This article was originally written for TheNintendoVillage.com, a website I founded and ran from 2018 to 2021.

We’ve heard a lot about the events that have been disrupted or cancelled due to the coronavirus outbreak, but there’s been few stories on the impact it’s having on development. In his latest Famitsu column however, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Director Masahiro Sakurai has discussed the disruption it’s causing to Fighters Pass Vol.2 - the second round of DLC for the game.

Commenting on travel restrictions and the possibility of development being temporarily shutdown he said:

“Restrictions are also being put on business travel. It’s particularly difficult to meet with partners who are faraway. For example, Nintendo is headquartered in Kyoto, right? In this regard, it’s quite difficult for us to visit other companies. In my case, specifically, I was scheduled to give a presentation to a publisher on our plans for a certain new fighter; however the key parties were not able to get together, so it’s been postponed indefinitely. That’s not something I could fix even if I could be in the office the whole time.
And if we were to find out someone in the office has the virus, I presume all of our buildings would be shut down. If that happens, development would have to be halted entirely. There’s a high probability of development not proceeding as scheduled, even if a new fighter were tentatively announced.”

Thanks to Nintendo Everything for the translation.

Elsewhere, Sakurai also says that games halting development or having release dates postponed is ‘inevitable’ during the current climate. We may very well hear of a few postponements as the pandemic continues, but it’s a small price to pay to keep everyone as safe as possible.

Source: Nintendo Everything