The COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak is causing disruptions across the world and the video game industry, notably with the postponement of GDC. And with more people testing positive for the virus in the United States, Destiny 2 developer Bungie announced that it will have all of its employees work remotely from home instead of from the Seattle-based studio.
Bungie's headquarters are located in Bellevue, Washington in the Seattle area, not far from Kirkland, which made national headlines in recent days because of a high density of confirmed cases of COVID-19 and fears that the virus could spread throughout the community. Washington state currently has 39 reported cases of COVID-19 according to the CDC, so amidst the growing concern of containing the spread of the virus in the United States, Bungie's leadership decided to enact a policy that requires all employees to continue work on Destiny 2 remotely.
Bungie says that it has been working recently on rapidly establishing an infrastructure that allows its employees to be able to work from home, and with that infrastructure in place, it has sent its employees to work remotely. According to the official statement from Bungie, next week's launch of Destiny 2's Season of the Worthy and the returning Trials of Osiris weekend PvP event will not be affected.
It also appears that Bungie is confident that it can keep its schedule for upcoming major releases and events in Destiny 2; however, it did acknowledge that patches could be negatively impacted in the short term. Players concerned and interested in updates should follow the Bungie, Bungie Help, and official Destiny 2 Twitter accounts for any changes and news.
This is a bold move for a company that has grown particularly large over the years of developing the Destiny franchise. According to Glassdoor.com, Bungie is home to 500-1000 employees, so hundreds of employees are affected by this policy and will be working from home.
But it is another impact of COVID-19 on the gaming industry, which has been shaken by this virus. GDC was postponed after multiple major companies pulled out of the industry event because of fears of the spread of the coronavirus. However, as of now, E3 and Gamescom are still planning to go on.
Destiny 2 is less than a week away from the major release of Season 10 on March 10th followed by the anticipated return of Trials of Osiris on March 13th. The next major milestone on the content calendar for Season of the Worthy comes on April 21st with the release of the Grandmaster Nightfall difficulty and Guardian Games event.
Destiny 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
Source: Bungie
