Christmas storms flood No Man's Sky dev Hello Games

Publish date: 2023-07-08

Joe Danger and No Man's Sky developer Hello Games has been flooded, its office ruined.

The Guildford, UK-based developer fell victim to the strong regional storms on Christmas Eve when a nearby river burst its banks.

"A river broke its bank nearby yesterday, and A LOT of water flooded in really quickly. A biblical amount. It was coming in the windows!" tweeted Hello Games on Christmas Day.

PCs, monitors, furniture, doors, a wall and a retro console collection were all lost to water damage, the developer said.

Unfortunately, insurance will cover none of it.

"BAD NEWS!" read a tweet on 28th December. "Had a 'hilarious' call with insurer yesterday. Small print is if you are in a flood risk zone, you are not insured for flooding :("

Nevertheless, Hello Games remains optimistic. Having no insurance means no suited complications, so the small team can begin sorting things out right away, it consoled itself. Plus, it pointed out, there were people whose houses, not just offices, were ruined.

But it's a major blow for the four-person team, which had otherwise been riding high on enthusiasm created by its ambitious new sci-fi game No Man's Sky, unveiled at VGX in December. How severe the ramifications are, we'll have to wait to find out.

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