Hello Games Not Insured for Flood Damage, Microsoft VP Might Help

Josh Engen

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Aug 19, 2013
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Hello Games Not Insured for Flood Damage, Microsoft VP Might Help



The developer behind Joe Danger and No Man's Sky has been denied by its insurance company, but Microsoft's Phil Spencer is "going to look into it."

Hello Games hasn't had the happiest of holidays. On Christmas Eve, mother nature attempted to wipe out the Joe Danger developer's offices with a gigantic flood [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130830-No-Mans-Sky-and-Joe-Danger-Developer-Hello-Games-Suffers-Flood], but the team's holiday cheer remained in tact. And, somehow, even after their insurance company denied their claim, the folks at Hello Games still have a sense of humor.

"BAD NEWS!" tweeted a representative [https://twitter.com/hellogames/statuses/416895411853737984]. "Had a 'hilarious' call with insurer yesterday. Small print is if you are in a flood risk zone, you are not insured for flooding."

Thirteen minutes later, Hello Games posted another message that shows just how optimistic this crew actually is. "On a brighter note," the message reads [https://twitter.com/hellogames/status/416898804223586304], "no insurance means we can just wade in and start setting things straight! Hello Games assemble!"

Yesterday, the Hello Games staff spent the day documenting their cleanup process [https://twitter.com/GrantDuncan/status/416914744785010688] via Twitter. Furniture, fixtures, and electronic equipment all met a watery end, but, thankfully, no injuries were reported.

Right now, the developer is working on No Man's Sky, a game that stole the show during VGX on December 7th. Hopefully, all of this flooding won't cause major problems for No Man's Sky. Developers, especially small ones, work on very tight budgets, which means that major financial setbacks can end up becoming studio killers.

However, when a Twitter user suggested that Phil Spencer, the corporate VP of Microsoft Studios, should think about tossing a little holiday cheer at Hello Games, Spencer said [https://twitter.com/XboxP3/status/415823367535464449] that he was "going to look into it." And, if a flood ends up turning into some kind of partnership with Microsoft, this situation might become a full-fledged Christmas miracle.

Source: Twitter: Phil Spencer [https://twitter.com/hellogames]

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Compatriot Block

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Jan 28, 2009
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Oh no. Please don't let this turn into an Xbone exclusive on the console side of stuff. I know other PC players won't care, but I wanted to play this on my PS4.
 

Gormech

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May 10, 2012
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inb4 Insurance companies are theives complaints. Good to hear someone's willing to help them out of the mess. At least the news got their name out into the public.
 

Kapol

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May 2, 2010
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If they planned ahead, they'll hopefully have off-site backups of stuff. And hopefully it'll be recent enough to not have cost them too much time. Getting new equipment, on the other hand, will be a pain no matter what.
 

Sarge034

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Josh Engen said:
And, if a flood ends up turning into some kind of partnership with Microsoft, this situation might become a full-fledged Christmas miracle.
That truly depends on whether you think another developer getting into bed with a single company to make exclusives is a good thing, no?

OT- Sucks about the flood and insurance companies are thieving bastards, but they really should have made an effort to read their policy when they signed up for it. I thought people became aware of this shit after the whole "Katrina" thing when people found out they didn't have flood insurance despite having the "100% insured" policies. Sigh... Stupidity, stupidity never changes.
 

FalloutJack

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Nov 20, 2008
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If Microsoft were run by David Xanatos, we'd find out later that they somehow made the flood happen in the first place.

Fortunately, they're not QUITE that bad yet.
 

jackpipsam

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Jun 2, 2009
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Compatriot Block said:
Oh no. Please don't let this turn into an Xbone exclusive on the console side of stuff. I know other PC players won't care, but I wanted to play this on my PS4.
Well they're indie devs who have lost pretty much everything and spent a lot of money getting this far for nothing.
If a publisher like Microsoft comes around saying "we'll fund you to make the entire thing again as long as you put it on X" of course they'll accept it.
Because who knows, the studio might quite literally die otherwise depending on their state of things.
 

strumbore

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Yep, it's gonna be an exclusive deal now if it ever wasn't.

Didn't these geniuses have network backups? WHY WOULD THEY HAVE THEIR TOWERS IN A FLOODZONE???
 

Fireprufe15

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strumbore said:
Yep, it's gonna be an exclusive deal now if it ever wasn't.

Didn't these geniuses have network backups? WHY WOULD THEY HAVE THEIR TOWERS IN A FLOODZONE???
They probably have backups. The problem, of course, is the equipment they need. Computers aint cheap.
 

Me55enger

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Just to query: Is "in tact" deliberate or is it meant to be "intact". Either/or, but the latter seems more appropriate.

Typical British insurers in a nutshell. With flood risk on the rise, they are doing everything they can to squirm ther way out of covering for water damage. Shame spines all sold out in Westminster years ago.

No Man's Sky looks fantastic, here is hoping they're offered the helping hand they need.
 

Vault Citizen

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Strazdas said:
Alexander Kirby said:
So if they don't cover for flood damage in a flood zone, then they basically don't cover for flood damage at all; where else is it going to flood? It's like saying they won't cover your car if its involved in an accident. Still, they probably should have read the small print.
they cover from flood damage in place where it doesnt usually flood. Its like those people that build houses in a zone that floods every single year and then complain that they get flood. well duh, you should have looked where you are building.
Also standart car insurance does not cover accidents, especially if its your fault.
strumbore said:
Yep, it's gonna be an exclusive deal now if it ever wasn't.

Didn't these geniuses have network backups? WHY WOULD THEY HAVE THEIR TOWERS IN A FLOODZONE???
I live in the same area as their HQ (the next town over, only a few minutes by train) and flooding in Guildford is almost unheard of. As I said in another post whenever it has flooded in this clingy before the flooding has happened north or east of here, but it is the first time in my lifetime that Guildford has flooded.

So it isn't like they failed to secure against floods in an area that was known for them.

edit - apparently the last flood was in 2001, so I'm retracting that comment about not having a previous flood in my lifetime.
 

Andy Shandy

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Jun 7, 2010
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Good on Microsoft, if they do step in to help. Yeah, it may means No Man's Sky becomes an Xbox One exclusive (or it may well not) but I'd rather have that and Hello Games survives this than another possible option which is that they don't.
 

Shadow-Phoenix

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FalloutJack said:
If Microsoft were run by David Xanatos, we'd find out later that they somehow made the flood happen in the first place.

Fortunately, they're not QUITE that bad yet.
But I don't think I could trust as far as I could throw him

OT:Hello Games has had their data completely screwed up and MS comes to help, everyone's playing the obvious of tunes.

I for one am happy someone at least came to their aid, if anything they can still be aided rather than left to die and the game itself was console first more than anything so I'd rather it stay that way rather than the idea die in total.
 

FoolKiller

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FalloutJack said:
If Microsoft were run by David Xanatos, we'd find out later that they somehow made the flood happen in the first place.

Fortunately, they're not QUITE that bad yet.
I love the reference.

I too am hoping to see what comes of this. They really are a creative and talented bunch. Quick, someone start a kickstarter to help them out!
 

DeepComet5581

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The office I work in is on the same road as Hello's office. We actually had to leave early as the flood waters had reached our office (Which was slightly funny, watching people in £300 suits trying desperately to keep them dry).

On the floodzone quips that everyone are making - Nobody thought it was going to flood quite as quickly as it did. I should also mention that the last major flood in this particular town was in 2001 (So this isn't a common occurance), and that our office, despite being closer to the river, IS insured against flood damage.

This is just insurance companies being insurance companies.
 

Alexander Kirby

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Mar 29, 2011
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So if they don't cover for flood damage in a flood zone, then they basically don't cover for flood damage at all; where else is it going to flood? It's like saying they won't cover your car if its involved in an accident. Still, they probably should have read the small print.
 

Strazdas

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May 28, 2011
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Alexander Kirby said:
So if they don't cover for flood damage in a flood zone, then they basically don't cover for flood damage at all; where else is it going to flood? It's like saying they won't cover your car if its involved in an accident. Still, they probably should have read the small print.
they cover from flood damage in place where it doesnt usually flood. Its like those people that build houses in a zone that floods every single year and then complain that they get flood. well duh, you should have looked where you are building.
Also standart car insurance does not cover accidents, especially if its your fault.
 

enemabagjones

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Andy Shandy said:
Good on Microsoft, if they do step in to help. Yeah, it may means No Man's Sky becomes an Xbox One exclusive (or it may well not) but I'd rather have that and Hello Games survives this than another possible option which is that they don't.
No offence but Microsoft and Sony don't do anything out of the kindness of their hearts. They see an opportunity to force a developers hand into an exclusive and they will take it if they can.

Good on them, indeed.