Daybreak, Cryptic, City State, Frontier, and more MMO studios affected by worldwide pandemic shutdowns

As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to make itself felt, we’ve got another quick roundup of news relevant to MMO players.

First, we’ve got a whole ‘nother slew of MMO and MMO-adjacent games studios that have shifted into a mostly or fully work-from-home/remote-working situation as many states and whole countries are under severe lockdown. City State Entertainment, Frontier, KingsIsle, Hi-Rez, and PWE/Cryptic are now among them, in addition to those we’ve noted in the last couple of weeks. Dual Universe studio Novaquark had to cancel a stress test but is working hard to get a new one up for folks stranded at home. CD Projekt Red is working remotely but not entertaining the idea of a delay for Cyberpunk 2077. And Daybreak’s substudios are working from home as well; thus far, only a hardware upgrade for PlanetSide 2 has actually been delayed. RuneScape put off an update as well.

Ankama, the French studio behind Wakfu and Dofus, posted a video about the impact on the company, saying that some game features and a planned server merge have been postponed. It’s granting free gametime for both games; hit the link and scroll down to the bottom to claim yours.

A few games have already kicked off in-game promotions as well. Project Gorgon is buffing folks: “To help alleviate virus-quarantine boredom, we’ll turn on a few extra buffs for the next few weeks,” says Elder Game. “The specific buffs will change every few days.” And here’s ARK Survival Evolved, which is extending harvesting rates. Rogue server SWG Legends dropped a lovely pep-talk for its community too:

And some kids in Japan figured out how to put virtual spaces in Minecraft to good use under quarantine.

Finally, GDC, one of the first conventions to take this seriously and shut down ahead of the pandemic becoming, well, an official pandemic, will be streaming its award ceremonies Wednesday at 8 p.m. EDT on Twitch, with broadcasting of some events already underway.

Please please please be safe out there, folks.

More on the impact of the virus on gaming:

• Oct 7: PSA: Overwatch 2 is clearancing out old Overwatch League skins, get ’em while you can

• Jul 30: For Science: EVE Online ramps up cancer-fighting Project Discovery with new minigames and rewards

• Jul 1: UK employment tribunal says Star Citizen studio discriminated against autistic employee

• Apr 3: For Science: EVE Online’s Project Discovery initiative opens signups for mobile testing

• Feb 19: Wisdom of Nym: How long until Final Fantasy XIV’s next expansion based on patch 6.57?

• Dec 22: Guild Wars 2’s ArenaNet is working on expansions for both 2024 and 2025 already

• Oct 13: WoW Factor: No-selling BlizzCon

• Sep 18: Ubisoft Montreal employees accuse studio of lying about work-from-home policies as an RTO mandate begins

• Aug 9: Following Final Fantasy XIV Fanfest COVID outbreak, one fan admits guilt – in a comic

• These are just our last few articles; click here for the full roundup of our coronavirus coverage back to January

MOP's been covering the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on online gaming since January 2020, and we're still going from behind our own quarantines, both to keep up with the news and be a source of entertainment and comfort too. Stay abreast of the big MMO impacts with us, but please be safe and care for your communities above all else.