EA addressing working conditions

Last month, Electronic Arts was hit by a wave of negative press that appeared shortly after GameSpot News reported the company was the target of a class-action suit seeking unpaid overtime. This was on the heels of a widely circulated blog entry from an angry "EA Spouse" that outlined the demanding hours and workload the publisher imposed on production and art staff.

The resulting fallout was severe. Stories in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, and Washington Post broadcast the alleged harsh working conditions at EA to the general public, including the investment and financial communities.

This week, an internal e-mail, allegedly sent to all staff from EA senior vice president of human resources Rusty Rueff, began to surface at a number of game-enthusiast sites. Today, its authenticity was confirmed to GameSpot by the company's corporate communications division.

In the memo, Rueff admits EA has been asking a lot of its employees. "As much as I don’t like what’s been said about our company and our industry," he said, "I recognize that at the heart of the matter is a core truth: the work is getting harder, the tasks are more complex and the hours needed to accomplish them have become a burden. We haven’t yet cracked the code on how to fully minimize the crunches in the development and production process. Net, there are things we just need to fix."

Rueff's e-mail went on to say how addressing long hours has become a priority at the company: "We’ve started a Development Process Improvement Project to get smarter and improve efficiency. Just as we have revamped the Pre-Production process, we are now creating a Product Development Map that will provide earlier decision-making (on SKUS and game features), improve our consistency of creative direction, and lessen the number of late in the process changes, firedrills, and crunches. We will be rolling these changes out over the next year."

Reuff also said the company is "looking at reclassifying some jobs to overtime eligible in the new Fiscal Year." Electronic Arts' new fiscal year does not begin until April 1, 2005.

Some insiders speculated that the e-mail may have been leaked to demonstrate to the public that EA was addressing the subject of overworked staff and overtime hours. However, EA denied having leaked the e-mail intentionally.

Responding to the leaked memo, Jason Della Rocca, program director for the International Game Developers Association, a nonprofit group devoted to education and bettering the working conditions of game developers and creators, told GameSpot, "It is encouraging to see [Electronic Arts] respond, if only 'meant' for internal eyes."

Elaborating on what tangible good may come of EA's efforts, Della Rocca said: "While some will focus on the notes of overtime pay and exemption rules, etc., the truly significant bits are the plans to improve the production process and emphasize early prototyping and iteration (when the cost of change is almost nil). As the IGDA has noted, quality of life issues are symptomatic of more fundamental problems within the industry, and only through addressing the root issues head on will we ever hope to change. The entire industry has a great deal to learn from this whole process."

Whether or not the e-mail was intentionally leaked, few will argue the company needed to take action. "Given the media attention and concern within the community," Della Rocca said, "status quo was simply not an option."