Coronavirus hits video game industry hard – gamers forced to hurry up and wait
With COVID-19’s self-quarantine boredom reaching a fever pitch, people are constantly looking for new ways to take their minds off of this seemingly endless, and fatal, pandemic. More and more people are turning to video games in order to maintain their sanity, especially if they have children or are looking to expunge their own boredom.
But if you’re looking for a particular console, like a Nintendo Switch, you may have to wait a long time.
Before the coronavirus went global, trying to lock down the Switch was a difficult task since it was such a hot commodity with children and gamers, but now if you’re trying to purchase the console online, it’s almost impossible.
Some gamers are even settling for a Switch Lite, which is a cheaper, more compact option that cannot connect to a TV, but it doesn’t seem to hold the appeal of the original Switch that can amuse more people at once when connected to a television. So those families with multiple children? You’re a little out of luck.
“Nintendo Switch hardware is selling out at various retail locations in the U.S., but more systems are on the way,” a US Nintendo representative told Gamesindustry.biz recently. “We apologize for any inconvenience.”
Even though Switch sales increased 150% during March, Nintendo wasn’t the only video game company affected. Microsoft has seen an increase in demand for its cloud services globally and had to tweak their services accordingly for Microsoft Teams, Xbox Game Pass, Xbox Live and Mixer.
Concerns over traveling and large gatherings has affected the industry as well, which is resulted in slowdowns in manufacturing within China.
Multiple industry events have also been affected and were either canceled or pushed back to a later date.
New game delays
New game launches are also being moved to later dates thanks to the pandemic.
Sony announced on April 2 that “The Last of Us Part II” and Marvel’s “Iron Man VR,” two highly anticipated games, are going to be delayed until further notice. This is the second time Sony has delayed the release of the sequel to widely popular “The Last of Us” thanks to the pandemic — it was originally supposed to be made available in February but was moved to May.
Sony Interactive Entertainment has not set a new date for the launches.
Amazon Gaming Studios announced that it is pushing back the release of its new massively-multiplayer online role-playing game “New World” from May to August 25.
“Like most of you, our entire team has been sequestered as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic,” the studio said. “While we are still making great progress, developing an ambitious MMO like New World remotely has introduced some challenges. We want to make sure that we have the time needed to make New World the very best it can be for our players. As a result, we’ve chosen to delay the game’s release in order to reach our quality bar as we work remotely for the foreseeable future.”
New consoles are on track
But what about the newest consoles that are supposed to hit stores later in the year?
Microsoft announced in December 2019 that their latest brainchild, the Xbox Series X, was scheduled to be released in the 2020 holiday season, but now some gamers are worried that thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, that date will be pushed back. But Microsoft is sure that everything will go according to their original schedule. At least for now.
“On the supply side, we are getting back on rails,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told CNBC. “We’ll have to check back on it. But the one good thing is the supply chains are all coming back. In some sense right now that is not a real issue. I think the bigger issue is what happens in the United States, in Europe, and other developing markets, around the demand side of this going forward.”
Back in March, Sony PR said that the pandemic will not affect the release of its new PlayStation 5, which is said to be available for the 2020 holiday season as well.
While this is good news for those gamers who are itching for something new, this does little to help those who are still sitting ideal with empty hands, just wishing to join in on all the gaming fun.