E3 2020 was cancelled by March 2020 by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). Many trade events and expositions for the industry were cancelled or postponed due to bans against public gatherings during the pandemic. However, it did not impact plans for Microsoft and Sony to release the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 respectively in Fall 2020.
Īs the origin of the pandemic, China is expected to impact the supply chains for electronics, which may limit hardware availability once the pandemic begins to be resolved. Portions of the sector that relied on physical products, such as retail stores and peripheral makers, as well as those dependent on in-person activities such as quality assurance through playtesting, ratings evaluation, and marketing, also struggled with global stay-at-home orders. Many esport leagues had to alter plans for their games, transitioning from live events to remote play or cancellation altogether.
This has particularly impacted indie developers who typically use these events for face-to-face meetings with potential partners to gain funding and publishing support, and caused them to have to delay or cancel projects. There have still been negative impacts on the industry, notably with major trade events like E3 2020 cancelled or postponed which may have impacted relationships between the smaller developers and publishers. With many people globally at home and unable to work, online gaming has observed record numbers of players during the pandemic as a popular activity to counter physical distancing for society, a practice recommended by the World Health Organization that helped boost revenues for many companies in the gaming industry. Most video game developers, publishers, and operators have been able to maintain operations with employees remote working to sustain game development and digital releases, though some productivity issues arose. In contrast to many other economic sectors that are drastically affected by the pandemic, the video game industry has been more resilient. The video game industry has been substantially impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic in various ways, most often due to concerns over travel to and from China or elsewhere, and delays in the manufacturing processes within China.
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