Video game publishing giant Electronic Arts has reached a settlement with software engineers who had filed a class action lawsuit against the company over unpaid overtime. EA, after the agreement is approved in San Mateo County Superior Court, will pay out $14.9 million to programmers who worked at various levels at EA between February 14, 2001 and February 14, 2006. This will cover all claims, plaintiffs' attorney fees, and all administrative costs of the settlement.

EA said that any portion of the settlement fund that is unclaimed by class members will be given to the Ronald McDonald House Charities and also to establish scholarships for female and under-represented minority students interested in studying interactive entertainment at the following five universities: Carnegie Mellon University, Cornell University, Georgia Tech, Stanford University, and Morehouse/Spelman College.

Under the terms of the settlement, some of the entry-level programmers (fewer than 200) will also be reclassified as hourly workers, so that they can be eligible for future overtime pay, and they will also receive a one-time grant of restricted company stock, but will no longer receive stock options or bonuses.

Much of the discussion about developer quality of life and crunch time was fueled in the last couple years by the "EA Spouse," whose original post can be read here. Thanks to the settlement, "EA Spouse" has been revealed to be Erin Hoffman, the wife of former EA programmer Leander Hasty. Hoffman and Hasty now work together at an independent developer called 1st Playable Productions. They also are working on Gamewatch.org, a website that will serve as a watchdog of sorts, illuminating problems with working conditions in the video game industry.

Now that EA has reached a settlement, there's bound to be yet more discussion about whether or not tech workers should be paid by the hour, and how much crunch time is acceptable. To be fair, EA certainly isn't the only video game company to make use of crunch time; it's just that as the leading publisher the spotlight falls on them. And recently, the company made some efforts to reduce or even eliminate crunch time. At EALA, the studio instituted a process called "Five Great Days," which helps game developers work five days a week (instead of six or worse yet seven) by setting major deadlines on Fridays instead of Mondays. Reportedly, the process has been fairly effective and it's being implemented throughout all of EA, not just Los Angeles.

"Crunch time wasn't working,'' EA spokeswoman Trudy Muller told the San Jose Mercury News. "We took progressive steps to address those issues. Our priority is to fairly compensate people for their work. We're going to continue to do things to make people successful and be an attractive employer and a strong competitor."

This is not the only class action suit that EA has settled with its employees lately. Last October, the company reached a similar $15.6 million settlement with many of its computer-graphic artists.

EA does not expect the $14.9 million settlement to have a significant impact on its fiscal fourth quarter 2006 financial results.