Electronic Arts Internal Practices Exposed

[Veldor]

The following has been recently circulating on the net, generally sponsering feedback in the high hundreds and over 4000 on one particular forum. I apologize if everyone's already seen it, I just read it and was thinking.... If this doesn't make you buy Maximum Football over the next Madden... Then nothing will...

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My significant other works for Electronic Arts, and I'm what you might call a disgruntled spouse.

EA's bright and shiny new corporate trademark is "Challenge Everything." Where this applies is not exactly clear. Churning out one licensed football game after another doesn't sound like challenging much of anything to me; it sounds like a money farm. To any EA executive that happens to read this, I have a good challenge for you: how about safe and sane labor practices for the people on whose backs you walk for your millions?

I am retaining some anonymity here because I have no illusions about what the consequences would be for my family if I was explicit. However, I also feel no impetus to shy away from sharing our story, because I know that it is too common to stick out among those of the thousands of engineers, artists, and designers that EA employs.

Our adventures with Electronic Arts began less than a year ago. The small game studio that my partner worked for collapsed as a result of foul play on the part of a big publisher -- another common story. Electronic Arts offered a job, the salary was right and the benefits were good, so my SO took it. I remember that they asked him in one of the interviews: "how do you feel about working long hours?" It's just a part of the game industry -- few studios can avoid a crunch as deadlines loom, so we thought nothing of it. When asked for specifics about what "working long hours" meant, the interviewers coughed and glossed on to the next question; now we know why.

Within weeks production had accelerated into a 'mild' crunch: eight hours six days a week. Not bad. Months remained until any real crunch would start, and the team was told that this "pre-crunch" was to prevent a big crunch toward the end; at this point any other need for a crunch seemed unlikely, as the project was dead on schedule. I don't know how many of the developers bought EA's explanation for the extended hours; we were new and naive so we did. The producers even set a deadline; they gave a specific date for the end of the crunch, which was still months away from the title's shipping date, so it seemed safe. That date came and went. And went, and went. When the next news came it was not about a reprieve; it was another acceleration: twelve hours six days a week, 9am to 10pm.

Weeks passed. Again the producers had given a termination date on this crunch that again they failed. Throughout this period the project remained on schedule. The long hours started to take its toll on the team; people grew irritable and some started to get ill. People dropped out in droves for a couple of days at a time, but then the team seemed to reach equilibrium again and they plowed ahead. The managers stopped even talking about a day when the hours would go back to normal.

Now, it seems, is the "real" crunch, the one that the producers of this title so wisely prepared their team for by running them into the ground ahead of time. The current mandatory hours are 9am to 10pm -- seven days a week -- with the occasional Saturday evening off for good behavior (at 6:30pm). This averages out to an eighty-five hour work week. Complaints that these once more extended hours combined with the team's existing fatigue would result in a greater number of mistakes made and an even greater amount of wasted energy were ignored.

The stress is taking its toll. After a certain number of hours spent working the eyes start to lose focus; after a certain number of weeks with only one day off fatigue starts to accrue and accumulate exponentially. There is a reason why there are two days in a weekend -- bad things happen to one's physical, emotional, and mental health if these days are cut short. The team is rapidly beginning to introduce as many flaws as they are removing.

And the kicker: for the honor of this treatment EA salaried employees receive a) no overtime; b) no compensation time! ('comp' time is the equalization of time off for overtime -- any hours spent during a crunch accrue into days off after the product has shipped); c) no additional sick or vacation leave. The time just goes away. Additionally, EA recently announced that, although in the past they have offered essentially a type of comp time in the form of a few weeks off at the end of a project, they no longer wish to do this, and employees shouldn't expect it. Further, since the production of various games is scattered, there was a concern on the part of the employees that developers would leave one crunch only to join another. EA's response was that they would attempt to minimize this, but would make no guarantees. This is unthinkable; they are pushing the team to individual physical health limits, and literally giving them nothing for it. Comp time is a staple in this industry, but EA as a corporation wishes to "minimize" this reprieve. One would think that the proper way to minimize comp time is to avoid crunch, but this brutal crunch has been on for months, and nary a whisper about any compensation leave, nor indeed of any end of this treatment.

This crunch also differs from crunch time in a smaller studio in that it was not an emergency effort to save a project from failure. Every step of the way, the project remained on schedule. Crunching neither accelerated this nor slowed it down; its effect on the actual product was not measurable. The extended hours were deliberate and planned; the management knew what they were doing as they did it. The love of my life comes home late at night complaining of a headache that will not go away and a chronically upset stomach, and my happy supportive smile is running out.

No one works in the game industry unless they love what they do. No one on that team is interested in producing an inferior product. My heart bleeds for this team precisely BECAUSE they are brilliant, talented individuals out to create something great. They are and were more than willing to work hard for the success of the title. But that good will has only been met with abuse. Amazingly, Electronic Arts was listed #91 on Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" in 2003.

EA's attitude toward this -- which is actually a part of company policy, it now appears -- has been (in an anonymous quotation that I've heard repeated by multiple managers), "If they don't like it, they can work someplace else." Put up or shut up and leave: this is the core of EA's Human Resources policy. The concept of ethics or compassion or even intelligence with regard to getting the most out of one's workforce never enters the equation: if they don't want to sacrifice their lives and their health and their talent so that a multibillion dollar corporation can continue its Godzilla-stomp through the game industry, they can work someplace else.

But can they?

The EA Mambo, paired with other giants such as Vivendi, Sony, and Microsoft, is rapidly either crushing or absorbing the vast majority of the business in game development. A few standalone studios that made their fortunes in previous eras -- Blizzard, Bioware, and Id come to mind -- manage to still survive, but 2004 saw the collapse of dozens of small game studios, no longer able to acquire contracts in the face of rapid and massive consolidation of game publishing companies. This is an epidemic hardly unfamiliar to anyone working in the industry. Though, of course, it is always the option of talent to go outside the industry, perhaps venturing into the booming commercial software development arena. (Read my tired attempt at sarcasm.)

To put some of this in perspective, I myself consider some figures. If EA truly believes that it needs to push its employees this hard -- I actually believe that they don't, and that it is a skewed operations perspective alone that results in the severity of their crunching, coupled with a certain expected amount of the inefficiency involved in running an enterprise as large as theirs -- the solution therefore should be to hire more engineers, or artists, or designers, as the case may be. Never should it be an option to punish one's workforce with ninety hour weeks; in any other industry the company in question would find itself sued out of business so fast its stock wouldn't even have time to tank. In its first weekend, Madden 2005 grossed $65 million. EA's annual revenue is approximately $2.5 billion. This company is not strapped for cash; their labor practices are inexcusable.

The interesting thing about this is an assumption that most of the employees seem to be operating under. Whenever the subject of hours come up, inevitably, it seems, someone mentions 'exemption'. They refer to a California law that supposedly exempts businesses from having to pay overtime to certain 'specialty' employees, including software programmers. This is Senate Bill 88. However, Senate Bill 88 specifically does not apply to the entertainment industry -- television, motion picture, and theater industries are specifically mentioned. Further, even in software, there is a pay minimum on the exemption: those exempt must be paid at least $90,000 annually. I can assure you that the majority of EA employees are in fact not in this pay bracket; ergo, these practices are not only unethical, they are illegal.

I look at our situation and I ask 'us': why do you stay? And the answer is that in all likelihood we won't; and in all likelihood if we had known that this would be the result of working for EA, we would have stayed far away in the first place. But all along the way there were deceptions, there were promises, there were assurances -- there was a big fancy office building with an expensive fish tank -- all of which in the end look like an elaborate scheme to keep a crop of employees on the project just long enough to get it shipped. And then if they need to, they hire in a new batch, fresh and ready to hear more promises that will not be kept; EA's turnover rate in engineering is approximately 50%. This is how EA works. So now we know, now we can move on, right? That seems to be what happens to everyone else. But it's not enough. Because in the end, regardless of what happens with our particular situation, this kind of "business" isn't right, and people need to know about it, which is why I write this today.

If I could get EA CEO Larry Probst on the phone, there are a few things I would ask him. "What's your salary?" would be merely a point of curiosity. The main thing I want to know is, Larry: you do realize what you're doing to your people, right? And you do realize that they ARE people, with physical limits, emotional lives, and families, right? Voices and talents and senses of humor and all that? That when you keep our husbands and wives and children in the office for ninety hours a week, sending them home exhausted and numb and frustrated with their lives, it's not just them you're hurting, but everyone around them, everyone who loves them? When you make your profit calculations and your cost analyses, you know that a great measure of that cost is being paid in raw human dignity, right?

Right?

[zowee77]

I think one can sum this up by saying the bigger the corporation the more the programmers as well as all other personel get done over (Example Sierra with FBPRO). That is why we need to support people like David Winter and Matrix Games because they break the mold not the usual corporate (suits) involvment where they do not care about their programmers, designers and especially their consumer base.

I think with EA this comes as no surprise anyone who has followed football gaming over the past 15 years will note that they have always been a huge contributer to football arcade gaming. This of course appeals to some people but most people who support Maximum Football are glad to see someone who is supporting more statistical oriented football versus just picking up a joystick and playing a console or arcade game. EA has for a long time been deserving of a independant programmer challenging their sports product line and I think where football is concerned they are about to meet their competitor especially in the PC market where we have needed a game that can have a complete statistical model as well as the 3D graphics to add to the realism.

[IainMcNeil]

I dont think they work any harder in the bigger companies, its just they feel like a smaller cog in a bigger wheel. When we were finishing Dune 2000 for Westwood we were working at Intelligent Games, an independent UK developer. We ate dinner at work every day and just slept when we got home at night. This lasted for 9 months from memory. Life consisted of get up eat, go to work, eat, come home, sleep. We didn't get a penny in over time. It was not a fun time in my life!

It wasn't really IG's fault directly as the demands for more work with no more money came from the publisher. IG has gone bankrupt now so you can see they were not making huge amounts of cash. The industry is young and there are lots of people expliting and being exploited. People almost expect to have to go through this baptism of fire. Hopefully it will sort itself out sooner rather than later.

We try to keep things at a much more constant level. We try to avoid the crunch as much as possible but work harder the rest of the time. As we're developing our own games and have no major marketing deadlines to hit we've got a lot more freedom, which allows us to work this way.

[zowee77]

I commend independant designers in this market it is taking a great chance in order to succeed. My experience in being a programmer is somewhat different since I have never been a game designer but I think anyone that works for a major company that is a programmer (like myself) at somepoint can say that the deadline can be tedious especially if it is a product in high demand or a product that carries a license and you are trying to keep that release date in order to fulfill an agreement.

[Hexed Gamer]

Well initially a person might ask, but, how much were you getting paid to slave away all those hours.

But the truth is, no amount of money can replace the unreplacable.
Humans have actual time oriented needs that no amount of money will wash away.

It's usually the big companies that are worse, but it isn't like the little ones can't be run by equally greedy little slugs.

It all comes down to greed, nothing more than greed.

I didn't read the whole article, I couldn't.
I have told my son many times though, learn a good efficient education. Because when he is 19-21, he will be deciding if he wants to be the over worked employee, or the guy that employs the over worked employee.

Occasionally a long day happens. Just so long as it is a fluke.
I have in the past been in my shop from morning till way past dark. I was merely to engrossed in what I was doing.

But no matter what the job, factory line, computer console, retail whatever, don't ever expect me to work for you beyond an 8 hour day 5 days a week without you dipping into your pockets to make it worth it.
And forget your pocket if you expect overtime to be more than a fluke.

Any business that can't survive without "expending" it's workers, is either run by a greedy swine, or is run by an inept fool, or both.

[riverbravo]

Welcome to the big time.[8|][;)]

I know all about salary pay and crunch time[:@]

It sounds like wage slavery to me....but thats just me.

[IainMcNeil]

I was on around £25,000 at the time, I think. I was team leader for a 6-10 man team (I forget!).

[Pippin]

As someone who has friends working at EA I have been well aware of the conditions there for years. However I find it amusing how only EA seems to be in the hot-seat all of a sudden. They are not the only one who operates in this manner. Most console game companies have taken suit with these kinds of working conditions. God I could name you 20 friends who dropped out to seek a career change because it just is un-acceptable to them just in my town alone.

The problem is, every kid and his pet dog wants to work on games, especially console games. Companies know this, they get unlimited resumes a day. They also want people who will work 24/7, it comes down to money in the end. If you don’t want to put up with it, too bad, there is always someone else willing to take your place. I myself am trying to seek a decent career change as well, and when I’m out I don’t ever want to get back in. I’ve seen enough.

[rhondabrwn]

I'm not surprised. As was pointed out above, it's a buyer's market in game programming / design talent. I think that is the real problem.

Back when SPI was cranking out board wargames, they burned the midnight oil and worked like dogs, but the game developers and designers were respected, it was a group effort, and had lots of satisfaction from the finished product. Individual's names were liked with the products they worked on and reputations were made. SPI was like a family of familiar faces, many of whom I still recognize today when they appear on television as military analysts... Jim Dunnigan, David Isby, Al Nofi.. familar faces all.

SPI didn't burn up their crews with each project and then replace them.

It's too bad that a "fun-based" activity like gaming has turned into a vicious, cut-throat industry. That is one reason why I really, really go out of my way to support independents like Matrix and support specific designers like Gary Grigsby (my 1st computer game was "Guadalcanal" on my Apple II Plus), Sid Meier (who has his stories to tell about corporate backstabbing), and John Tiller (Battleground series - one of my favorites of all time).

So... support the independents or all you will ever have in the future is an EA style behemoth shipping endless cookie cutter games on the backs of poorly paid (probably overseas) programming and production deveopment talent.

[old man of the sea]

Well,

Having been in the big time with Microsoft, 360 Pacific (same management that is at EA now), Mattel, SSI, and Avalon Hill, all I can say is "SO?"

There is nothing fun, glamorous, or rewarding about making electronic games. Too much work, not enough money, bosses that tell you one thing and do another, hey, it is all part of it. 14 years later would I not have done it? No, I would still, and am still in it. Will I quit anytime soon? I doubt it.

E

[Hexed Gamer]

Glamour is something that happens to celebrities.

Work is something that happens to employees.

Money is usually something that happens to owners if they have any real brains.

I worked for an architect once. Interesting work. Really.
But in the end, I made the model, he made the cash.
You don't think I was getting any of the 60 thousand bucks he got for an average office tower model do you?
I got to work, and I paid an atypical wage, and it wasn't much.
The contract would walk in and say they changed their minds and wanted the outer wall a different colour.
So I got to make it a different colour.
Again.

Now that ain't computer work, but the arrangement is the same.
You work, they make money.

Around 93, I realised I was through working FOR people.

I'm a retired cabinetmaker these days.
When I have the energy, I make things.
If I had my health still I would be running a woodworking business.

Not easy running a business though. When you run it into the ground, it's over. You're not fired. It's just over.

If you don't like your work, don't do it.

[Veldor]

The IGDA (International Game Developers Association) published this recently. Its about the closest thing out there to a "union" for game developers. Note their assessment and choice picks for those companies out there that ARE treating their employees fairly:

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Open Letter - November 16, 2004

Quality of Life Issues are Holding Back the Game Industry

Despite the continued success of the games industry, the immaturity of current business and production practices is severely crippling the industry . The recent frenzy of discussion over impassioned testimony about the horrible working conditions within much of the industry attests to the reality of this often unspoken disease.

As the professional association that unites the game development community and serves as its voice, the International Game Developers Association is deeply disturbed by this vicious cycle and is working to better the situation. Improving the quality of life of game developers is an IGDA priority.

In tackling quality of life issues, it is important to realize that poor quality of life is symptomatic of more fundamental challenges within the industry (e.g., consolidation, ever-evolving technology, one-sided contracting, lack of project management expertise, no craft/job standards, etc), which in turn all need to be addressed in order to truly improve our work/life balance.

What's more, game developers are sometimes just as much to blame for submitting themselves to extreme working conditions, adopting a macho bravado in hopes of “proving” themselves worthy for the industry. Our own attitudes towards work/life balance and production practices need to change just as much as the attitudes of the “suits.”

For those who are looking to unionization as an option, it is important to note that the IGDA is not a union and cannot “become” one: the IGDA is incorporated as a non-profit professional association, which has a distinct role from that of a union. Further, as an international organization, the localized nature of unions (i.e., often requiring state by state and country by country solutions) is beyond our organizational scope.

It is unfortunate that it has gotten to the point of engaging in class action lawsuits. While some industry workers choose such legal means to gain retribution, the IGDA believes that a conciliatory approach is also an option.

The reality is that there are game companies that have proven that a focus on quality of life can lead to great games, AND business success: BioWare, Firaxis, Team17, Blue Fang, Cyberlore and Ensemble are just a few of the studios that put as much effort on keeping their employees happy and healthy as on their bottom line. These, and other sensible companies, realize that a strong quality of life leads to more productive and creative workers. In turn, these workers produce better games, and stay in the industry to share their experience with all the passionate new recruits - helping to avoid common mistakes and recurring pitfalls. Further, they realize that driving their people into the ground is a short-term view that is not sustainable.

It is sadly ironic that those who strive for success at any cost don't realize that mature and responsible human resource and production practices will more readily bring them what they so desperately seek. That is to say, regardless of the humane imperative, maintaining a strong quality of life is just good business.

The IGDA's white paper on quality of life best practices has already served as a powerful tool, but it is only the first step. Via an upcoming “best companies to work for” initiative, the IGDA will provide awareness of enlightened companies and their practices so that others in the industry can learn from their wisdom. Similarly, the IGDA will shine a light on the wealth of research and knowledge being generated from outside the games industry.

To aid in these outreach efforts, the IGDA will be hosting a full-day quality of life think-tank at the annual Game Developers Conference in March. Also, we'll be encouraging our 80+ chapters from all over the world to host local meetings and sessions to discuss and explore this important issue.

Further, the IGDA has two special interest groups that will help in sharing knowledge and work on related issues: the Production SIG (working to formalize the production process) and the Human Resources SIG (hub for HR professionals). The efforts of these two SIGs, in addition to the ongoing work of the Quality of Life Committee, will ensure a diverse perspective on solving quality of life problems.

This is only the beginning and we're still forming plans. We encourage everyone to get involved. We ask that you contact us (qol@igda.org) to volunteer, provide ideas, success stories, resources and any other relevant information. In particular, the IGDA is requesting details on active and pending lawsuits to add to our reference list online.

We have no doubt that with everyone's help and contribution we can save the industry and art form we are all so passionate about.

The IGDA Board of Directors,

Bob Bates
Jason Della Rocca
Alex Dunne
John Feil
Mitzi McGilvray
Brian Reynolds
Jesse Schell
Kathy Schoback

[Hexed Gamer]

Great post Veldor, I know a couple of those companies highlighted, but am not entirely familiar with their game titles.

All the same, rather than boycotting (which I don't think does enough) companies with dismal practices, maybe we should merely insist on doing business with companies that earned our money.

In that way, the good ones get rewarded, and we can show the next incoming company what joe consumer wants to see in the way of his favourite game company.

[freeboy]

WOW, do the math at 84 hours and overtime, which they are not getting but I am equating it as a reduction from salery to hourly/ at 70k.. being generous there..
comes out to 52 weeks and 5864 hours paid.. with the ot.. 70k / 5864 is around 12.00 and hour! I do think there will be some lawyers looking at class action against this specific company, thought I saw something in the news already.

[Hexed Gamer]

12 dollars, 24 dollars, 36 dollars and hour.

It's not the money, it's being told you WILL work. Not being offered an option, you WILL work.

Humans are humans regardless of the amount of pay you offer while running them into the ground.

And that's the key that can't be eliminated.

I can just see what the average spouse would have to say about seeing their SO worked into a collapse.

No house, no fancy car, none of it, is worth being treated like a slave, even a well paid slave.

[ladner]

Went thru a similar experience at my 'former' job, but nothing as severe as 84 hours a week. Over the short term, people can put in those types of hours but eventually you just end up making mistakes, or there is a serious reduction in efficency/diminishing returns on those kind of hours. Eventually folks will just leave.

Funny how there is always talk of down-sizing, right-sizing, out-sourcing, and reducing costs thru cuts or pay freezes but CEO compensation is sacrosanct. Guess I should add, I have no problem if someone owns a company, that is the company is not publicly traded and the owner is the 100% owner of the company's assets, they can pay themselves whatever they want. I do take issue though with what seems to be occurring in the US with publicly traded companies and where the executives ransack the companies and work people until they drop.

I think the US has the greatest disparity between what workers make and the CEOs compared to the other 'Western' industrialized nations and this trend has worsened since the 1950's. I recall having a discussion where this is not a prevalent in Japan or the EU, since labor actually has representation, i.e. a member of the board of shareholders.

Did not mean to go so off topic, in a gaming forum, but reading about 84 hour work weeks and de-facto servitude really strikes a chord.

[Raverdave]

The Union, united, will never be defeated !

[Pippin]

I can not mention names but that industry gets worse than what you even see at EA. A co-worker of mine (game developer) was forced for a year to work from 9 am to 4 am literaly. You may think this is fiction but the poor chap had to do this for real and pass out at his desk. With a baby on the way, he left the company as he could not take it anymore. Unfortunately, they had forced him to sign a 5 year non-competition agreement. He has still 2 years left to wait, so he is not permitted to apply to any other console game developer. If he does he will get sued. So in the meantime he has changed his profession, why? Because he wants to work, as ironic as that may seem.

[freeboy]

Pippin,
Contracts are subject to not only the terms of the agreement, but commen sense, so if worker is in a "hostile work environment" etc.. the contract would be void, and any decent lawyer would get this guy or gal out of it... non competes are especially hard to enforce, usually only against the "name" ie, my named company that I sell to someone else.. and in that case since I am "out" and have sold company.. other areas are in "trade "secrets in communication.. totally uninforcable! but every body signs this stuff.
and my point about the wage was simply to show the abuse, poeple need to be taught how to say no.. and have bondaries and unfortunately bussinesses often are corrupt in the way power, fear and intimmidation are used. It is like the more we evolve the clearer our need for a moral compass is.. I heard a lecture on internal order , in the individual, verses external constraints and I used to think of this primarily in terms of government, but more often it seems we need to have third party resources to solve our lives conflicts.. pity us for we are sinners.

[Veldor]

ORIGINAL: Pippin

I can not mention names but that industry gets worse than what you even see at EA. A co-worker of mine (game developer) was forced for a year to work from 9 am to 4 am literaly. You may think this is fiction but the poor chap had to do this for real and pass out at his desk. With a baby on the way, he left the company as he could not take it anymore. Unfortunately, they had forced him to sign a 5 year non-competition agreement. He has still 2 years left to wait, so he is not permitted to apply to any other console game developer. If he does he will get sued. So in the meantime he has changed his profession, why? Because he wants to work, as ironic as that may seem.

Your friend should DEFINITELY consult a lawyer. This is NOT true in almost any state in the U.S. (As far as I know Non-Competes are generally covered under State Law). Illiniois, for instance, and many other states have what is called a "Right to Work Clause" which basically states once established in a profession you cannot be kept from working in it despite any non-compete. The only thing non-competes can really enforce is in the case of Sales and related folks. You cannot just leave a company and then go target the EXACT customer base you were servicing while at that company. It could also apply in the case of Consultants and the like to keep you from just working direct for the SPECIFIC customers of the consulting company you worked for. But NOTHING, no contract, can legally keep you from essentially GETTING A JOB!

And with a normal employee, despite the title or position, what right or basis would they have from keeping you from that? Those contracts are written for the same reasons as above... Because it is all too easy to exploit those who naively do not necessarily know any better. In the Tech/Game Development field the only real thing they have a right to is getting back training dollars. If a company sends you to $10,000 in training and you quit the next day (or even a couple months later) they are entitled to get some or all of that money back from you. Assuming it is written in a contract. But that has zero to do with a non-compete.

Now as far as overtime goes. The longest I've ever worked was 4 weeks straight. 16hrs Mon-Sat and 8hrs on Sun with every other Sun off. Which is about 100hrs a week after lunches and such. While it wasn't exactly optional there are two key differences. One - It only lasted a month. Two - I got paid for every last hour of it, and at overtime rates at that (and doubletime on Sundays) - Not in comp time.

As much as my wife didn't like it, it was like getting a triple paycheck... Which she had no problem spending.