Coronavirus outbreak causes Nintendo delays

The Coronavirus has taken another hit at gaming, this time with Nintendo

Peter Lennon
17th February 2020
The Coronavirus has taken another hit at gaming, this time with Nintendo
Nintendo has come out with a statement revealing that production for the Nintendo Switch has been delayed for the Japanese market.

The delay comes from the mass production of Switch consoles that is done in China, which has been the most severely affected by the virus thus far.

While Nintendo has begun to migrate their production to Vietnam since the emergence of the China-US trade war, operations there are not yet substantial to support the backload.

The Animal Crossing: New Horizons themed Switch console has also been delayed.

Peter Lennon

Additionally, the Animal Crossing: New Horizons themed Switch console – that had been unveiled at the end of January - has also been delayed, with a new release date in Japan currently unannounced.

The console design has been met with a great reception online and is slated to be a limited edition. New Horizons is the upcoming and highly anticipated follow-up to 2013’s Animal Crossing: New Leaf (released on the 3DS).

Meanwhile, the wide global market, including North America and Europe, will remain unaffected by the fall of production in China. This is due to the fact that, unlike Japan, Switch consoles and accessories are not produced in China for these markets.

Likewise, the Animal Crossing themed Switch will continue to be released on March 13th in both the US and European markets. Moreover, despite New Horizons itself having already been delayed from its original late-2019 release, it will continue to be released on 20th March for the Nintendo Switch worldwide.

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Unfortunately for Nintendo Switch gamers, the disruption caused by the Coronavirus does not end here. Obsidian Entertainment’s latest game, The Outer Worlds, has been delayed from March 6th, 2020 to an undisclosed date. This is because the gaming studio Virtuous, which is overseeing the Switch port, has its main office in Shanghai, China.

Both the Switch productions and delayed gaming port could hint at the further financial strains on the market being caused by the latest epidemic.

As aforementioned, the movie industry has already been greatly affected by the loss of the Chinese market – the second biggest only to the United States – with many films seeing Box Office slumps, such as Birds of Prey and Dolittle; China has previously lifted films' box office performance to higher numbers, such as with the World of Warcraft adaptation in 2016.

A similar slump could be seen within the gaming industry in the near future as both the production and market and China have been stricken off the record for the foreseeable future.

AUTHOR: Peter Lennon
English Literature undergraduate. Although I primarily write for the Courier's Film section, I do love helping out in the Televsion and Gaming sections as well. I also organise and host livestreams/radio shows as FilmSoc's inaugural Head of Radio. Twitter: @PeterLennon79

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