The lingering coronavirus pandemic has made those fortunate enough to work and study from home intimately familiar with videoconferencing app Zoom, and now major video game companies are giving away amazing official Zoom backgrounds for free. For those who are taking social distancing seriously, the quarantine lifestyle is a drab and boring one, so little things like adding some personalized flair into remote meetings are helping to keep many entertained right now.
On one hand, the gaming industry, like most industries at present, is reeling from COVID-19-related delays and big event cancellations, and many companies are struggling to come to grips with the complexities of fully remote game development. Conversely, though, gaming - along with streaming video - has seen a meteoric rise in terms of sales and sheer player counts as a listless populace leans into home media harder than ever before in order to pass the time. Sharing both in these complications and successes, fierce public competition between gaming's largest firms has been temporarily exchanged for a more cooperative and good-spirited focus on bringing joy to a troubled world.
Taking advantage of Zoom's custom background settings, several publishers and developers are providing people with free high-resolution wallpapers of their games' most iconic locations. A tweet catalog compiled by Polygon embodies some of the best on offer. Bethesda's letting students and professionals add some of its titles' moody atmosphere to meetings with backdrops from its Elder Scrolls, Fallout, and Doom franchises, while Square Enix is using the moment as an opportunity to market its newly released Final Fantasy VII Remake. Other Japanese developers are also getting in on the action, with Nintendo of Japan's official Super Mario Odyssey account sharing a colorful assortment of the game's worlds and Capcom's dedicated Street Fighter account bringing classic fighting arenas to tinge video call feuds with a more authentic air. Check out some of our favorites below:
These small gestures might amount to little more than PR bandwagoning, but that doesn't make them any less enjoyable for Zoom users who want to make their colleagues chuckle in a time of crisis (or desktop wallpaper connoisseurs who know an opportunity when they see one). Especially considering the fact that the coronavirus is pushing back updates and releases for many titles, something as small as giving students and workers a moment to reminisce over their favorite gaming vistas might help press on under otherwise unfamiliar and unpleasant circumstances.
It's nothing even vaguely approaching the courage being demonstrated on the part of essential workers worldwide, but these free video game backgrounds from the companies that produced them are a pleasant little surprise for those trying to make mandatory remote work a little more palatable. Alongside efforts by the app's thinly spread administrators, it can be hoped that Zoom can be made a lively platform where destructive pranksters and trolls are entertained enough in their own calls to stay out of others'.
Sources: Polygon, Bethesda/Twitter, Final Fantasy VII Remake/Twitter, Mario Odyssey/Twitter, Street Fighter/Twitter