How CORONAVIRUS will affect the Next-Gen Consoles

COVID-19, aka the Coronavirus, has been causing a LOT of panic and worry across the world. Being super contagious and considered more deadly than the Flu, Coronavirus has been making waves. Especially in Asian counties such as China, where a lot of supply chain manufacturing takes place. Factories are being shut down in order to try to contain the spread of the virus and leaving a lot of people out of work, and supply chain orders not being fulfilled. But what does that mean for the next generation of video games?

Image by Marc Himmelwright, The Game Pad Podcast

The 8th generation of home video game consoles and the proverbial “console wars” is off to a weird start.For starters, Nintendo technically kicked off the 8th gen by going all in with it’s immensely popular Switch console that released in March of 2017. Combining a home console with a handheld console, (a corner of the market that Nintendo already owned) was a risky move, but luckily for Nintendo it’s worked out immensely well (especially after the disaster that was the Wii U).

Nintendo Switch. Imagine courtesy of Nintendo

Microsoft’s answer to the Nintendo Switch is the Microsoft Xbox Series X console. At this point in time, we basically have all the info we need about the Series X. Tech specs, size, weight, what the console actually looks like, what it’s capable of, etc. There are countless articles out there that can give you specifics on those, so I’m not going to dive into them here.

Xbox Series X Console and Controller. Image courtesy of Xbox Wire

Son’y answer to the Series X is the PS5, a console that to this day is still shrouded in mystery as Sony has yet to reveal any technical specs or even a picture of the console.

Both companies in various publications, press tours, and announcements have stated that the consoles will be releasing “Holiday 2020.” But just what does that mean? The obvious and vague answer would probably be sometime in early November to mid December, prime release time for video games and consoles. Both companies want a big opening week with strong sales, and being the “must have” electronic on everyone’s Christmas/Holiday Gift list helps tremendously.

But this year, that could very well NOT be the case for Microsoft and Sony.

PS5 Dev Kit. Business Insider

Holiday 2020 is just about 8 months away from the time this article is being written. With supply chains being essentially closed or slowed to a crawl due to the Coronavirus epidemic, that doesn’t leave a lot of time for mass production, which essentially has to start soon if both companies want their consoles to hit shelves come November/December and in time for Black Friday and the holiday gift-giving season.

In a recent blog from Microsoft, they state that,

“…the supply chain is returning to normal operations at a slower pace than anticipated at the time of our Q2 earnings call.”

While they don’t mention whether or not the supply chain issues will be affecting the Series X release specifically, they do go on to say that most likely, Microsoft will miss their Q3 projections set in Q2. Which doesn’t bode well for a video game console that has to start mass production soon in order to meet the demands one would think the 4k gaming machine would garner.

Amiss all of this, Sony has stayed uncharacteristically quiet given how close we are to the PS5’s supposed release date. We still have yet to even see what the PS5 will look like, much less specs. The only things to have been leaked so far have been the Dev Kits that got sent to various game studios and developers, but as many know, the dev kits never end up looking like the consumer versions.

Sony has also announced that it has decided to pull out of E3 again, AND has canceled a LOT of upcoming press events that were scheduled recently, many of which some believed would give us our first look at the new console and some possible technical specs.

Animal Crossing Nintendo Switch, image courtesy of GameSpot

The Holiday 2020 release date for the Series X and the PS5 seems to be more and more unlikely as each day goes by without any confirmation of mass production starting or in the case of Sony, any information at all! Even Nintendo has been feeling the effects of the Coronavirus. The special Animal Crossing edition Switch console can no longer be pre ordered and some stores even had to cancel pre-orders due to the limited supply that they’d be receiving from Nintendo. According to a local Nintendo Representative I spoke to, the special edition Switch consoles most likely won’t be re released at a later time either, causing quite a panic for those that are fans of the Animal Crossing series wanting to get their hands on the mint and sky blue colored console.

Will the Series X and PS5 release on time? It’s hard to say and really depends on how COVID-19 turns out. At the moment, it isn’t looking too good for either console maker as the virus continues to wreak havoc in every country that it pops up in. And at this point it’s a bit late to change up the supply chain and move manufacturing to a different country. And even then it’s only a matter of time until THAT country is exposed to Coronavirus, if they haven’t been already.

All in all, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the last two 9th gen consoles hit the streets en mass until sometime in early 2021.