The Outer Worlds has been delayed on Switch ‘due to coronavirus’

Private Division has delayed Obsidian‘s The Outer Worlds on Nintendo Switch due to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, with the physical version now set to release on a cartridge.

[Duke19]

"Please wash your game cartridge"

[AnubisG]

And that is why there should be factories for the production of these things in other countries as well. Playstation and Nintendo production should move to japan. Xbox production should move to the USA.

At the very least, pick a EU country to produce these things in. I 100% garantee you that issues like this will never happen there. Any country in Eastern Europe would be absolutely happy to build factories and produce consoles and games for video game companies at competitive prices.

[RazzerRedux]

The price of games would probably double though.

[AnubisG]

No, it probably would not.

[RazzerRedux]

lol....you do know cheap labor is the reason these factories are in China in the first place, right?

[AnubisG]

You do know that they make stuff in other contries for cheap as well right?

[IcedOmega13]

Manufacturing in the US and Japan is more expensive and is why a lot of companies outsource to china and other asian countries.

[AnubisG]

Yet they still produce products in both Japan and USA.

[RazzerRedux]

They produce products in both Japan and USA using tech parts that were manufactured in China. We are not talking about paper products or weaved baskets. China is the technical manufacturing hub of the world. Producing products anywhere else is going to cost consumers a lot more money. These are just facts.

[Palitera]

Pfft... What are facts compared to his right winger "100% garantee"?!

[AnubisG]

@RazzerRedux

I'm aware of how the world works. I know how influencial China is and how many things are made there. However, things are amde elsewhere as well as I said before and I'm sure it can be made for just as cheaply in certain parts of the world other than China even if you get some parts from China. I know for a fact that electronics components are made in Hungary for cars very cheaply because many of my friends work in that industry in Hungary. According to you, that wouldn't be possible because China. I have nothing against China itself but it wouldn't be a bad thing to manufacture more stuff in other places too including video games. That is all I'm saying.

If you would bring video game manufacturing to Hungary for example, you could do it just as cheaply as in China, I'm pretty sure about that.

[AnubisG]

@Palitera

What "right winder 100% guarantee" you are talking about? Are you so into politics that you boil down everything to it?

I'm not a right winger nor a left winger. You jumped the gun there.

[i3eyond the Circle]

Paaahahahajahahaajaaajajahaaaa aa!!

No. No other country sits atop the rare earth metals with an overpopulation problem that causes the overlooking of things like slave wages, suicide and sleeping on wooden pallets while having the competency of manufacturing our components. If the ones at the beginning of the chain need 5$ a day instead of 1.20... that’s the product costing 4 times more.

I worked for an evil corporation once upon a time and they would rather still manufacture in China for the same price and still raise the consumer prices while blaming the virus.

[AnubisG]

But they used to make Playstations in Japan. Even the PS4. I don't know if they still do that but they used to and it did not effect the price. They also used to make them in Mexico as well and price was not effected. The prices are still the same if 100% manufacturing is in China now so the money they save by doing everithing in chane goes where? Probably the pockets of execs.

[spicelicka]

I don't know what you mean by "should be". It's not like you can just go up to these giant companies and tell them "hey you should be in EU" and they'll just oblige.

"100% garantee you that issues like this will never happen there"
Which doesn't mean anything, this is a non-issue for Nintendo. They save millions in cost because of Chinese production, whatever loss this creates is nothing to them.

I think you're really oversimplifying the industry like it's a lemonade stand. Just because other things are made outside of China doesn't mean these factories will just happily move over, and no any Eastern European country won't just produce games for competitive prices, or it would have happened already. It's basic economics.

The only way anything can change is through government intervention. For example heavy taxes and fines for things produced in China, or outright bans, or incentives to produce outside it. Even then it would be a super slow process to shift things out of there considering there are billions of dollars involved.

[AnubisG]

The only point I was trying to make here is that if they have factories in more countries than if there is a problem like this one country, it will not effect manufacturing of products as other places could make up for it.

Also, Playstation 4 was even used to be made in Tokyo, Japan. I don't know of they still make some there and the price was not effected.

[rainslacker]

It's unlikely they can just swap around the countries they want to use to make these things on a whim with what amounts to temporary market forces that may crop up like this. Factories don't just suddenly become viable because you want to make something there. It can take a year or more to get things together to make it happen.

It's not bad to diversify production of course, and many companies do in fact have manufacturing outside China as well, but China just has more production capabilities for the time being, and there is a lot of competition among internal factories that helps keep prices down. Other countries are starting to get more manufacturing as well, but some countries do make it too costly to make tens of millions, or hundreds of millions of products at a good price when you consider scale. The US for instance probably doesn't cost much more for electronics when it comes to labor cost, or at least that overall cost is not that significant in the larger costs, but the cost to operate a business in the US is pretty high, which is why most manufacturing done here is for higher end, more expensive items, which don't require tens of millions of units.

[Reborn]

I mean yeah, other stuff are made in other countries. However, you can keep saying this over and over. It's not going to change the heads of Sony/MS/Nintendo etc. If it was reasonable to do, I think many of these companies probably would've jumped out of China already. These guys have been using China to make their stuff for YEARS. They probably have solid relations and deals.

Why should they go to Europe because your friends tell you its cheap to do lol. The amount of money they will save from doing it in China, beats the price they'll pay for a delay. Again, if it was that easy. It would've happened long ago.

There's a ton of factors in play here and you're just seeing it from one perspective.

[GameZenith]

Funny how gamers want to use this argument if cheaper labor in China and how things will be expensive if done in Europe or the US. Yet at the same time gamers want to act concerned about crunch in the gaming industry and the effects it has on employees.

Well damn, do you know about the poor and long working conditions in China in regards to manufacturing? I do not hear you being concerned for them....

[RazzerRedux]

Wow....quite the massive generalization. You basically attributed a bunch of viewpoints to a bunch of "gamers" to fabricate some hypocrisy......just so you could wag your finger at everyone. You feeling incredibly superior to everyone today or something?

[AnubisG]

What he is saying is correct though.

People do talk a lot about how much they care about developers crunch and I don't see anyone here being concerned about the conditions people experience in Chinese factories. At least, not here on N4G.

[RazzerRedux]

No, it isn't correct. It is a massive generalization. I and others here on n4g have pointed out many times that game devs are not the only ones having to work hard and work overtime. Not specifically China, but people in general. This is why generalizations like this are petty and stupid. It frames an argument taking various viewpoints and constructs a shallow contradiction.

If we want to single out Chinese factories and express concern then we are all hypocrites since we are all typing here on devices manufactured under the conditions we pretend to abhor. Apparently our "concern" isn't so great to boycott products made under those conditions.

[GameZenith]

So am I wrong?

Does China have a strict standard that enforces and encourages healthy and humane work environment?

If so people point me in the right direction.

https://www.google.com/amp/...

https://www.forbes.com/site...

http://factsanddetails.com/...

[rainslacker]

He's right in a generalized sense, because I do see a lot of concern for the devs when union talk comes up.

Not to get back into that argument, but I will say that he is wrong overall because the fact remains that most consumers don't really care. If they did, WalMart wouldn't be the biggest retail store in the US. It's pretty safe to assume that the game consumers are not that much different than the general consumer.

[Kabaneri]

We care about crunch in video games because we care about the videogame industry.... the Chinese stole those jobs from developed countries, if they want to do it for pennies under poor working conditions thats their problem not ours.

[spicelicka]

lol yes millions of Chinese laborers got together and collectively decided "hey let's work under poor working conditions for pennies and steal jobs from developed countries".

Wow that's some juvenile simpleton level of thinking.

[rainslacker]

So, highly educated engineers and artists are forced to work like Chinese factory workers, and somehow hold the same rights as a Chinese factory worker? At the same time, those same highly educated engineers and artists are living in a country with oppressive regimes with little hope to move up in the world, and with very little prospect for getting a job should they decide to not work anymore?

Sorry, but developers in western countries are significantly better off in every way than the Chinese factory worker. They are also in much more demand for their abilities than the Chinese factory worker, and at any time, they can decide if their working conditions are suitable for them.

I care more about humans in general than I do about the game industry, and I don't want to seem insensitive, but boycotting products that I want because of shitty conditions somewhere in places where my decision will have no impact on their conditions is just not my thing. I'm not for crunch, and I say that it'd be nice if it never happens. But you know what I did when I worked for developers making games, and felt my time was taken up too much? I went and found a job that didn't have that kind of effect on my life. Well...i didn't really get my current job because of that, because I've never worked for a dev that has had excessive or serious crunch times, and quite honestly, such instances are nowhere near as ubiquitous as some people make them seem.

These devs don't need people in forums to fight this fight for them. It won't do any good, and most aren't fussing about it on a regular basis. There are anecdotal examples that are hard to hear, but they aren't the norm anymore. The game industry figured out on its own that it can't keep working people like the old days and keep talented people on board, and since the game industry loses more people through attrition than it gains through education, it had to make changes that make sure that devs have a good work/life balance.

[RazzerRedux]

@GameZenith

No one said you were wrong about the conditions in China. Your generalizations about people's view is what is wrong. I made that explicitly clear but seems you only read what you want to read.

Why are you using computer technology that was made by workers in those conditions? Why are you not boycotting Chinese-made tech? Seems you are not concerned about working conditions in China at all.

[Neonridr]

bonus is that at least the game will actually ship on a cart now.

[AK91]

Makes sense, I honestly would not be surprised if the same thing happened for PS5 and XSX.