Nintendo believes that the COVID-19 pandemic will lead to serious delays in game development

Nintendo said that the impact of COVID-19 on the production of Switch consoles is declining, but the Japanese firm expects serious disruptions in the development and release of its own games.

Speaking to investors, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa touched on the slowdown in Switch production in March and April due to the impact of COVID-19 on component production: “As a result, we are not able to produce the number of units that we really want. However, there are signs of a gradual improvement in the situation, and therefore we expect that the impact of COVID-19 on production will decrease to some extent by the summer, and the volume that we can produce during the year will be in line with our sales forecasts for this fiscal year ".

However, Mr. Furukawa emphasized that the potential for improvement would disappear if the pandemic dragged on or worsened further. In this case, Nintendo will not be able to achieve the projected sales level of 19 million Switch units in the current fiscal year.

He also stated that there could be problems with the expected launches of games from Nintendo itself in the current fiscal year. The need for development teams and partners to work from home could, according to the company, make it difficult to release projects in line with current plans.

“Because there are really big restrictions on what can be done from home, we think it will have a big impact,” Mr. Furukawa said, adding that Japanese Nintendo teams lack any dedicated environment for remote game development.

“However, we are gradually gaining experience with what can and cannot be done remotely, and we are trying to figure out how much progress we can make in work done from home. Keep in mind that the impact on game development, both in terms of hardware and software, can increase as the amount of time spent working remotely increases,” the executive said.

To prepare for the worst-case scenario, Nintendo is now focusing on promoting existing games that have not yet reached their sales ceiling. Among such products, the company named, for example, the Ring Fit Adventure fitness game application, which includes a special accessory.

Source: 3dnews.ru