Sony believes that its games business will see ‘no material impact’ by the coronavirus for the rest of the fiscal year.
While the coronavirus continues to greatly affect many forms of entertainment, with movies being delayed and football matches being cancelled, video games have been barely affected, with the likes of Animal Crossing: New Horizons still managing to sell ridiculously well.
This appears to be a sentiment echoed by Sony, which released an official statement regarding the coronavirus earlier today, expressing sympathy to those infected.
The statement explains how Sony’s various businesses have been affected by the current situation, and Sony seem to believe that its games side of the company will see ‘no material impact’ for the current fiscal year.
It added that it was monitoring the risk of delays in production schedules for its upcoming titles, both from first party and partner studios, so it’s not impossible for something like The Last Of Us Part 2 or , which is due out in April, to be hit with a delay; but it’s not something they’re warning about right now.
The same can’t be said for other segments of the company. New music releases have had to be delayed, and Sony has temporarily shut down all its film and television production.
Sony has also recently shut down its manufacturing plants in the UK and Malaysia. due to mandates set by their respective governments. The plan is to have them re-open later in mid-April.
As for the plants based in China, those began to restart operations in increments on 10 February, with Sony writing that ‘operations are returning to the level they were before the spread of the virus.’
With reports claiming that the coronavirus pandemic is, or at least very close to being, over in China, this is hopefully a sign of normalcy slowly starting to return. For gamers it also implies that there will be little or no delay to the release of the PlayStation 5 console later this year – even if there might be questions about stock levels.
Sony’s games division isn’t wholly unaffected by the virus at the moment, though. A few days ago, it stated that PlayStation Network download speeds on the PlayStation 4 would be delayed in Europe, though it added that online play would remain ‘robust.’
If there’s one thing we might be able to take away from this, it’s that Sony still seem to be confident about getting the PlayStation 5 out in time for its planned launch this year, despite analysts claiming both it and the Xbox Series X could be delayed till next year.
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