EA and Other Studios Closing Offices Worldwide in Wake of COVID-19 Pandemic

Electronic Arts is among the latest workplace to keep their employees at home as COVID-19 spreads worldwide.

In a community update, EA claims it established a global task force in January to monitor the coronavirus as it reached a pandemic. The company later shuttered doors for offices in North America, Europe, Australia Seoul and Milan until April. While developers and other staff were ordered to work from home, some are headed back into studios at Shanghai and Singapore “as the situation stabilizes.”

“Now is the time for greater measures,” the update wrote. “We will only have very limited staff for business-critical functions at these sites — everyone else will be working remotely.” 

Other procedures taken by EA included keeping its on-site services paid and reassuring players their games wouldn’t be faced with major changes due to COVID-19. Another measure came from thousands of employees putting studio equipment in their homes to keep its online services up.

“We may be doing it from our homes around the world, but we’re doing everything we can to be here for you,” the team added.

Following other event cancellations, EA continued in another update that its live tournaments for Apex Legends, FIFA and NFL were suspended as of March 13 to prevent further risks.

Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red announced today its staff also took gradual steps to keep employees from travelling outside to work. The team also told upcoming players that Cyberpunk 2077 would still make its final release date later in September. Its tweet stated “This will grant every team member the highest level of personal health safety.”

Warcraft and Overwatch developers at Blizzard Entertainment tweeted to announce their office closings at Irvine and Austin. Teams from their other studios around the world are also staying at home “as directed by local governments and health authorities.” Like EA, a follow-up tweet added its on-site vendors will continue to be paid while no interruptions will happen in regular online game services.

Game services for Red Dead Redemption 2 and Grand Theft Auto: Online will also keep going for Rockstar Games. The studio stated its staff will be working at home for all international workplaces and implemented its own remote work solutions. Players can continue to access the company’s game support while adding “the health and safety of our employees and their families remains our top priority.”