It’s no secret that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has been a massive hindrance to just about every industry on the planet in some form or another. From general commercial industries suffering shortages of basic goods, the entertainment industry delaying films and park openings by months, to some game projects even facing indefinite delays, it’s been a struggle to say the least. According to a new report from Video Games Chronicle, that struggle, in the context of the games industry, has only continued to worsen as the pandemic has dragged on.
The Games Developers Conference annual State of the Industry survey has officially concluded, and of the 3,000 developers around the globe who completed the survey, 44% report that the Coronavirus-related shutdowns and work-from-home orders have resulted in their projects being delayed in some way – which is an 11% increase from the survey’s results last year.
While this is bad news on its own, it’s worth noting that 35% of those surveyed shared that the challenges presented by the pandemic have, in fact, increased their productivity, with 32% sharing that their output has remained the same. This bright spot in the otherwise dour survey results provides a bit of hope that development teams may continue to adjust and could even begin to flourish again in spite of the current challenges coming against them.
VGC’s report on the survey’s results is absolutely worth a read, as it provides a bit more insight on the poll results with quotes from various developers, as well as touches on a number of the higher-profile game delays we’ve seen over the past year.
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Written by Marcus Ramirez
A writer and dreamer who loves all things tropical, bright, colorful, and shiny. Marcus is obsessed with Kingdom Hearts and patiently awaits its triumphant return to Nintendo hardware. He has a (totally real) court order that requires him to always have a 3DS or Switch on his person when leaving the house for more than a few hours.
