Xbox’s Phil Spencer recently revealed Business Insider that the real impact of COVID-19 will be seen in the beginning of 2021, he explains that games who were scheduled to launch on 2021 are the one that will reflect the most the setbacks of the remote work. However, he is confident to say that Xbox Game Studios’ developers “will be able to react”.
Nintendo’s President Shuntaro Furukawa also talked about the remote work setback, affirming that there are “big limitations on what can be done from home”, Phil Spencer gives a better explanation of what are those limitations that developers are facing, one of those being MOCAP.
“Mocap is just something that’s basically stopped. We’re not going into mocap studios,” Spencer told Business Insider. “If you had all your animation captured and you’re doing touch up in more individual art production and in areas like textures and other things, you’re in a better position. If you’re waiting for a lot of either large audio work — when it’s with symphonies and other things — or mocap, you’re held up right now and you’re making progress in areas that you are.”
Xbox Series X’s launch is certainly a big concern from investors, fans and Microsoft, Spencer claims the progress being done on both software and hardware is still on track. However he seems to speak vaguely about how is COVID-19 affecting Xbox Game Studios and Xbox Series X.
“Even though we’re obviously not traveling to China, we feel good about our progress on hardware,” Spencer said. “I’ve got my take-home [console] downstairs and I’m playing on it most nights, and I feel good about the software updates that we’re doing.”…”From the kind of pomp and circumstance around launches, you might find a time where there’s some impact,”… “some things that were going to launch, and maybe they moved a little bit.”
Phil Spencer has tried to represent an image of security from Xbox and its parent company Microsoft, he has confirmed several times that Xbox Series X schedule is not harmed by COVID-19. While the pandemic virus seems to be slowing down in Europe and Asia, there is also a worry that a winter season might represent an increase in infections, something that might cripple the manufacturing process of the console. Microsoft has not announced if they’re planning a limited production is being planned as a way to secure the launch of the next Xbox, but chances are, that it will be very hard to find a Xbox Series X in 2020.
Source: Business Insider
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A Nintendo Switch trailer was also released.
According to SteamDB.
An announcement trailer was also released.