces the outgoing COO Martin Servante, who has taken the role of Senior Vice President of Strategy, Business Planning & Development Services at Creative Assembly's parent company, Sega.

The other promotion sees Creative Assembly studio director Tim Heaton bumped up to executive vice president of studios. While he will continue to oversee the Total War studio, Heaton will also work with other studio directors within Sega Europe on best practices and studio collaborations.

When THQ went bankrupt and sold Relic to SEGA it was in a state of turmoil. The developer was deep into making Company of Heroes 2 and they had to ship this game in a matter of months. They were lacking a general manager to oversee the studio and this was causing problems across the studio.

SEGA asked one of their other studios, Creative Assembly, to help. Tim Heaton stepped up and began running both Creative Assembly in the UK and Relic over in Canada.

Writing in a post on Develop, Heaton says his first impression on visiting the Vancouver based studio was that “there was very little studio leadership.

Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook, has a disturbing warning about the social network: "God only knows what it's doing to our children's brains."

Day[9] addresses the misconception that some multiplayer game communities are overwhelmingly toxic, explaining the difference between people who initially enter a game with intent to be toxic, and those who are quick to return toxicity when prompted. He then goes on to explain the important "Rule of the Internet."

Riot Games wants you to behave yourself when you play League of Legends, so it’s turned the game into a virtual lab

Randy must prove he understands what it is to be a PC bro -- part of this week's Season Premiere episode "Stunning and Brave"