10 Times EA Screwed The Pooch

Many, many studios have in recent years come under public scrutiny for the treatment of their workers - and quite fairly, because while we all want a new Skyrim, we'd also like it to not come at the cost of ruining someone else's life.

EA's mistreatment of workers came to light in 2004, when the spouse of a worker revealed that they were commonly expected to work thirteen hour days, seven days a week - with "the occasional Saturday evening off for good behaviour (at 6:30 PM)".

The worst part is that this isn't the more commonly applied use of "crunch culture", as these employees weren't having to put in crazy hours in the weeks leading up to a game being finished. Instead, they were expected to pull one hundred hour weeks in a regular development period.

After two huge lawsuits came at Electronic Arts - costing them a collective thirty million dollars - it seemed as though the company had learnt its lesson about treating its employees like actual humans.

At least, it did at the time, because recent reports suggest things have gone back to their crunchy base. Worse yet, it's been suggested that this crunch culture is actually responsible for many newer games' problems, as unsurprisingly a human that has worked infinite hours is more likely to be focused on finally getting a moment of rest than the nuance of video games.