If Microsoft and Sony postpone next-gen consoles, Ubisoft will delay the release of their games

Like many other industries, the video games industry has also switched to work from home. For smaller and indie companies, that wouldn't be a big problem, but with big studios with hundreds and thousands of employees, this represents a serious logistical problem, since everything is harder to coordinate and things are naturally being slower.

But that's not the case for Ubisoft, a multinational publisher with 17,000 employees who work at 55 studios around the globe. In a conversation with New York Times, he explained that they've managed to adapt to the situation, and the fact that they have studios around the world had actually helped them to improvise.

"We shifted some of our quality assurance and testing work from India to China while our studio in Pune was transitioning to working from home," said Yves Guillemot, Ubisoft's chief executive. "We also learned a lot from our studios in China, who had to deal with this first and shared their best practices and experiences with us."

He added that everything they are currently developing is on schedule and that there are only minor setbacks, which will not significantly influence their planned deadlines. But, he adds that they are carefully following the situation in the industry, and are willing to adapt and change their planes in coordination with their partners.

"We are not seeing significant impact to our own timelines, but we are in touch with all our partners, and if there's a need to adjust in order to do what's best for them and for our players, we will do so," he said.

Ubisoft probably has a couple of yet unannounced big titles they are planning to release as first next-gen titles, and that's why they are probably willing to delay them if the situation demands that. After all, you cant launch next-gen games when there are no next-gen consoles on which you would play those games.

It should be noted that Ubisoft already delayed three games in October last year (Watch Dogs Legion, Gods & Monsters and Rainbow Six Quarantine), after the fiasco with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint, which led to shift in the development process and other internal reorganisation. These three delayed titles are now planned to be fully next-gen, but still available on the current-gen devices, but scaled down accordingly.

For now, Sony and Microsoft aren't planning on delaying their next-gen consoles. Still, rumours are rapidly piling up about possible problems, with ministers claiming that PS5 will have limited launch in 2020 due to steep price.

Many games from other studios have been already delayed for various reasons, mostly related to COVID-19 outbreak. RPGs such as Wasteland 3 and Minecraft Dungeons, a highly anticipated sequel of Sony exclusive The Last of Us, and the PC edition of Death Stranding saw a delay. Even mighty Amazon is not immune to this new situation, and their big MMO project  New World has been delayed for summer.