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Nintendo has stated that its developers and partner studios are experiencing problems while working from home as a result of the pandemic (via GameSpot).
“Since there are indeed big limitations on what can be done from home, we do think this will have a large impact," said Shuntaro Furukawa (president of Nintendo) in the company’s latest earnings report. “Nintendo has development partners and development offices not just in Japan, but all over the world. The first locations to be affected were the offices in Europe and America, where working from home started early. Then our offices in Japan also switched to working from home. In the case of Japan, this had a major impact on development because we did not already have a remote development environment in place.”
This aligns with previous reports that claimed the company would be forgoing a Nintendo Direct in June due to these unforeseen issues. Apparently, fans should stay alert for surprise announcements, like the reveal of Paper Mario: The Origami King. Furukawa also admitted that the impact on production “may potentially increase” for as long as employees work remotely instead of in the offices and studios. The company anticipates that software and hardware sales will decrease in the coming months, and aims to sell 19 million Switches in this fiscal year (down from 21.03 million units for 2019) and to sell 140 million games (down from 168.72 million units for 2019).
It’s not all doom and gloom. Nintendo’s developers are “gradually gaining experience” in these unstable times, and this may encourage greater adaptability and flexibility for any other crises that may manifest. Fingers crossed they don’t manifest, though.
