There’s never been a greater need for the cozy life simulation game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. For years, gamers and non-gamers alike have anticipated being holed up with a warm mug of tea, a blanket, and their Animal Crossing: New Horizons vacation. The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic only adds to that escapist enthusiasm.
For her two small game stores, Kelsey Lewin, co-owner of Pink Gorilla Games in Seattle, ordered 350 copies. Retailers say it’s among the most pre-ordered games they’ve stocked in years. Despite a widespread outbreak of Covid-19 in and around her city, and government pleas to limit human contact, Lewin is relying on customers to come by and pick up their Animal Crossing: New Horizons box.
“Even if the store is closed, I will personally be here and let people in one at a time. I’ll have gloves on,” says Lewin. “A lot of people are riding on Animal Crossing, and we are, too.”
Digital marketplaces for PCs, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One have subsumed a videogame retail business previously dominated by brick-and-mortar shops. There aren’t a lot of practical reasons to buy a game IRL anymore, and the numbers prove it: Game retailer GameStop’s annual revenue has dropped by a billion dollars since 2015, as the chain closed hundreds of stores over the last couple of years.
But there’s a special nostalgia and sense of community tied to driving over to a local game shop and purchasing an artful, shiny box containing the title you’ve been waiting months or years to play. Lewin’s store is fun to be in, an eye-catching hot pink, walls stacked high with irresistible plushies and vintage games. And there’s a social aspect: GameStop still hosts midnight release events, where excited fans meet and line up together in anticipation of a launch.
Or it did, until Covid-19, which has transformed one of the most anticipated launch weeks of the year into a mess and a half. On Tuesday, GameStop announced it would cancel its Animal Crossing release event, and the release event for Doom Eternal, initially slated to release on the same day, “to maintain the health and safety of our guests and associates.” In recent days, GameStop employees around the country have spoken out about their fears around working shifts as Covid-19 spreads. One GameStop supervisor told Kotaku that although GameStop corporate had promised to take precautions like providing hand sanitizer, “the stores in my area have received nothing.” Another employee told Kotaku they feared losing their job because staying home without a doctor’s note could count as an unexcused absence.
In some towns and cities, all “non-essential” businesses have been urged or ordered to close. Today, GameStop sent out a memo to employees contending that it counts as “essential retail,” an effort to keep its stores open, according to Kotaku. If police come by, the memo says, employees should refer them to GameStop headquarters. A GameStop representative did not comment to WIRED on the record.
Independent stores are sketching out their own rules while following local and state health mandates closely. “Governor Tom Wolf’s business ban isn’t—strictly—enforced,” says Spenser Brossman, who runs Complete In Box Video Games in Pennsylvania, where Wolf “urged” closures. “Police won’t come and shut you down if you remain open.”
Brossman was planning for a “huge,” weekend, and says he’s had more pre-orders for Animal Crossing: New Horizons than for any game in the last two or three years. That enthusiasm is still alive even under the broad mandate to “socially distance;” customers walk up every day, knock, and ask if he has the game they’re looking for. He’s letting people call ahead and pick up at the door or arrange a home delivery anywhere within a 15-mile radius. “We felt that although doing business this way for two weeks will be very difficult (especially with Animal Crossing and Doom), that it was for the best.” (Doom Eternal will be on sale in stores today, a day ahead of schedule, to keep crowds more manageable.) Brossman noticed that, despite his own adjustments, local GameStops are still conducting business as usual.
