Valve Ranks First for Most Desired Game Company to Work for

[Esmeralda Portillo]

Valve Ranks First for Most Desired Game Company to Work for

The 2014 IGDA Developer Satisfaction Survey listed Valve Software as the number one company developers would like to work for, above their own company.

If you ask the gaming community what companies they'd love to work at, Valve Software [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/valve%20software] earns a high ranking on the list. Well it turns out game developers share the same sentiment, preferring to work with Valve over creating their own company. The International Game Developers Association (IGDA) conducted a survey on 2,200 developers and found Valve took the number one slot for the question "What developer/publisher would you most like to work for?"

Valve is popular for its hit games such as the employee handbook [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/half%20life] was posted online and it detailed how employees have the ability to work on their preferred projects, have mobile desks, and it doesn't want its employees overworking themselves. Even in the timeline diagram of their history as a company the last bracket states "What's next? You tell us..."

Here is the top ten list of companies developers want to work at:

1. Valve
2. My own company
3. Activision Blizzard
4. BioWare
5. Ubisoft
6. Current employer
7. Nintendo
8. Naughty Dog
9. Double Fine
10. Bethesda Game Studios

According to a more detailed analysis of the survey [http://gameqol.org/most-desirable-video-game-employer/], Valve had 12.07% of the votes while "my own company" came in a very close second with 11.79%. It's a stark difference from Activision's and Blizzard's third place ranking of about 5 percent.

Source: GameSpot [http://www.gamespot.com/articles/valve-is-the-most-desirable-employer-in-video-game/1100-6421807/]

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[Nikolaz72]

In other news, 5% of developers are masochists. Either that or they're aiming specifically for the Blizzard part of Acti-Blizzard.

 

[GothmogII]

How'd Ubisoft get so high? For that matter why the eff is Double Fine near the bottom!

I guess the poll was anonymous, because otherwise anyone who answered anything other than "Current Employer" is sooo fired. x)

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Bungie's nowhere to be seen on that list. o.o That's craziness.

 

[Random Argument Man]

It's too bad for Blizzard they are with Activision. That third spot feels wrong?. like 50 shades of wrong.

 

[RicoADF]

In other news, 5% of developers are masochists. Either that or they're aiming specifically for the Blizzard part of Acti-Blizzard.

Or you know, perhaps Activision is a nice place to work at? There's a difference between what the fans and community think and what the employee's think. My friend's mother used to work for Activision and she enjoyed it alot (she was the person that managed supplying Australian stores with Activision's games), from an employee's point of view a large successful company like Activison is a desired job as it means you've got job security (as much as you ever can have).

 

[Callate]

How'd Ubisoft get so high? For that matter why the eff is Double Fine near the bottom!

Ubisoft actually has a pretty good reputation for communication within the company, and projects like Valiant Hearts suggest there's still room on their dockets for passion projects. They also haven't had any big fallings-out that destroyed internal teams, like Activision, nor major stories of spouses of people who worked there describing themselves as "widows", like EA.

Double Fine may make terrific games, but they're also still going to Kickstarter to fund them. What makes a company good to work for isn't just about the games they make but things like job security and stress. Working as a developer for a company comes with a different shopping list than buying or playing their games.

On that line, Valve is just about perfect- good working environment, financially sound, ability to get projects one feels strongly about into the queue, not having your family forget your name.

 

[EHKOS]

Not surprised at the last three, Nintendo seems like a toss up. Kinda scratching my head at Bioware, they're being choked to death by EA's tight leash. Personally, I'd pick ND, Bethsoft, or Obsidian. Sure they pick up pieces and deal with broken tools, but Obsidian does good work.

 

[Ferisar]

I'm laughing on the inside, because I know people are going to be oh-so surprised at "OMG, HOW IS MY FAVORITE DEVELOPER NOT ON HERE?". Guys, come on People like Acti-Blizz and Ubisoft are up there because they probably have stability and are big enough to have good workplaces. I doubt that many triple-A games house 100% staff full of quirky-creative-Ican'tstayseatedwithoutmakinganindiegame developers, they wouldn't work otherwise (obviously no offense meant to those types of people, I just doubt it's entirely feasible xP) Valve is probably a stand-out because their development process is so completely out there in comparison to most standard work-places.

 

[DaxStrife]

You know most of those voters for Valve just want to work there so they can find out what Valve is actually making these days.

 

[Something Amyss]

Pros: those who work on anything with a 3 in the title don't have to turn in any work.

Cons: death threats from people angry about the lack of 3s from your lazy coworkers.

You know most of those voters for Valve just want to work there so they can find out what Valve is actually making these days.

How else do you expect to find Episode 3?

 

[Nurb]

Because you make more money selling other people's games than spending it by making your own.

 

[FalloutJack]

Nope. Atlus isn't on there. They're an excellent company that I RARELY hear complaints about, if ever.

 

[Darklupus]

Nope. Atlus isn't on there. They're an excellent company that I RARELY hear complaints about, if ever.

Think they mean the American side of "The Most Desired Game Company to Work for?"

 

[Magmarock]

But games companies are supposed to make games right.

If I was able to chose I'd go for CD Project or Flying Wiled Hog. Because I like their philosophers as well as actually making games.

 

[Vigormortis]

Not really surprised, honestly. In fact the only thing I am surprised about is how small a margin Valve beat "starting your own company".

Well, actually no. There was something else from that survey that surprised me. Surprised me quite a lot, in fact.

Spoiler: And it was this:

According to the survey, Steam is widely consider the most important platform for future growth within the industry. Even beating out the explosively lucrative mobile markets.

Also of note was this portion of the survey:

There was also a lot of interesting information on diversity and perceived sexism within the industry; at all levels.

Anyone interested in reading more can find the survey results here:
https://c.ymcdn.com/sites/www.igda.org/resource/collection/9215B88F-2AA3-4471-B44D-B5D58FF25DC7/IGDA_DSS_2014-Summary_Report.pdf

 

[Strazdas]

I think the "current employer" skews the results a little, because for all we know 4% of respondents could be working for rockstar and just liking it there. Also "my own company" seems to be quite high, seeing how sucesfull indies were, so thats nice i guess. Of course the list is dominated by big studios, and no wonder - they got plenty of funding there and structure big enough to have job security and likely nice enviroment.

I'm laughing on the inside, because I know people are going to be oh-so surprised at "OMG, HOW IS MY FAVORITE DEVELOPER NOT ON HERE?". Guys, come on

Paradox made the list. all is well in life.

What the hell is "PC Online". There is no such platform.

 

[Saulkar]

What the hell is "PC Online". There is no such platform.

I am going to assume that it refers to online only (MMO) and browser based games, but that is only a guess. At the same time, I would definitely like to work at Valve. Probably work with their cutscene department, push the SFM development team for it to be the best that it can be.

 

[FalloutJack]

Nope. Atlus isn't on there. They're an excellent company that I RARELY hear complaints about, if ever.

Think they mean the American side of "The Most Desired Game Company to Work for?"

I dunno. Shouldn't it count because Atlus has a stateside branch?

 

[Monsterfurby]

What a horrible survey. Someone even replied 'THQ'. I'd like to call the methodology of this survey into question.