California law prohibits overtime pay for some game developers

A California law inducted in 2008 titled "Assembly Bill 10" apparently says that game workers in the state are not entitled to overtime compensation from "crunch time" towards the end of development.

The new law applies only to those making upwards of $75,000 per year ($36 an hour).

According to Mark Methenitis, Joystiq's Law of the Game author: "Practically speaking, that means if you're a dev with a salary of $75K, you can't claim overtime during crunch, which means the developer is more likely to use crunch cycles."

In 2004, a spouse of an EA employee published a report on "abuse of game development team members in the name of meeting publishing deadlines," which resulted in compensation reform throughout the industry.

Those opposed to the bill are afraid it will reverse that trend.

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