The outbreak of the coronavirus caused a shutdown of factories in Asia. Some experts suspected a delay in the new console generation. However, the Microsoft CEO now appears optimistic.
What does the CEO report? Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft since 2014, reports in an interview with CNBC that the company’s supply chains in Asia are starting to resume. These were severely restricted due to the outbreak of COVID-19.
Nadella does not see Microsoft’s future as threatened:
We have a great balance sheet, we are a very diverse company […]. I am confident that we will, to be honest, come out of the crisis quite strong.
However, the CEO has doubts about the demand for new products in the USA and Europe. This could be negatively affected by the financial problems that arise from the outbreak of the coronavirus.
Experts fear delay of new console generation
What is special about the news? Nadella’s news currently seems to suggest that the new console generation does not necessarily have to be postponed. However, some experts had predicted this.
In what quantities the new Xbox Series X will be released and how much it will cost is still unknown. According to a leak, however, Microsoft’s console is set to get a real competitive price.
We also do not know anything about a specific release date at this time. For a short time, Thanksgiving was mentioned on the website, but it was removed again and the Director of Programming backtracked immediately.
What about the release of the PS5? During the livestream for the console’s presentation at GDC, it was briefly mentioned that the PS5 still aims for “Holidays 2020” as its release window.
However, there are no more specific details available here either.
Microsoft’s cloud content stands firm
What else did Nadella say? In the conversation with CNBC, there was also discussion about the Microsoft content provided via the cloud. Here too, the CEO appears optimistic:
If this had happened in an earlier generation of data centers and software architectures, I don’t think we could have dealt with this crisis as effectively as we currently are.
However, Nadella does not mention whether there could be limitations on usage due to network load.
- In contrast, Sony has decided to reduce bandwidth fordownloads on PlayStation.
