The global COVID-19 pandemic has been something that, in many ways, slowed the world to a complete halt for months. Almost every industry, and every world economy, was impacted to some degree. Some countries are doing their best to return to normal, and those that handled the situation the best have started to gingerly get back to something resembling a ‘normal’ life and schedule. But it’s easy to forget that the outbreak is still ongoing, and a lot of major companies are taking it very seriously, such as Sega.
In the newest SegaNama, Sega Chief Creative Officer Toshihiro Nagoshi talked about the impact of the virus still, and how it has impacted Sega. He says that, as of now, roughly 99% of their workforce is still working remotely. Employees have taken their PCs home to continue on projects, though did say this has slowed down development. The developers are also getting what was called “At Home Compensation” to address electric bills that have notably soared with all this new equipment at home (thanks to DualShockers for translating and transcribing the talk).
The State of Emergency in Japan was lifted on May 25th in the Tokyo region by the Prime Minister, where Sega’s HQ is located. Still, it goes to show a lot of places are still being cautious in these uncertain times.