EA joins coronavirus panic with work-from-home policies until April 1

EA has also postponed all live game events including Apex Legends, FIFA, and others over COVID-19 coronavirus.

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EA has just joined the COVID-19 coronavirus lock down, where it has now limited social gatherings in an effort to "fight this pandemic". The company has said it has postponed all live game events until "the global coronavirus situation improves".

EA joins coronavirus panic with work-from-home policies until April 1 07

This means that EA has just temporarily halted live game events involving some of the biggest games in the world, including battle royale superstar Apex Legends. Other EA games included in the live event lockdown include the Apex Legends Global Series, FIFA 20 Global Series, FIFA Online 4 Live, and Madden NFL 20 Championship Series.

Online events will continue, with gamers and staff able to play and work remotely, respectively. EA explains: "This has been an unprecedented few days in an already unprecedented time. As the world works to limit the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, a sweeping set of societal and cultural changes are now impacting all of our daily lives. We'd like to take a moment to update all of you on what we're doing at Electronic Arts to ensure the health and wellbeing of our employees, while also making sure that everyone is able to keep playing their favorite games".

The company continues: "As we take these steps for our Electronic Arts employees, we're also very focused on minimizing any potential for disruption to our players. We are confident in our continuity plans. We don't anticipate major changes in our games or services as a result of our teams working from home, but we're learning through this process as well and patience will be key. We're constantly talking and working with our teams across the world to evolve with the situation".

EA added: "These are challenging times for everyone. We're working to look after our employees and their families, and make sure we're doing the right and responsible things to fight this pandemic illness. We have amazing technology teams that are making it possible for all of this to happen, and we're deeply thankful. We now have thousands of employees that have taken equipment to their homes so we can keep our games and services running, and continue working on new projects. We may be doing it from our homes around the world, but we're doing everything we can to be here for you".

Read More: Coronavirus / COVID-19

You can track COVID-19 coronavirus in real-time right here.

You can donate spare CPU and GPU power towards finding a coronavirus cure using Folding@Home, too.

EA joins coronavirus panic with work-from-home policies until April 1 06

The CDC has also recently updated its COVID-19 coronavirus guidelines, recommending all in-person events with over 50 people be cancelled in the United States, immediately.

Not even Batman is safe from coronavirus, with Warner Bros. shutting production down on the Matt Reeves directed and Robert Pattinson as the Batman and Bruce Wayne movie The Batman. Speaking of movies, the largest theater chain in the US -- AMC Theaters, has announced new social distancing methods of limiting theater attendance.

The Game Developers Conference will now be offering streamed conferences through Twitch, over postponing the physical game industry related event over coronavirus fears.

Bitcoin has dropped in price significantly, with a huge 40% reduction in its price from highs of $10,000 to a new 2020 low of less than $5000. Apple stock has also tumbled, dumping $300 billion from its market cap and reducing it to just over $1 trillion ($1,000,000,000,000).

Apple has recently postponed an event over coronavirus, where it was due to unveil new iPhones and a new iPad.

New York Governor Cuomo has established a 1-mile containment zone in New Rochelle over the spread of coronavirus / COVID-19 in New York, while Google has recently asked all staff based in Canada or the United States to work from home if they can. Apple has just canceled an event where it was due to unveil a successor to the iPhone SE, and a new iPad, too.

Delivery start ups including Postmates have now got a "non-contact delivery option" for those who are worried about contracting coronavirus, too.

We've seen some gigantic events being canceled or postponed over coronavirus / COVID-19 fears, with Mobile World Congress, the Game Developers Conference, Google I/O, Facebook's F8 developer conference -- and even chatter from Dick Pound, a member of the International Olympic Committee, with the IOC talking about outright canceling the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Google has also ended all of its in-person job interviews for now over coronavirus fears, instead shifting to a digital-only Hangouts meeting for future employees. Twitter is also "strongly encouraging" its employees to work from home if possible, while Amazon has halted its near 800,000 strong workforce from all non-essential travel over coronavirus / COVID-19 fears.

But don't worry, gamers... as AMD has confirmed that the next-gen Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 launches are "on track" for later this year and that coronavirus hasn't forced a delay for these launches (yet).

You can read more on our coverage of coronavirus here.

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Anthony joined the TweakTown team in 2010 and has since reviewed 100s of graphics cards. Anthony is a long time PC enthusiast with a passion of hate for games built around consoles. FPS gaming since the pre-Quake days, where you were insulted if you used a mouse to aim, he has been addicted to gaming and hardware ever since. Working in IT retail for 10 years gave him great experience with custom-built PCs. His addiction to GPU tech is unwavering and has recently taken a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware.

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