Coronavirus wreaks havoc on the games industry

Conventions, supply chains and more are at risk.

The spread of COVID-19 has dominated headlines for much of 2020, and no less so in the games media. Evidence that the virus would adversely affect the industry started last month as major companies including Facebook, Microsoft, Sony and Activision all pulled out of major US conventions and trade shows including the Game Developers Conference and PAX East.

The former was cancelled at the last moment, while the latter soldiered on. As for E3 2020 in June, it’s moving ahead “full speed” at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, industry analysts including the Asia-centric Niko Partners have predicted that COVID-19 could affect supply lines for both Sony and Microsoft’s forthcoming next-gen consoles. Other analysts aren’t quite as certain, with Equity Research analyst Michael Pachter pointing out to Techradar that consoles rely less on Chinese manufacturing compared to, say, the smartphone industry. While neither the PS5 or Xbox Series X have a release date at this stage, both have been promised for a ‘holiday 2020’ release window.