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If coronavirus continues to worsen or prolong closures in countries and global markets, Nintendo warns that Switch games may be delayed
In its latest earnings report for fiscal year 2020Nintendo described a number of risk factors for its business. COVID-19, which has released a wrench on the already chaotic game development machine, could have a direct impact on Nintendo’s upcoming roster.
Developers are forced to work from home and it is difficult to find key things like motion capture and voice recording. The company was fortunate to dodge a significant development impact by releasing Pokemon in 2018 and Animal Crossing before the shutdown in 2020, but other Switch games might not be as lucky.
“We would like to discuss the impact on research and development. If the effects of COVID-19 are prolonged or worsened further, development schedules may be affected due to the difference in development environments between working from home and working in the home. office”. Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said in the latest earnings report.
“In particular, it is anticipated that the impact on overseas subsidiaries and other affiliated companies involved in development will be even more difficult to predict than in Japan. As a result of these factors, we may not be able to proceed with the launch of the Nintendo products and service launch as intended. This is also true for other software publishers, so it may not be possible to provide game content on Nintendo platforms as intended. “
Also read: Nintendo’s earnings rose 33% to $ 2.37 billion as Switch sales increase
It’s worth mentioning that the upcoming bigger first-party games, like Breath of the Wild 2, Bayonetta 3, and Metroid Prime 4, are still listed as TBA.
Nintendo has already telegraphed a slimmer game list for this fiscal year. As a result of the potential impact of COVID-19, Nintendo hopes to learn less at FY2021 across the board. All metrics fell, from net sales to earnings and hardware and software sales.