Crunched: has the games industry really stopped exploiting its workforce?

In 2004, the EA Spouse controversy exposed a culture of unpaid overtime throughout the games industry. In this special report we investigate how much, if anything, has changed

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

It was with these words 10 years ago that Erin Hoffman began an online journal detailing her husband's gruelling experience working at an EA game development studio. For months on end he worked 12-hour days, six days a week, and when the game's final deadline loomed, it got worse. "The current mandatory hours are 9am to 10pm - seven days a week," she wrote, "with the occasional Saturday evening off for good behavior (at 6:30pm)."

Work late, come home, sleep in between stressing about bugs and end up dreaming about code, go back into work and repeat

Students and young new entrants to the industry see crunch and unpaid overtime as price of admission

I was a ""quality tester and worked 72 hours a week, testing GTA IV. It was horrendous. I didn't see daylight for months

It's a fun job, but it shouldn't be an exploitative one