While the rest of us were bleary-eyed and/or phoning in sick yesterday, a company in Japan gave its entire team the day off to celebrate the release of From Software's eagerly-anticipated action RPG, Elden Ring.
Pocketpair, which develops monster battler Palworld, announced earlier this week that it would give everyone Friday off – with pay, no less – suggesting that staff would be "unable to focus on work" anyway given it was Elden Ring's release date.
ポケットペアは、全社員対象者にエルデン休暇を支給します！エルデの王は金、月は出勤する必要はありません！ pic.twitter.com/HforPa0TkNFebruary 22, 2022
But there's more, too. As well as an "Elden Holiday" on Friday, staff have also been told that they don't have to come in first thing on Monday, either, so that they can play into the early hours on Monday before work guilt-free (thanks, Automaton Media).
"When Elden Ring hits the rails, the momentum carries it forward and refuses to slow down," we said in the GamesRadar+ Elden Ring review, in which we awarded the ARPG a full five out of five stars.
"My peaks of rage at being stomped on by towering titans never stopped being fun despite that, with that very particular form of masochistic joy you get from wrestling with FromSoftware games. It might not be as groundbreaking as its inspirations, but taken on its own terms, Elden Ring might be the best of its brethren - and that's something I'm still struggling to believe has actually happened."
At the time of writing, Elden Ring has received a "Mixed" review aggregate score from users on Steam, where many players are complaining of PC optimization issues.
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