After a wildly successful debut of its upcoming game No Man’s Sky, developer Hello Games has had an epic run of bad luck. On Christmas Eve, the UK-based dev was one of many in the path of heavy flood waters that left more than 37,000 people stranded and without power. Over 1,000 properties were flooded, including Hello Games’ offices. The dev tweeted that “We’ve lost most things – PCs, monitors, furniture, a door, a wall. You’d think the massive water cooled mega PC would be ok? It was not.” Then to add to the misfortune, in a follow-up tweet reported by Joystiq, Hello Games confirmed that its insurance company will not cover the flooding damage, because the developer is located in a flood risk zone.
“BAD NEWS! Had a ‘hilarious’ call with insurer yesterday. Small print is if you are in a flood risk zone, you are not insured for flooding :(“
Hello Games is located in the town of Guildford, in the Surrey region southwest of London. Storms across the UK last week featured rains and winds of more than 100mph, and few areas were hit as hard as Guildford. With temperatures dropping and power out in many areas, residents were forced to flee as waters coursed through streets.
“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!” Hello Games tweeted.
It will be weeks, months, even years before the region recovers, and judging by the tweets, insurance companies are in no hurry to help. Born Ready Games, the developer behind Strike Suit Zero, was also hit by the flood, although fortunately the majority of its PCs were saved before the waters hit.
Despite the news from the insurance company, Hello Games is trying to look at the bright side of things as they consider how to rebuild, “On a brighter note, no insurance means we can just wade in and start setting things straight! Hello Games assemble!”
