© Uichiro KasaiFollowing the evacuation of seven provinces in Japan due to the outbreak of violence – including game development centers in Tokyo, Osaka and Fukuoka – many video game developers and associated companies have also announced a temporary shutdown.
As we mentioned in the previous article, games to be launched in April and May will continue as planned, articles will be published in the summer, and perhaps even more, thrown back.
Masahiro Sakurai has announced that his team will be working remotely Super Smash Bros. Finally, saying:
I'll be working remotely. In other words, I'm going to be a home guard. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate requires secure security and is therefore difficult to work remotely, but now is the time to do so. Let's work hard and meet this together!
In addition, retail stores have agreed to close. The Nintendo TOKYO store released the following statement:
Shibuya PARCO and Nintendo TOKYO will close on Wednesday, April 8 to prevent the spread of new coronavirus infections. … We will notify you of a business resume through our official Twitter account.
Kirby Café is also closed:
Thanks for visiting Kirby Café. Due to the closure of commercial establishments, Kirby Café and Kirby Café Store Tokyo will also be closed according to locations from Wednesday, April 8. We will also notify you when we start business. In addition, customers who have already made reservations during the holidays will be canceled. We're sorry, but we can't transfer reservations to the new day.
We expect that further announcements will follow and we will review this post accordingly.
