Massive video game publisher Electronic Arts has announced that it is expanding its policies allowing its employees to work from home as part of a response to an increasing number of cases of COVID-19, popularly called coronavirus. The announcement was released by EA at 11:29 PM UTC on March 13th, 2020, via its official website, which was linked to by its Twitter account.
According to Electronic Arts, employees working in Australia, Europe, and North America, including at EA's headquarters in Redwood Shores, are now heavily recommended to work from their homes until April 1st. Previously, this was given as an option to many employees, though this seems to cement the ability to work from home as company-wide policy.
This move is a rather expected one, as EA had previously closed its offices in Milan, (Italy) Seoul, (South Korea) Shanghai, (China) and Singapore due to sizable outbreaks in their respective countries. However, due to regional improvements, the offices in Shanghai and Singapore have reopened. EA has also suspended its live Competitive Gaming events for the time being. This includes events for FIFA 20, FIFA Online 4, Madden NFL 20, and notably, what would have been Apex Legend's first Global Series.
Many other companies inside and outside of the gaming industry have also been allowing employees to work from home in order to minimize the spread of COVID-19. For example, Take-Two Interactive, perhaps best known for owning the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption franchises, Bungie, the creators of the Destiny franchise, and originally the Halo franchise, and Wizards of the Coast, well known for Magic the Gathering and Dungeons and Dragons, are all taking similar measures.
How this will effect upcoming releases from Electronic Arts or the functioning of its many games' servers isn't known. However, EA's announcement did specify that employees would be working to maintain the company's various services, even while working remotely.
Whether these policies will continue after April 1st also remains to be seen, though that seems a strong possibility given current estimates of the pandemic's lifetime. It's likely that EA will simply adapt its policies as the situation progresses. For now though, this seems the sensible move for EA, as slowing the virus's spread to avoid inundating hospitals is currently a high priority for all industries, gaming or not.
Source: Electronic Arts