The COVID-19 might be slowing down the change of the guard from multiple aspects.

Currently, most publishers release positive figures in their financial earnings report (including Nintendo, but unlike Electronic Arts, they don’t have high expectations for the current fiscal year, starting April 1 – we wrote about it yesterday), but it’s a good idea to prepare for an upcoming recession. It will also be felt in changing the current consoles (PlayStation 4, Xbox One) to the next-gen machines – Daniel Ahmad, a senior analyst at Niko Partners, says that going to the PlayStation 5 and/or the Xbox Series X will not be as fluent as the jump was from the PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 duo to the current console pair. (He referred to a survey that more than a thousand Chinese players have completed.)

Ahmad told GameDaily that roughly 90% of the video game consoles were imported to the United States after being manufactured in China. Their production essentially came to a halt in February due to the coronavirus causing the factories to be shut down. This could cause problems in the global supply chain, and the supply for the next-gen consoles could be limited. (Regarding the PlayStation 5, Bloomberg already reported a limited launch – we wrote about it before.) However, the limited supply might also see an increased price tag…

„Component scarcity and logistics issues will increase the production and shipping cost of next-gen consoles set to launch this year. At this point, it is unlikely that Sony and Microsoft will price consoles at $400 or lower without taking a significant loss. As noted in the report, software delays, an upcoming recession, higher prices of consoles, and cross-gen games in year one could provide less of an incentive for current-gen owners to upgrade initially,” Ahmad said.

We can’t argue with that. The launch of the PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X – both aimed to arrive this Holiday season – might be interesting…

Source: DualShockers

Please support our page theGeek.games on Patreon, so we can continue to write you the latest gaming, movie and tech news and reviews as an independent magazine.
Become a Patron!