If the boss of the Xbox branch of Microsoft remains confident about the roadmap of the Xbox Series X and games (Xbox Series X: Console and games delays by the coronavirus? Phil Spencer makes the point) that does not mean that everything will be rosy for everyone in the coming months.
see also: Xbox Series X: A presentation of the First Party exclusives in July, first studios mentioned
The effects of the pandemic, confinement and compulsory work may not yet have been fully felt, according to Phil Spencer. The Xbox boss has, in the columns of Business Insider, given his feeling about the productions in progress which should be presented after the return:
Summer or early fall? I am confident for these games. Who are expected in a year or more? There is going to be an impact, but they will be able to respond.
Spencer refers to aspects of development that are difficult to solve when it is best for everyone to work from home.
The motion capture simply stopped. We no longer go to the mocap studios. If all your animations are already recorded or if you have a more individual artistic approach in compartments like textures, you are better placed. If you are waiting for significant audio work – in the case of symphonic orchestrations, for example – or mocap, you are currently experiencing a delay and will progress in other areas.
He takes as an example the sports series like Madden or FIFA, which could be the most affected for him. But he remains confident in the way the industry will maintain a continuous flow of games.
There are a lot of games being produced in our industry right now. I think we as an industry are going to get out of this. I remain optimistic about the games in the long term, even if an impact should be felt on the launch windows of certain titles.
And he's still just as sure about the Xbox Series X:
Although we obviously can't go to China, the hardware progression is going well. My console is here, I play it every night. The software updates that we do are going well too.
The Xbox Series X is expected by the end of 2020.
