Bungie enforcing a work from home policy due to the Corona Virus

[Strakt]

Shits getting real out there

Bungie.net

www.bungie.net

Since news of the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak appeared a few months back, Bungie leadership has been keeping a close eye on updates to follow the progress of the global containment effort. With the recent spread of the virus into the U.S., and with a particular density of cases found in the greater Seattle area (near Bungie HQ), we have been actively working on plans over the last few weeks to ensure the health and safety of our employees and partners, both locally and globally.

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.

To accompany this policy we have rolled out technical solutions for all employees to be able to maintain communication with one another, as well as to continue working on development and maintaining game-critical functions while working remotely. Our goal is to continue crafting the ever-evolving Destiny universe, while making those behind-the-scenes efforts to keep everything running smoothly invisible to our fans. 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. Most immediately, we will still be launching Season of the Worthy on March 10, followed by the start of Trials of Osiris on March 13.

Bungie's approach to the COVID-19 outbreak is designed to react to rapid changes as news dictates, including how we will eventually re-integrate employees back into our local offices once the threat of the virus has lowered. While this is a big change for Bungie, we look at the challenge as an opportunity to stretch our ability to create and deliver the same kind of quality gaming experiences we always have in a new way.
Be well, take care of yourself, and see you online.

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[____]

We'll likely see more of this in the coming weeks.

I don't work in the same industry, but my corporation has also floated the idea, and we also have a new "if you don't feel good, don't come to the office" policy recently implemented. We are an international company that has employees that travel regularly to and from many of the affected countries and also have some quarantined employees.

Edit: We're based in Miami, but have offices in Kansas, Oregon, France, Italy, Germany, China, Netherlands, Australia and operate worldwide.

 

[HockeyBird]

Best of luck to all them. My company on the east coast is making everyone work from on Tuesday to test our network in the event that a prolonged work from home policy is needed.

 

[Deleted member 8468]

Glad to see them being proactive about the situation.

 

[Cornbread78]

*reserving sarcastic Bungie/ lack of Destiny content comment here*

Spoiler

good 4 them! Keep employees safe

 

[WellbornWarrior]

Who knows, maybe Destiny will get better because of this.

 

[Enduin]

I work in the center of Manhattan. Probably only a matter of time until my company has us work from home too. They've been sending out communications limiting travel, required 14 days quarantine for anyone recently back from international travel from affected areas and IT is ensuring necessary people have VPN access and laptops.

 

[BabyShams]

They probably just want to use it as an excuse for the lack of content.

I'm just jealous that it's not possible for me to work from home.

 

[Snake Eater]

Probably going to be delayed because you can only be so productive with everyone at home

 

[ShutterMunster]

 

[Conkerkid11]

My entire school has slowly been shifting everything online, and we're in the last three weeks of class this term. Wouldn't be surprised if everything was online next term.

 

[Amnixia]

Can't blame them, since the incubation period is 2 weeks we'll most likely see an explosive increase in cases the coming weeks.

 

[Tatsu91]

Shits getting real out there

Bungie.net

www.bungie.net

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I honestly am surprised Game devs have not made work at home a more mass popular thing

 

[impingu1984]

My employer in the UK has been ramping up for plans for me too. Asking for everyone's travel plans, encouraging using Skype instead of meeting in person etc and making provisions to everyone to work from home (ie getting laptops in place for desktop users, expanding VPN capabilities etc)

We get full sick pay anyway for up to 6 months as well, so we're getting pretty well prepared.

 

[samred]

The whole Seattle area is realizing we should've been in shutdown mode at least a week ago, if not earlier. Symptoms were already flaring up at workplaces with management not reacting cautiously enough. And today, the Living Computer Museum just announced its closure "until further notice." I imagine other major public centers (museums, concert venues) will follow soon enough.

 

[Bold One]

I wish I could work from home, boy, that would be sweet.

 

[Hawkster]

Good on them.

 

[julian]

I'm working from home right now....well I'm home.

 

[Falchion]

That's huge. I wonder if other developers and just employers in general will start doing this.

 

[Tempy]

That's huge. I wonder if other developers and just employers in general will start doing this.

Click to shrink...

Yes to both.

 

[catboy]

this is pretty huge. i don't know what bungie's previous remote policy work was like but i've heard from devs with experience in other companies that working from home was pretty much a no, full stop, due to the possibilities for leaking information or taking IP home.

 

[Lightning Lord]

We'll likely see more of this in the coming weeks.

I don't work in the same industry, but my corporation has also floated the idea, and we also have a new "if you don't feel good, don't come to the office" policy recently implemented. We are an international company that has employees that travel regularly to and from many of the affected countries and also have some quarantined employees.

Edit: We're based in Miami, but have offices in Kansas, Oregon, France, Italy, Germany, China, Netherlands, Australia and operate worldwide.

Click to shrink...

My work is global as well and we are definitely feeling the effects as well. A lot of clients are cancelling orders (we basically work with event planning for corporations) and our offices have become increasingly vacant due to people working from home and lack of work. It's pretty worrying to be honest.

 

[Deleted member 1839]

That's huge. I wonder if other developers and just employers in general will start doing this.

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Probably, especially since you have a lot of software devs in the areas of Redmond, Seattle, and Bellevue.

 

[Nessii013]

In Redmond here. MS, Facebook, Amazon, and Google are all doing this too (varying degrees of "enforce", but they're all recommending WFH for all employees who can.

 

[Lt-47]

That's surprising given how working remote is usually seen in video game industry

 

[Kyuuji]

Good on them.

 

[julian]

Aaaand literally just finding out my company might be doing the same.

 

[Viale]

Company sent an email the other day saying that it's likely they'll do the same if it gets much worse. I think some areas already are. Scary stuff.

 

[UltraMagnanimous]

I think this disease might just herald a seismic shift in how businesses operate. My company is pretty forward thinking when it comes to home working, but the massive roll out of remote working (albeit for a certain type of worker), could signify a cultural shift. Depends on how long this Corana virus sticks around for and how much productivity may or may not be impacted by remote working in certain sectors.

 

[unicornKnight]

Not surprised, we already do that in my company (big telco, Greece).
We are rotating, two out of three stay at home and the other goes to the office. Today was my turn to be on site, tomorrow and Monday I'll be working from home.

 

[pirata]

Yep, I'm already ordered to work from home until further notice.

 

[shark97]

Is it really that big a deal in USA? Few cases in USA as my understanding, most deaths among very elderly etc.

I guess that Bungie may get a lot of exposure to the overseas aspect though with tech visas etc so maybe that makes it different for them.

 

[ghibli99]

Is it really that big a deal in USA? Few cases in USA as my understanding, most deaths among very elderly etc.

I guess that Bungie may get a lot of exposure to the overseas aspect though with tech visas etc so maybe that makes it different for them.

Click to shrink...

IMO it really has to do more with the fact that what people are seeing are just *known* cases, and anecdotally, I know nobody who has actually been tested for it, even those who have been sick over the past week or two with colds and the flu. That's what scares me is that we just don't know much about the actual infected number, so yeah, it's a big deal here. Store shelves in lots of Los Angeles, Orange, and Ventura counties here in Southern California have been cleared of disinfectants, masks, water, etc.

 

[Kyuuji]

Is it really that big a deal in USA? Few cases in USA as my understanding, most deaths among very elderly etc.
I guess that Bungie may get a lot of exposure to the overseas aspect though with tech visas etc so maybe that makes it different for them.

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149 cases in the US and they touch on it in the post:

With the recent spread of the virus into the U.S., and with a particular density of cases found in the greater Seattle area (near Bungie HQ), we have been actively working on plans over the last few weeks to ensure the health and safety of our employees and partners, both locally and globally.

Click to shrink...

 

[KarmaCow]

Is it really that big a deal in USA? Few cases in USA as my understanding, most deaths among very elderly etc.

I guess that Bungie may get a lot of exposure to the overseas aspect though with tech visas etc so maybe that makes it different for them.

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Washington State has 70 cases, almost half all in the US including many of which were spread locally rather than individuals coming home from abroad before this got big.

 

[justiceiro]

Well, working for home is really a big need from me right now, so it's good companies are getting more open to this kind of stuff. However, this is not just fun, as tracking working hours is way more difficult, so overworking will probably be facilitated.

 

[mugurumakensei]

Same here at my company

 

[DarkLegion]

Wish my company would do this.. we're in Manhattan and all they've been telling us is to just wash our hands. They can't even get us some hand sanitizer despite us having to use biometric scanners to log in our time

 

[Vex]

It's crazy to think about what will happen over the next coming weeks/months because almost all notable game devs are along the west coast of the US. On top of that... All notable conventions are on the west coast.... Including FGC tourneys (EVO), E3, etc etc.

Like wow.

 

[-PXG-]

I just called my job to see if they have a Covid19 contingency plan. They do. I have the ability to work from home, so if shit got real, I can still work remotely.

 

[Deleted member 36054]

Wish my company would do this.. we're in Manhattan and all they've been telling us is to just wash our hands. They can't even get us some hand sanitizer despite us having to use biometric scanners to log in our time

Click to shrink...

My company is taking this very seriously and close the SF office. Rumor is that next week our office (in Midtown) will be closed.

 

[Aureon]

My parent company is fucking around.
It's a consultancy, and a lot of clients have enforced WFH - so the consultants for them are forced to come in the main office everyday

Thank god the gaming division has different rules.

 

[BFIB]

I'm currently expanding our VPN capability so our headquarters can do the same.

 

[JigglesBunny]

A buddy of mine in college got an email from his university that they're evaluating switching the rest of the semester's courses over to online courses and "social distancing."

This is serious and people need to be taking it seriously.

 

[Diarrhea Day-Lewis]

What are places like Disney land, where large amounts of tourists go, doing?

 

[Gartooth]

We will start to see a lot more companies do this in the Seattle area as new cases grow. The gaming industry has a huge presence in that area too. Off the top of my head Microsoft, Nintendo of America, and Sucker Punch are all in that immediate vicinity.

Frankly if shutting down offices goes on for a prolonged period I could see there being games delayed due to the virus. At home work just isn't as efficient as being in an office and getting immediate contact with coworkers to fix issues.

Overall though it's much better that they protect their workers than suffer even worse losses should there be coronavirus spread in the office.

 

[Kaako]

Good on them.

 

[RROCKMAN]

Damn I want this at my work place

 

[Servbot24]

Good. All companies that can do this should do this.

 

[Mankoto]

On one hand, working from home sounds great.
On the other, with how mortgage rates are torpedoing back down thanks to the CoronaVirus, my workload would probably triple... And we're already backed up by 2 weeks...