It's brown-trousers time ladies and gentlemen. During the unfolding pandemic that has swept the nation, those of my particular gaming disposition have rest assured on one key assumption: setbacks and delays may have swept the wider world of organised events but the largely sedentary nature of gaming makes as immune. Right? Unfortunately, such an assumption fails to accommodate for the very real fact that games are not conjured from a vacuum. Nay, they are the result of hard work from dedicated teams and several years of iteration and reiteration right up until the last second; all performed by folk who need to be in close proximity for communication and synergistic reasons. As such, when a big change to the way we live our lives forces these companies to start separating and distancing their workers, why wouldn't that have an impact on the state of games in development?
Over twitter not too long ago we learnt that was exactly the case as the much anticipated 'Last of Us Part 2' was hit with the delay hammer to the tune of 'indefinitely'. More chilling words can never be uttered from a studio on such a matter, like a strike to the face and a kick to the gut at the same time. Not only would this game not meet it's already staggered release date, there was no telling when things would be back on track. That means no adjusting calendars, no tampering of expectations, just a churning void in the expectations of fans as they try to figure out what to do with their free time now. And it's not as though you can blame Naughty Dog, they're doing what they need to in order to both keep their talent safe and ensure that the final product is as high quality as they can possibly produce. (I mean they even want to make the combat fun this time, they need time to pull that miracle off.) But that does little to nothing to alleviate the despair which is sure to be spreading around the gaming enthusiast world.
As for me, I'm not really a fan of TLOU so I can pretty much take it or leave it. From a narrative perspective I recognise that the first game was nigh on brilliant, but the gameplay let me down so I couldn't award that title any more than an 8. ('Gameplay' is pretty important to a 'Game', afterall.) So that isn't why I'm freaking out right now. That's due to something else entirely. (Can you figure out what?) For a AAA studio with many years to put together their opus like Naughty Dog to throw in the towel and announce that the Coronavirus has temporarily beaten them, it makes one wonder about other companies in similar situations with their upcoming releases; like how about CD Projekt Red, for example? They've already had to delay Cyberpunk 2077 once this year over fears of failing to meet quality standards, so can we be certain that those issues will be adequately met come this September? These leading months up to the game dropping were due to be night in and out of crunch time, so if these people are now working from home and presumably under more sensible hours, why would Cyperpunk be done by the time predicted before any of this nonsense dropped? (Or are CDPR going to try to work their staff to death before the Covid can get them?)
This sort of rising fear is a stark contrast to a handful of weeks back when we were shaking our heads at physical media and counting our lucky stars for the digital landscape in which we now reside. Whereas DOOM Eternal, Resident Evil 3, Ori and the Will of the Wisp and Final Fantasy 7, will likely make out like bandits during these months due to folk having literally no other option than to stay in and play these games; every other game that isn't pretty much done already is likely to find itself in serious trouble in the months to come. Anthem's promised overhaul is probably entirely halted, Ghost of Tsushima could be in trouble and this might mark year 3 that Bethesda decide to knowingly suppress their announcement for the upcoming Starfield; because that sucker could very well be delayed until 2022 at this rate.
As an apathetic shrew of a man I could hardly care less when the active sports seasons were all collectively cancelled, I yawned when the Olympics were officially delayed, I even chuckled a bit when the summer movie blockbuster season was killed off, when every TV show was delayed- (Well okay, that one kinda sucks.) but it wasn't until the gaming schedule was threatened that I officially joined in with the fearful masses. What I am I supposed to do without new games to keep me interested? What am I supposed to play? The back catalogue of games that I own, yet have never turned on once? (I swear that I will play 'Jade Empire' at least once this April.) But just as with everyone else, I and every gamer have literally no recourse to affect this potentially coming storm.
To inject a slight lampshade of positivity into this story, there is a very real possibility that what happened with TLOU is a one off and most upcoming big titles won't be delayed, at least not as badly. Whilst one might argue that the ideal environment for a development team to work in is inside of a room where everyone can communicate at a second's notice, it's not as though there's no way for such teams to still do what they do over the Internet. That's one of the really cool things about the digital age we've all been lumped into. More than a lot of jobs out there, working from home is a very real possibility for a lot of developers out there provided they've got the equipment with which to do so. (Taking a company computer home wouldn't be too frowned on in this age, would it?) To address one game which has me particularly concerned; not too long ago the CDPR team officially teased how progress on Cyberpunk was going well even during this epidemic, which certainly goes a long way to alleviate some budding fears in that department. (Of course, these might be the same folk who were confidant in Cyberpunk's original April release date, so share around those salt grains if you have them.)
But let's get away from worrying about the present for a moment, because I want to speculate about how today has the potential to change tomorrow. (God, I sound like a Jehovah's witness.) With all this shifting towards moving the workforce to working from their homes there lies the potential for a precedent to be set so that once this pandemic starts clearing up. People can start asking serious questions about how many jobs really require their staff to rock up in one place in order for standards to be met. Within the gaming world in particular there might be raised the question of if all their teams need to be in for every task such as, for example; the bug fixing team. (FYI; I've never worked as part of a development team so as far as I know that could be the standard anyway, I'm just using it as a comprehensive example.) Of course, then there is the flipside of downsizing that's already happening on a mass scale, but I said I'll talk about positives so let's callously ignore that for the time being.
In the weeks to come I'd imagine that we'll hear for certain whether or not serious delays will be hitting out most anticipated titles, but the worrying part of that equation is thus; we're not likely to hear if a game doesn't require delays. Therefore a lot of folk like me are going to spending the next 6 months biting their fingernails in hope that tomorrow doesn't bring foul news, and that's no way to live now is it? As a gamer I'd have to encourage you, dear reader, to go out and experience as many games that are out now and today, and worry less about what's coming in a few months or so for they may not be as close as you originally thought. Soften that potential blow before it hits by finding a new favourite game for you to kill time with. (I've already got RE3, so I'm set.)
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