Bandai Namco: ‘We’re planning on maybe not having any live events in 2020’

The fighting game community has been hit especially hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. While other major game genres have been able to go online, like Activision’s Call of Duty League, fighting game players are less inclined to compete over the internet due to latency issues that make matches unfair. But with the pandemic preventing in-person tournaments from happening, no one knows when players will be able to fight offline again.

“We’re in a wait-and-see situation,” said Bandai Namco director of business development Karim Farghaly. The publisher behind several major fighting game franchises, including Tekken, Soul Calibur, and Dragon Ball Fighter Z. They run several competitive circuits for the aforementioned games, although most of this year’s events have had to be cancelled during the pandemic.