Microsoft Is Helping Developers In Japan Shift To Remote Work Post COVID-19

Microsoft is helping developers like Bandai Namco in Japan with transforming their workplace to a digital eco-system and has extended this support recently.

In a new interview with Famitsu, Microsoft Gaming Technical Specialist of Global Black Belt, Junya Shimoda has talked about their extended support for developers in Japan including the big ones like Bandai Namco and indies.

The area of focus here is the Game Development program by Microsoft. This is focused on support for reforming work styles in a remote work environment, support for game developers using AI and other advanced technologies, and support for the expansion of the industry ecosystem.

One of the companies that were mentioned as having benefited from this is Bandai Namco. They are now shifted to cloud-based development work using Azure servers. They used to have a heavy focus on office-based work but that has changed now with the impact of COVID-19 on the workplace environment around Japan.

“We are thinking of ways to support indie game developers to build a flexible development environment, ” said Junya Shimoda.

Japan continued to face a rise in COVID-19 infections which forced a lot of developers to shift to remote work. This also delayed a lot of games that were slated to release in the coming days. One of the examples here is Elden Ring, which was rumored to target 2020 but it is now confirmed to launch in early 2022, or almost 3 years since it was originally announced at Xbox E3 2019 press conference. Another game that was affected is Tales of Arise, which is finally coming out this September.

Microsoft has also benefited from this venture based on the number of Japanese developers who are starting to support Xbox. Yakuza is one of the series that was exclusive to PlayStation consoles but now it has not only been ported to the PC but also released on Xbox. The complete series is available to play on Xbox Game Pass.