Another day, another batch of bad news for gamers due to COVID-19. This time, it’s Bungie choosing to offer remote work as a primary option so that their workers don’t have to risk showing up in public in the hundreds and spend hours in close proximity. Bungie announced on its site that they will be deploying a full structure of a system that will allow employees to work from home.
“While there is a possibility that this change could affect our patching cadence in the short term, we will be sure to keep players informed about those schedules as much as possible,” Bungie wrote in the post.
Fans need not worry, at least for now when it comes to Bungie’s projects. As of now the Season of the Worthy set to release on March 10 and the Trials of Osiris set to release on March 13 are both still on schedule. There are no delays in the development of this content or other games.
It makes sense that Bungie would make the change. The company employs hundreds across various offices, and this change should help protect them from serious viral infection. And with all of the hysteria surrounding the new disease, the company doesn’t want to risk getting their employees ill over the prospect of working on their games.
And Bungie wasn’t the only one of the AAA gaming companies to announce such changes. CEO of Take Two had announced something similar at their own company, hinting at the changes coming as a result of COVID-19.
“Actually, I think one of the things that may come out of this if it’s as widespread as I believe it will be, one unexpected consequence is a lot of us who were skeptical about remote work are going to be less skeptical about it,” Zelnick said at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media, and Telecom Conference today. “I’m one of them by the way. I’m not a big believer in remote work. But I think I may be surprised.”
