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[*Coronavirus*] has joined the chat…

14 August, 2020

What does COVID-19 mean for the gaming industry?

Most Friday nights, you could find the All in! Games team unwinding over beers or rolling dice in a game of DnD. Having fun together outside of work has always been an important part of our nerdy company culture, but for months now, we’ve been #stayingathome. 

In this strange Plague Inc. reality, where work meetings and doctor’s visits have moved to the virtual world, social life has too. In fact, although we are socially isolating, people are coming together more than ever before. Everyone’s gathering around the comforting campfire of gaming.

Gaming has helped to fill a lot of the empty holes left in the wake of COVID-19. People missing nature can go hiking in Firewatch, while those longing for a feeling of community are meeting together in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. People used to weekly game nights are having online parties and feeling the thrill of working together playing games like our very own, Tools Up!.

Gaming is at an all-time high!

In a market where most entertainment industries are struggling, the gaming industry is breaking records across the board.

Consumers have been buying gaming consoles in droves. Switch sales especially have been higher than at any other point in time. Global spending on digital games hit 10 billion U.S. dollars in March alone. That’s the most ever in a single month! Even in-game purchases are higher than usual.

In addition to increased sales, a lot more people have been spending time on streaming sites like Twitch. Twitch has broken their record for both total hours streamed and hours watched. It’s the perfect time to start your streaming career! This could also be a good thing for gaming companies looking to promote their games, especially in light of the potential cancellation of so many of this year’s gaming conventions.

There are some challenges…

The structure of the gaming industry revolves around a handful of yearly game conventions. At these events, new exciting games are announced, publishing deals are scored, and new friendships are formed. This year, E3 was cancelled, while other conventions such as GDC and Gamescom moved their events online or postponed till 2021. In our new reality of months-long stay-at-home orders and travel restrictions, even 2021 is still clouded in uncertainty. The potential and already-realized loss of these events is sad and can also make things difficult for smaller developers that rely on these events to secure funding.

In terms of game development, the news is mostly positive. Some delays are expected due to longer game certification wait times and the need for live performance capturing or studio recording, which can’t be done from home. Already, CD Project Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 and Microsoft’s Halo Infinite have had to delay their planned releases among others. However, developers say they are still working on upcoming games from home, and doing what they can to stay on schedule.

Earlier in the year there were speculations that the production of the next generation of PlayStation and Xbox consoles expected this fall would be delayed. However, at this point in time, both companies have said that they are on schedule to meet their release dates. It has yet to be shown how restrictions on packing and shipping will affect the transport of new consoles. At least when it comes to games themselves 80% of consumers choose to buy their games digitally these days, so there shouldn’t be many problems there!

#PlayApartTogether

In the past few months, the gaming community has grown with new players and come together. In a joint effort with WHO, the gaming industry has launched the campaign #PlayApartTogether to help spread the message of social distancing while still playing the games you love with the people you care about. 

Fundraisers have been held and donations made to help aid the COVID-19 relief effort. Unity and Riot Games are even offering courses to learn some of the skills necessary for making video games to the public for free. In these difficult times, video games have helped us to socialize and experience the satisfaction of accomplishing something even though everything else is on hold. We’re all in this together. Keep playing gamers!

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