What a whirlwind month it’s been. When we sat down to write this we were extremely excited about Stadia announcing our partnership to the world and leading with that in this month’s newsletter. Of course, we’re still excited about it (it’s below!) but the rapid spread of COVID-19 across our world has given us all pause.

If you missed our note we have transitioned to remote working. It was the only responsible decision we could have made; we have over 300 staff and the health and safety of them and their loved ones is all that matters at a time like this.

It’s going to be challenging, but we understand the privileged position that we’re in within our industry. We’re all capable of remote working and our business is less impacted by self-isolation or stricter lockdown measures. Our hearts go out to those in our local community who will bear the brunt of these measures and we're already looking into ways we can support them in these trying times.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be doing our best to share some of our learnings in the hope that it helps other people, be they studios, developers or fans, to cope with the situation in which we all find ourselves. We’ll be sharing logistical advice on how we transitioned 300 people to work from home over a weekend, how we’re helping maintain social interaction, and tips from our staff themselves on how they’re looking after both their physical and mental health.

Finally, please do adhere to the government’s instructions. We’ve been training for this moment our whole lives; just stay inside and play games!

Above all, be kind to one another, this isn’t going to be easy for anyone, but we will come through this.

On Monday 23rd we poured a brew, hopped on Discord with the rest of our remote teams and watched Google’s #GoogleForGames livestream.

And there it was! Our logo plastered on the screen as the Stadia team announced that we’re working together on an exclusive project for the platform!

We are so incredibly excited to finally be able to share this news with you all.

Ever since Rich, Arnout, and Paul sat down to work together for the very first time almost 20 years ago they’ve dreamt of uniting people through gaming. We think Stadia is a revolutionary way to do just that; we’ve been hands-on with the technology for a while now and we are so excited to share more details about this project in the coming months.

Rich (our CEO) sat down with the Stadia team recently to talk about why he’s so excited about both the project and the platform. You can read that chat over on the Stadia Dev blog.

And finally, if you missed it, you can check out the VOD of Stadia’s livestream right here if you want to see some of the amazing company we’ll be keeping on the platform.

We know that folks have been desperate to hear more about Gears Tactics after the initial reveal and this past week has finally lifted the lid.

A load of websites have had hands-on time with the game, looking at how Gears Tactics fits into strategy genre and what it brings to the table.

You can check out the likes of what Kotaku, IGN, Eurogamer, PC Gamer and many more had to say online right now.

We’ve been overwhelmed by the press response so far, and we cannot wait for players to get their hands on the game.

Don’t forget - Gears Tactics is out in just a few short weeks. We hope to see you all playing on April 28th.

There was even more Gears news this month, in the form of the third Operation for Gears 5; Gridiron.

We’re incredibly excited by this one, and the team have done some really great work in helping to make this Operation one of the best so far.

With two maps, Pahanu and Canals, joining rotation and a brilliant new mode we really think players are going to love Operation Gridiron.

Operation Gridiron goes live today, and you can read all about it below!

Goodness, this feels like a long time ago.

March 9th was International Women’s Day! Last year we did some cool stuff, but this year we really wanted to push the boat out to celebrate the brilliant women we have working at Splash Damage, but also reflect on some of the ways we’ve failed in the past.

We made two videos; one asking our staff if they knew what % of the UK Games Industry identify as women, and one asking them what they think we could do better to hire and retain women. We think they’re great and our staff raised some amazing points for discussion.

We also published a longer, written piece about Splash Damage’s history and culture and how it’s changed and is changing over time to become more accepting, more open and more inclusive. Give it a read!

You can also catch up on all the activities we had around the office in this twitter thread. From self-defense classes to manicures, cupcakes to talks, and everything in between.

Here’s to topping it all next year!

As weird as it may sound, we’re still hiring! We’re doing a lot of calls over Skype and constantly evaluating our remote onboarding processes to make sure everyone still feels part of the time, despite the distance.

You can see the full list of our open roles on our website but, as ever, here’s two we want to show off.