More game company employees working from home in light of COVID-19

With the COVID-19 outbreak, more game companies have implemented work-from-home policies

Among the latest group of game companies that have adopted work-from-home practices due to the COVID-19 coronavirus are SCS Software (American Truck Simulator, Euro Truck Simulator 2), Digital Extremes (Warframe), and Ubisoft.

Addressing the situation, SCS Software put up a post on Steam stating that “all employees of SCS Software’s Prague studio have switched to home office”.

Digital Extremes announced the same measure in a post on the Warframe forums, where the studio talked about its work-from-home policy. The studio’s members were also looking into streaming from home to keep in touch with their community during this period of time.

In Ubisoft’s case, they have been “implementing work-from-home policies in all affected regions”, according to a tweet that they posted regarding the COVID-19 situation.

These three join other game companies that have done the same, such as CD Projekt Red, Rockstar Games and Blizzard.

Gaming events have also been affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. Last week, E3 announced the cancellation of E3 2020. Another example would be EA suspending their competitive live gaming events till further notice.

The Current Situation

With the death toll from the virus rising above 7,500 and more than 184,000 infected people worldwide, having people work from home and the cancellation of events such as E3 2020 is a good move if we want to prevent the virus from spreading. We should not take this lightly as the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared COVID-19 to be a pandemic.

Outside the gaming industry, other companies have implemented their own work-from-home policies. Big tech companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter and Amazon have encouraged their employees to work remotely from home. In Twitter’s case, the company went one step further by making it mandatory.

Here in Singapore, we are also dealing with the virus. Just yesterday, there were 23 new cases, bringing the total number of infected people in the country to 266. Out of this 266, 14 are in critical condition and 114 have since been discharged from hospital.

My Thoughts

Looking at the overall situation, I can definitely afford to wait a little longer if game companies have to delay their current projects, content updates, and even bug fixes due to the virus. Human lives are infinitely more valuable than video games and we should never forget that those working on the games that we love and play are people too.

As the virus continues to spread around the world, let us do our part by having good hygiene habits, practising social distancing, and being socially responsible.

Post published: 18 March 2020