Welcome back to another roundup of how MMOs and the gaming industry are handling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yesterday we reported on the news that Germany had canceled all large events through the end of August, which we assumed would affect Gamescom in Cologne, given that it routinely assembles a third of a million attendees over the course of its annual run. Now, the Gamescom organizers have acknowledged the ban – and confirmed the show will go on digitally and that tickets will be refunded.
Official statement regarding #gamescom2020 ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/fHaN4GOULM
— gamescom (@gamescom) April 16, 2020
Meanwhile, now is apparently a bad time to be a beer – or a person – named using the Spanish word “corona.” BuzzFeed has a report up on a gamer named Joao Corona who goes by Corona in League of Legends; Riot customer support then hassled him to change his totally reasonable name, at least until the BuzzFeed report blew up and Riot issued a statement on Reddit, saying, “We don’t think forcing a name change in this instance is in line with our policies, so we’ll be looking into this situation.” The only good thing in this whole dumb mess is the BuzzFeed photo of Joao Corona… drinking a corona.
Another MMO has joined the quarantine event parade: Dark Age of Camelot has turned on the traveling merchants of the spring festival through May 5th.
Star Trek Online, likewise, is giving away a set of medical-themed gifts to all players in honor of first responders. There’s an in-game event this weekend too.
“In addition to putting this out in the game to allow you to show your support, we are going to be holding an in game gathering this Saturday, April 17th on all three Platforms, at 1pm PT. We will be meeting on the upper promenade of Deep Space Nine, outside of Quarks. Please show up in your best Medical Uniform, of whatever faction you choose, and show your support for the doctors, nurses, and other medical workers out there right now.”
Bloomberg has a piece out on Sony’s PlayStation 5 release; the bad news is that it’s going to launch fewer and more expensive PS5 units in 2020 than it did for PS4 in PS4’s launch year. The good news is that it’s not because of COVID-19, at least according to Sony, though that’s a hard sell, since the actual reason – component shortages – is most definitely influenced by the pandemic, and indeed Sony staff said production volume may still increase “depending on the COVID-19 situation.” Here’s Bloomberg: “Sony’s strategy, according to several people familiar with its plans, will be to rely on incumbent PlayStation 4 models as a bridge to get new users onto the PlayStation platform’s network services while the PS5 remains in limited supply.”
Finally, MMO developer Raph Koster has released another piece on the pandemic, not his first but one of the few posted to the public, this time on Facebook. The essay addresses specific strains of COVID-19 denialism running rampant on social media and might be useful for a recap of the statistics and ethics behind the crisis, from someone in the MMORPG community.
https://www.facebook.com/raphkoster/posts/10158369301921528
More on the impact of the virus on gaming:
MOP's been covering the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on online gaming since January 2020, and we're still going from behind our own quarantines, both to keep up with the news and be a source of entertainment and comfort too. Stay abreast of the big MMO impacts with us, but please be safe and care for your communities above all else.
