Square-Enix says video game development has stopped due to COVID-19

[R3P0]

2021 May be a very bad year for games

Since making a video game takes years, many of the big games that arrived in 2020 were already deep into production when the pandemic hit. Development of current games is at a dead stop, Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda said when speaking to the Financial Times.

"What we are selling now may have provided some positive aspects," Matsuda said, "but on the negative side time has stood still in terms of production. We couldn't develop anything. That is where the impact will come."

Many of those titles have yet to be revealed, but blockbuster games take years to make, with hundreds or thousands of people working in offices around the world — something that's become nearly impossible during a global pandemic. Studios have had increased difficulty doing the motion capture ("mocap") or audio work needed to put the finishing touches on a game remotely.

"Mocap is just something that's basically stopped. We're not going into mocap studios," Spencer told Business Insider in May. "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."

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