A major head rush of a gig - Anonymous employee Riot Games Employee Review

5.0
21 Apr 2012
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Badassery in full effect! Riot focuses on hiring amazing people to tackle sweet projects and has a philosophy of making sure people have tons of autonomy to get things done. A core management principle of Riot's is to manage by goal-setting and holding people accountable for results (the ultimate result being player happiness). Another element of Riot's winning culture is the incredible focus on hiring talented people. I came here from a large developer and publisher of top games and I have seen Riot consistently pick the very best people out of my former employer with admirable precision. A third positive is Riot's Santa Monica location. I can walk to work, then hit nearby bars with colleagues before stumbling home. It's nice to be car-free for the most part. Santa Monica is gorgeous and awesome.

Cons

Growth has outpaced company infrastructure development. Small example: "emailpocalypse" of Feb 2012 in which email was disrupted for 2-4 days during an upgrade of email server infrastructure. This was the sort of infrastructure project that larger, more stable companies pull off easily. Big example: performance review system inadequacies are going to create major headaches unless addressed very soon. Now that executive management doesn't know everybody intimately (thanks to rapid growth), a fair, transparent system that works very well will be needed so that the mass of people hired over the last 18 months gets adequate coaching and career advancement.

Explore other reviews about Riot Games

5.0
21 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Passionate co-workers who are all hyper talented, amazing fringe benefits, work/life balance, dedicated managers to help you with your career, and passionate players to serve.

Cons

Egos are rewarded you have to be really good at self promotion, the company is so big that you can feel lost if you don't invest in networking often, layoffs happen at Riot now

4.0
1 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Player focus, some of the coolest games on the planet, Riot does a great job of creating an environment where people can succeed and thrive

Cons

Crunch is on the rise, fiscal discipline on exploration is still too loose, lots of layers of management

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