According to Venture Beat, Nintendo will not hold its June Nintendo Direct, which is usually held in tandem with E3 (Event Entertainment Expo). According to the company, many workers are facing complications from Japan’s work from home order due to the spread of COVID-19. This is the first time since 2013 that the company has not this annual event. As Yuri Kageyama wrote in his AP article, “-many Japanese lack the basic tools to work from home”, which includes many things like personal computers with the correct software.
Nintendo was putting together a June event to showcase all of their new games for the lined up for the future, along with a release schedule for said games. Included in this schedule was an event supposed to be held for the Mario franchise’s 35th anniversary. As GamesRadar initially reported, the publisher will probably still plan to release many classic Mario games for the Nintendo Switch as part of their celebration for one of the most iconic gaming characters. Most likely, their Direct event will be taking place at the end of the summer instead of being canceled altogether.
Nintendo, like many other companies, are not the only ones facing struggles due to the COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the world. Many games are facing delays due to various work from home orders in an attempt to slow down the spread, but those only work so well as many do not have access to the same technology to continue developing the game. Other gaming events around the world have been canceled or postponed until the advice for social distancing starts to become more lenient.
E3 2020 was canceled in March due to concerns about the Coronavirus. Even though this event is canceled, both physically and digitally, many other games have taken it upon themselves to showcase what they have such as online events and festivals.