Microsoft and Bungie Asking Employees to Work from Home

As we have already reported, the games industry is starting to react to the Coronavirus, otherwise known by its proper name, COVID-19, especially now that it's managed to reach the shores of the United States. This is especially problematic for the games industry as, right now, the disease is hitting the West Coast the hardest. As it so happens, the tech-happy West Coast is where a considerable number of companies call home, including Microsoft and Bungie.

Microsoft, who has several offices in the area, has issued a statement urging its employees to work from home, if possible, with the following message:

"Consistent with King County guidance, we are recommending all employees who are in a job that can be done from home should do so through March 25th. Taking these measures will ensure your safety and also make the workplace safer for those that need to be onsite. Please let your manager know that you will be working from home, so all our teams remain well coordinated."

People who cannot work remotely are still being called into work, unless they are over 60, have a preexisting health condition, have a compromised immune system, or are pregnant. In these cases, employees are urged to reach out to their manager for leave and/or accommodation options, which, since this is America, we can only hope are good.

Bungie, meanwhile, is taking a more extreme, but welcome approach:

"While health and safety are our top priority, we also recognize the importance of maintaining the continuity of our regular Bungie business operations and have rapidly built a remote work infrastructure to best support this. This includes delivering on our current content plans, the maintenance and upkeep of Destiny 2, as well as continuing development of the game.

Today, we have activated this fully remote work infrastructure and policy for all Bungie employees across the globe, with the goals of prioritizing the safety of our employees and continuing to develop and deliver on a game we love for our community."

That's right: everyone's working from home now, for an indefinite amount of time. While they admit this could impact things long-term, they have assured their fans that their most immediate releases won't be affected at all.

This comes in the wake of E3 not refusing to host their gigantic press event in the Bay area, despite the public health consequences it may face. Hopefully, if nothing is done to curb this virus soon, they follow these fine examples and push some things off. We can live without video game trailers. We can't live without our lives.