Terrible Work Environment Thanks to Upper Management - werkgeversreview Anonieme werknemer bij Freedom Games

Healthcare for US full-time time employees was great. Unlimited PTO. Remote Work. Social Environment. Freedom Games was once a promising force in the indie publishing space. They gave power to their seniors, which in turn gave power to their teams. For many months before November of 2022, the company was a blast.

Starting in November of 2022, Freedom Games began to under-compensate for their managerial needs. They brought on-board a technical director without proper experience at being a director. Friends with benefits, I guess. On top of this, the technical director had no prior experience with creating commercial video games. Now leading the technical teams at a commercial video game publisher, our team was wary. Despite plenty of opportunities to learn, they became defensive and began culling team members who stood against their directives. We were deceived about raises and compensation, as the technical director would promise us financial gain without first clearing it higher up. This led to several instances of late pay, missed pay, unpaid hours, and more. This technical director is the king of labor violations. We as the technical team were forced to work every weekend, or else we would be reprimanded. Our human needs were acknowledged, but never appreciated. Whether a family member was lost, a sickness inflicted, or a child born, the expectations were the same, no matter what they said. The other directors at the company contributed to the problem furthermore. They were often belligerent with teams and would strong-arm people into bending to their needs. There was an extreme lack of communication from the company, both internally and to external partners. Every team was isolated from one another, and never encouraged to share vital information. Through repeated efforts to improve the lives of our developers, who I personally have become very good friends with, and the repeated efforts to improve the workflow of the company, teams were fired. Advice was not heeded, and fingers were pointed at the advisor regardless. I cannot under any conscience recommend signing with or working for this company, unless your job will be extremely repetitive and specific. Then though, they would only replace you with an obsolete tool.

-my coworkers are the absolute best people I’ve ever worked with in any capacity and consider them all friends now -the developers I worked with were mostly all wonderful people and helping them achieve their dream of releasing a game is such an amazing and humbling experience. -unlimited PTO

Since November of 2022-they’ve averaged losing one employee per month. And with a company this small that kind of turnover is insane and speaks volumes about the company. They have hired people who within the first week have outright quit or begun looking for new jobs. All moral and social graces fall by the wayside in pursuit of leadership’s greed. Executive leadership are the kind of people who people who very firmly believe 2+2=5. Or 6. heck even maybe 7. But, definitely not 4. If you attempt to show them otherwise with facts, research, even outside articles? You’ll be reprimanded for giving pushback and will more than likely be called into a one on one w the CEO. There is no celebration of wins, but rather a hyper fixation on mistakes. They make decisions based off factually incorrect information that every employee will advise against. When that decision blows up in their face, execs will just say :” well, we’re experimenting. We’re learning.” And then try to blame an employee for the decision. Why will they make decisions based off factually incorrect information? Ego. They don’t want to admit they made a bad decision. They love to tout “extreme ownership.” But all that means is they have extra reasons to blame you for any failure. Even if it’s outside of your control. The execs here are the equivalent of a 7 year old wearing their dad’s pants, puffing out their chest, and pretending to be a big boy. It’s sad and we all see thru it. Freedom has only existed for 3 or so years and has already published 80+ titles. They even released 7 titles in one day. What does this mean for you as an employee? You will be overworked. Splitting your attention between at least 20 different games at one time. And if you complain about this, you will be questioned and told you obviously aren’t working correctly. :” why are you stressed? “ This is also a company that does not give raises nor cost of living adjustments. When the CEO was asked about raises after we were given our yearly goals, he said and I quote :” you know, raises aren’t always the best because it puts you in a different tax bracket.” Then he went on to say that they want to reward us in different ways like with the t shirts they had sent us the week prior. Let that sink in. They also have been late paying contractors…TWICE. Meanwhile, executive leadership will spend over $100k traveling to Gamescom, TGS in first class plane rides and lavish hotels. You will be talked down to. You will be gaslit. You will be underpaid. You will be overworked. You will be the most stressed you have ever been. You also will be asked to “stretch the truth” when dealing with devs. You will be even lied to by leadership. For work life balance, sure you have unlimited PTO. But you’ll get reprimanded if you don’t check your messages on the weekend. Or if the CEO replies to you on a Friday night at 10:30 pm, you’ll be reprimanded for not immediately responding back. Honestly I just feel depressed for all the developers that have signed their games to Freedom. There is no regard for games as art or for the well-being of the devs. Those developers deserve better. If you’re a developer reading this, you’re better off self publishing your title. If I could give zero stars I would. Avoid at all costs. I urge anyone reading to reach out to an ex-employee before interviewing with them or publishing your game with them.