Development continues at safe distances.
Work from home dog

Multiple game studios are now requiring employees to work from home due to the still ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Maybe you've heard of it? Teams that are usually busy working together on whatever projects at their respective studios have been told to work from home when possible.

Some of the studios that have taken to working from home include Rockstar Games, CD Projekt Red, and even EA. For the employees at these studios, this means that they can now work from home, without pants, and without getting in trouble for not having pants on.

EA specifically hasn't made it a requirement to work from home but it has been "strongly recommended" to do so in areas such as Australia, Europe, and North America. This recommendation will be in effect until April 1 in an effort to help stop the spread of the coronavirus (Covid-19).

As of today, we have transitioned to strongly recommending that all our employees in North America, Europe and Australia work from home until April 1, to help limit potential exposure to coronavirus and minimize the social spread of the illness. Many of these sites, including our Redwood Shores headquarters, were already giving employees the option to work from home, and now is the time for greater measures. We will only have very limited staff for business-critical functions at these sites -- everyone else will be working remotely. Our senior leaders, site leaders and IT teams have been working together to help us prepare for this.

We’ve also taken steps to ensure that the vendors and contractors that provide services on-site at our facilities will continue to be paid, even if they’re not able to work from home in their roles.
The statement from EA continues on to say that they are also "very focused on minimizing any potential for disruption to our players," and that they are "confident in our continuity plans." They do not anticipate there being any "major changes in (their) games or services as a result of (their) teams working from home." They do stress though that they are "learning through this process as well and patience will be key" should something unexpected occur.

Rockstar Games also issued a statement. Their remarks were shared via Twitter yesterday morning.

In the interest of reducing the possible impact of COVID-10, Rockstar Games has implemented work from home policies across our international offices and studios. After significant research and consultation with our teams around the world, we began rolling our remote work solutions worldwide across the past week, and we are confident we have a robust system in place for our teams to continue their work with a minimum of disruption.
Similarly, CD Projekt Red has also made it possible to allow their employees to work from home. The company, having also made their announcement public via Twitter, says that their employees will be working remotely "for as long as it is needed." And because they know that some Gamers™ don't care about the well-being of others, CD Projekt Red also notes that the release of Cyberpunk 2077 is still on track, so don't go clutching your pearls.

Over the past week we have been adapting to the situation and gradually rolling out preventative measures across our entire organization. We’ve also been upgrading equipment & infrastructure and working towards enabling our employees to work remotely, from the safety of their homes.

Today, as a result of that preparation, CD Projekt Red switches to full remote work for as long as it is needed. We think this will grant every team member the highest level of personal health safety. And while this is all a bit new to everyone, we are rising to the challenge and showing no signs of stopping in our effort to bring you some kick-ass role-playing action in September.
These companies join others like Nintendo, Bungie, and probably countless other studios large and small that have taken the same precautions.

Fun fact: There are a lot of images for working from home. I chose one with a dog because he looks like a good boy. There's also a lot of results for dogs working from home, oddly enough.