The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which began in early 2020, has disrupted the entire world, including the games industry. Events like E3 2020 and TGS 2020 were cancelled, not to mention all esports events that have been affected. Games have been delayed and postponed.

It hasn’t exactly been all roses and peaches but the brighter side to all this is that more people are spending more time at home playing games and that generally translates to better sales for games. However, that’s because the negative long-term effects just might not have kicked in yet, according to Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Matsuda said:

“There is also a considerable impact on the production side.

It will resonate in the future.

What we are selling now may have provided some positive aspects, but on the negative side time has stood still in terms of production.

We couldn’t develop anything. That is where the impact will come.”

That’s a bleak and straightforward idea from the CEO of one of Japan’s biggest video game companies. Despite what Matsuda said, the statistics show that Square Enix stock shares have risen 68 percent since March 2020 and that an increase in digital games sales have resulted in three times the amount of first-quarter operating profits.

Still, there’s a lot for the company to show for gamers in the future. One of the most hyped next-gen games is Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XVI and this disruption in development from COVID-19 might be part of the reason why we won’t hear any more details about the game until 2021.

Let’s hope the games industry, and the rest of the world, manages to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic as soon as humanly possible.