 Everything is delayed. In an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19, game studios around the world are shutting their doors and accepting that, at times, getting work done is going to take longer than the original projected timescale, such as the case with Fighters Pass 2 DLC for Super Smash Bros Ultimate. Developers Sora Limited are currently working from home, dealing with the hassle of conference calls and interruptions from their energetic children. It's all very relatable. It also means that new Smash Fighters aren't coming anytime soon. Masahiro Sakurai, head of development on the DLC, has said as much. He's been unable to travel to collaborate with third-party studios, and he's even unable to visit Nintendo's headquarters to present his work. In spite of all this, the delay to new Smash Bros content might actually be a good thing, depending, of course, on your point of view. Masahiro has written several times in his weekly Famitsu column about how coronavirus social distancing has affected work on the game. Security was one of the biggest concerns when the team began to work from home. Everyone was paranoid about secrets leaking online if all game documents were being stored on the cloud. They have every right to worry about this, considering that Nintendo gets hacked fairly frequently. The beginning of April saw 160,000 Nintendo account details fall into the hands of hackers. This is your friendly reminder to change your password and set up two-step verification on your email account, just in case. Similarly, new leaks such as a possible Pokémon pink version are still emerging from a server hack that Nintendo endured in 2018. As time passed, though, it became apparent that Masahiro's team really couldn't avoid working from home. Fears about security were superseded by another big challenge, how to actually complete this work remotely. If the pandemic could come a few years ago, it wouldn't have been possible for the team to continue work. Thankfully, since they're working on DLC, all of the structure of the game is already in place. The team has adjusted to conference calls, and Masahiro has bought a mic and a capture card so that he can demo Smash footage during online meetings. It's not ideal, but it works. Because Masahiro really struggles at delegation, all decisions have to go through him, so sometimes there's a delay as he waits for reports from various team members, especially those who have young children. Masahiro is often up until midnight responding to messages and making decisions. In fairness, though, this isn't too dissimilar from what he was doing before. These challenges are unavoidable, but remote working does come with a lot of perks as well, and it's these that could have a positive impact on the finished Smash DLC. For one thing, nobody is commuting anymore. That's making a big difference for many members of the team, who were travelling to and from work for up to four hours a day when they were needed in the office. The team are also enjoying cleaner air, more temperate working conditions away from an office heating system, and joy of joy's sunlight, says Masahiro. There's an advantage to seeing natural light. The office had many windows, but we had to close them for secrecy. Being able to see the morning and evening light from the sun is very pleasing. While Masahiro is still working long hours, he's better at taking breaks at home. He's eating regular meals for once, which is nice. He even feels the temptation to take naps, which is very unlike him, although he's resisting this. All in all, it seems that lockdown is good for the team's health in more ways than one. They're spending more time with their families and enjoying a slightly slower pace amid all their delays. This is exactly what they need, especially Masahiro, who we've been saying for years needs to take a break. In 2013, Masahiro admitted to having developed calcified tendonitis and ruptured arm muscles from literally playing too many games and working too hard. This made game development difficult as he was forced to rest. In 2019, he similarly admitted that sometimes, to keep himself going when he's sick, he straps an IV drip to his arm and just powers through. In March of this year, Masahiro was at the gym when he passed out from dehydration and exhaustion. He blamed this on a low-carb, high-protein diet. It's clear that this man needs to adopt a slower pace for a while, and from the sounds of his staff's commute times, they need this too. It's difficult to do your best work when you're always in a rush. As much as Masahiro may relish what he does, it's important not to push yourself too hard. As video game fans, we can take the news of coronavirus delays in two ways. We can either moan about having to wait longer for more Smash Fighters, or we can appreciate that the team at Sora Limited are doing their best, and that, by working a bit slower, they might just be able to deliver a higher level of polish and prevent otherwise inevitable burnout. That's the moral of this story. Sometimes, all of us, no matter who we are, just need to take a moment to breathe.