Despite all the disruption caused by coronavirus outbreak in the world, Microsoft’s Xbox chief, Phil Spencer, says the company’s next-gen console will launch on schedule as initially planned.
“Overall, I think we’re in line with where we thought we would be,” said Phil Spence, in an interview with CNBC. Microsoft already revealed plans of launching the Xbox series X towards the end of the year, and it seems even the coronavirus outbreak won’t avert them.
Sadly, the effects have crippled in, on the other side of the business – game production. Although Phil expressed, his satisfaction with the current state of game development, its clear that production is not as effective when devs are working from home.
“I’d say the bigger unknown is probably the game production,” he added. “Game production is a large scale entertainment activity now, you have hundreds of people coming together, building assets, working through creative.”
Concerns on the delay of next-gen console game titles have begun to draw worry among gaming franchises after coronavirus pushed companies to let their developers work from home for safety.
Microsoft’s competitor Sony early last month pushed back the release of Last of US 2, a new iteration of Last of US, which is probably one of the biggest game titles scheduled to launch in 2020.
A blessing in disguise is the release of Halo Infinite, which might still launch on schedule, according to Phil Spence. The company has already delayed Wasteland 3 and Minecraft Dungeons.
Microsoft plans to showcase next-gen console games this week on Thursday.