The Xbox leader assumes that the pandemic will have an effect on the sector, but we will not see the consequences immediately but next year.
The consequences of coronavirus (COVID-19) in the video game industry are, right now, unknown. What is certain is that there will be, as the main large publishers already assume, aware that the pandemic has brought with it extraordinary measures to apply from remote work to the reformulation of its roadmap for the current fiscal year. Phil Spencer, Xbox Leader and Vice President at Microsoft, believes that we will not see the effects of this crisis until 2021.
While he has repeatedly said that the Xbox Series X will not be delayed and his release is still planned for Christmas 2020, some games may do. In a meeting with Business Insider, the manager has argued this forecast, which identifies that some production areas have been "paralyzed" dry. The conclusion is clear: video games planned for 2021 will suffer, in many cases, delays.
Phil Spencer during the Xbox Series X presentation at The Game Awards 2019
“Motion capture is something that has basically stopped. We are not going to motion capture studios, ”he begins by saying. “If you have all the animations already captured and you're just applying touch-ups on individual parts of the art production or in areas like textures and whatnot, then you're in a better position. If you are waiting for the audio work – when the time comes for the symphony orchestras – or movement capture, you are stopped right now and you have to progress in areas where you can do it ”, he comments.
Finding ways forward despite the difficulties, in short, given the unpredictability of an outbreak that, in the United States, is far from having ended its spread in relation to certain countries in Europe.
We will know more about Microsoft's first party games in July, when the monthly Inside Xbox – within the Xbox 20/20 event program – takes place for that month. Halo Infinite, arguably the video game Xbox One gamers are most looking forward to this year as well as imminent future Xbox Series X buyers, will be out in 2020 and not be delayed, Spencer himself has promised. You can learn everything we know about the Xbox Series X at the moment. In this other article we review the 13 titles shown by third companies on the new console.
