Late last year, an anonymous post from "ea_spouse" made public an important but oft-ignored issue in computer games development, that of quality of life. The post, which outlined some of the grave liberties the Canadian uber-publisher took (and continues to take) with its employees, ricocheted around the Web and mainstream newsprint. Quality of Life has since become a point of contestation at various conferences and has been addressed in the Independent Game Developer Association's Quality of Life white paper. To date, on paper and in practice not a lot has happened to tackle these issues, and ea_spouse has taken a backseat in the lore of over-worked industry circles.
Things may have received a kick thanks to a settlement reported by GamePolitics and GameSpot last week.
In June, two parties took EA to court, filing suit against its unhealthy and exploitative unpaid overtime work policy. While one is still contested, the results of the Jamie Kirshenbaum vs. Electronic Arts class-action law suit (detailed analysis here from GamePolitics - scroll down) was settled last Wednesday for $15.6 million.
EA can't ignore this, and other lesser publishers and developers will soon be forced to follow suit if practices don't change. Could this be the catalyst for action?
