The recent outbreak of the coronavirus that had first surfaced in Wuhan, China is starting to affect video game hardware manufacturers in Asian countries that produce video game consoles and accessories for consumers in the United States and other countries, as well. 

According to the CEO of Nintendo Japan, these delays with Nintendo switch production were “unavoidable” and they had to relocate some of it’s console production to Vietnam. Not only hardware, but game development is also delayed because there is a reliance on Chinese game developers. 

Video game titles such as The Outer Worlds have been delayed because Virtous, the company working on this game, had to close offices for an extended period of time due to the Coronavirus. 

The outbreak has also affected various esports events (sport competition using video games) because China has various esports teams for almost every game in esports events.

Games like PlayerUnknown BattleGrounds or PUBG are postponing an esports event scheduled for April.

WJPS senior Daniel Ian said, “sales might go down for people who are panicking about this and it could delay the release of video game titles.”

Wjps junior Lucas Fernandez said, “It might delay new games, but it shouldn’t be much of an issue because it won’t delay them too much.”