The outbreak of the coronavirus in China has been escalating rapidly, with the number of confirmed coronavirus cases having exceeded 28,000 in the country, and death toll because of the situation rising to over 560, and given the scale and severity of the situation, it’s no surprise that it’s impacting several industries and markets as well.
As per a note published by financial services company Jefferies Group (via Business Insider by Pulse), the situation might have an impact on the manufacturing of electronic hardware as well. Apple and Nintendo might be faced with delays and/or production shortages for their products, and as per the report, the situation might lead to a delay for the PS5 and the Xbox Series X – both currently scheduled to launch this Holiday – as well.
The outbreak in China has led to several production and manufacturing giants – such as Foxconn – quarantine workers and halt services. According to the Jefferies Group, if these shutdowns should go on longer than a month, that will result in delays of release schedules in the games industry as well, including the PS5 and the Xbox Series X, what with nearly all of PlayStation and Xbox hardware manufacturing taking place in Chine. In addition to that, nearly half of all artwork in Western-developed games is outsourced to China, which means that delays could hit upcoming games – including planned next-gen releases – as well.
The coronovirus outbreak’s impact has already been felt in the games industry to varying degrees. The Taipei Game Show – scheduled originally for February in Taiwan – was recently delayed to Summer. Overwatch League matches scheduled across China were also cancelled. Most recently, Private Division delayed the upcoming Switch release of The Outer Worlds due to the offices of port developers Virtuous being closed as a result of the escalating situation.