The Coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has mysteriously caused many of Nintendo's problems over the past few months – in April, the company told its Japanese fans that the shipping of switches to Turnch would be temporarily upgraded due to virus effects.
The sports star noted that the ongoing effects of the epidemic had "limited impact on business results in the current fiscal year" in today's earnings report, but also revealed a number of ways it could affect the business going forward.
One potential problem, which can arise when the effects of the virus are "prolonged or worsened", seeing games and services being delayed as development schedules are delayed. Nintendo says, "we may not be able to keep up with the release of Nintendo products and the launch of services as planned":
"If the COVID-19 results are prolonged or worsened, development schedules may be affected by differences in development conditions between home and office. In particular, the impact on sub-companies and other joint development companies is expected to be more difficult to predict than Japan.
Due to these fac tors, we may not be able to continue the release of Nintendo products and the start of operations as planned. This is also true for some software publishers, so it may not be possible to provide game content on Nintendo platforms as planned.
Other risks to Nintendo's forward-thinking business include restrictions on physical sales, the closing of retail stores, and "the possibility that Nintendo's network-enabled services may be terminated in the event that (i) it becomes obsolete to maintain its (network) stability".
There is good news, too, though. Nintendo says that delays in production and shipping are "slowly recovering", and any persistent effects of the virus could disrupt product supply and in the future, this should mean that more programs will soon find their supporters trying to get their hands on one.