Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the video game industry
This has particularly impacted indie developers who typically use these events for face-to-face meetings with potential partners to gain funding and publishing support, and caused them to have to delay or cancel projects.Portions of the sector that relied on physical products, such as retail stores and peripheral makers, as well as those dependent on in-person activities such as quality assurance through playtesting, ratings evaluation, and marketing, also struggled with global stay-at-home orders.[119][120] By July 2020, NPD Group reported that the total sales of video game hardware and software within the United States in the first six months of 2020 reached US$6.6 billion, the highest since 2010.One major factor that may cause delays is the ability to capture voice acting without access to studios during physical distancing for society, even though some of members have considered working from residence remotely to avoid troubling situations.[1] An example of this happened with the Western release of Persona 5 Strikers whose voice acting in English was meant to start in April 2020 but was delayed due to the pandemic.Animal Crossing: New Horizons was especially popular, with people around the world turning to the game's recreation of ordinary daily life activities and social networking features as a substitute for the normalcy disrupted by the pandemic.While other factors contributed to the layoffs, such as previous acquisitions and mergers that came after 2021, the return to normalcy after COVID changed the profitability of video games, lowering market forecasts, which the inflated industry could not sustain.
COVID-19 pandemicCOVID-19SARS-CoV-2DeathsTimelineJanuaryresponsesFebruaryAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecemberLocationsBy country and territoryAfricaAntarcticaEuropeNorth AmericaOceaniaSouth AmericaCruise shipsNaval shipsEndemic phaseEvacuationsFace masksInternational aidOriginLockdownsby countryMisinformationby governmentsFake treatmentsSocial distancingSoftwareTravelUnited NationsWorld Health OrganizationWTO IP waiverUndercounting of deathsCOVID-19 appsZero-COVIDNational responsesEuropean UnionGermanyIrelandNetherlandsNew ZealandNigeriaPhilippinesRussiaSwedengovernmentfederal governmentVietnamDisease testingBreathalyzerDevelopmentDrug developmentDrug repurposingPublic health mitigationVaccinesHistoryResearchDeploymentAuthorizationsOperation Warp SpeedMisinformation and hesitancyVaccine cardVaccine passportsCoronaVacCovaxinConvideciaJanssenMedigenModernaNovavaxOxford–AstraZenecaPfizer–BioNTechSinopharm BIBPSputnik VVariantsVariants of concernOmicronEpsilonLambdaCluster 5Lineage B.1.617Economic impactrecessionArts and cultureAviationCannabisCinemaDisneyFashionFinancial marketsFood industryFood securityJournalismPerforming artsRetailTelevisionsportscastingprogramsTourismCanadaMalaysiaBy sportAssociation footballBaseballBasketballCombat sportsCricketDisc golfGaelic gamesGridiron footballIce hockeyMotorsportRugby leagueImpactsLong COVIDNeurological and psychological symptomsPost-exertional malaiseSocietyAnimals