What you need to know
- Xbox Series X is Microsoft's upcoming console.
- Xbox head Phil Spencer says the hardware and software are progressing well.
- Games may be delayed in 2021.
- Motion capture is the hardest hit right now.
Coronavirus, or COVID-19, is impacting various industries around the globe and it looks like the gaming industry will be impacted in 2021. Motion capture in games has stopped and there are new challenges of working remotely. In an interview with Business Insider, Xbox head Phil Spencer said that a year from now, games may be delayed.
You can read the quote below.
Through the summer, early fall? I feel pretty good about those games. Games that were targeting a year from now or beyond? There'll be some impact, but they'll be able to react. Mocap is just something that's basically stopped. We're not going into mocap studios. If you had all your animation captured and you're doing touch up in more individual art production and in areas like textures and other things, you're in a better position. If you're waiting for a lot of either large audio work — when it's with symphonies and other things — or mocap, you're held up right now and you're making progress in areas that you are... Even though we're obviously not traveling to China, we feel good about our progress on hardware. I've got my take-home downstairs and I'm playing on it most nights, and I feel good about the software updates that we're doing.
Let's hope that this doesn't impact the industry too much, but we'll see. Hopefully, the developers are staying safe so that they can give us amazing games for years to come.
Play for a few months
Xbox Game Pass gives you access to over 200 games for one monthly fee. Xbox Game Pass Ultimate also adds Xbox Live Gold to the package so you can play online with your friends.
