2020 was a very peculiar year. The world was disrupted by a major pandemic that we’re still going through today. While we are starting to see that light at the end of the tunnel, it’s hard not to think back about how rough of a shape the markets were in last year. Really, the height of the pandemic was something that will go down in history books. There were quarantine orders, social distancing, masks, and office jobs were quickly shut down in favor of working at home.
Several development studios closed their doors and had their employees work on the video game project from the comfort of their homes. While some find this not ideal, others have taken up the freedom of working from home and getting projects done in a virtual space. Most have likely already got their workforce into the groove from working at home, but this transition period from working at an office to their home required some time. Months were lost as employees got the equipment needed and started working from their homes which means games were pushed back.
Today, we’re finding out that a poll done by GDC confirms 44% of developers have claimed their game projects were delayed because of the pandemic. Outside of the transition period, there are months lost due to not being able to work in a more collaborative area together, or the need of traveling to finish a project was delayed until the pandemic subsides enough. That doesn’t mean these games are outright canceled.
We’ll likely see more games get pushed back as the developers require more time to work on them. This might be a bit of a tough period to deal with if you have a new console platform as we’re still waiting for more exclusives or next-generation games to get some use out of the latest hardware, but for now, it looks like there’s a good amount of developers still working on projects that might have already found its way into the marketplace by now if it weren’t for the coronavirus health pandemic outbreak.
Source: GDC
