Of course, these sorts of long lines tend to be crowded, and so do the stores themselves, which ultimately does nothing but promote the spread of COVID-19. This is why it is so important for people to stay home and avoid contact with others as much as possible.

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Now, it seems that gaming companies in Japan are finally getting the hint and putting the safety of their customers and employees first. Earlier this week, one of Japan’s biggest electronics stores, Yobodashi Camera, has temporarily closed several of its stores across Japan, but many still remain open.

Some feel (understandably) that this is too little too late, as these stores remaining open only promotes people to go out and put themselves in risky situations. It could be said that the game stores themselves cannot be held responsible for the actions of the public in choosing to shop there, but even then the stores are still enabling the behavior. Furthermore, they can be held responsible for requiring employees to come into work and interact with large volumes of people, which isn’t safe for either party involved.

That said, it seems like only a matter of time before the rest of Yobodashi Camera’s stores and other smaller electronics companies begin closing down shop. The Coronavirus Pandemic is still at large and is showing no signs of slowing any time soon, so with a big name like Yobodashi Camera finally closing some stores down it is likely that other businesses will follow suit. Already there have been several arcades and small businesses have been taking the initiative to close storefronts, but retailers are naturally finding other ways to keep business floating. This is mostly taking the form of online sales, which continue to boom as the amount of people gaming soars during the Coronavirus pandemic.

This whole situation is somewhat reminiscent of the debacle that is GameStop attempting to stay open. Despite numerous warnings from government and local law enforcement, GameStop continued to try and claim that it is an essential business and has been searching for loopholes in order to keep its doors open.

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Source: Kotaku