The end of the school year is generally a time for celebration - even more so if you're moving on to a different level of education when the new academic year starts. And while a lot of schools usually hold events to mark those students' departures, that's not been possible for most schools in Japan which have been closed for the last two weeks due to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Japanese school year ends in March and starts up again in April so the schools there haven't been able to hold their usual graduation ceremonies. But you'd be wrong if you thought a little thing like school closures would stop a bunch of students from celebrating. According to Sora News, it turns out that some imaginative elementary school leavers decided to get together (albeit virtually) and hold their own graduation ceremony in Minecraft.
The tweet above was posted by user Backyennew who shows off his son - one of the young students from a Japanese elementary school - taking part in the Minecraft graduation ceremony. The tweet reads "'What are you doing?' 'We all decided to have a graduation ceremony together!' Oh? Awesome. The elementary students gathered to start graduation themselves."
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The ceremony itself seems to take place in a purpose-built venue, complete with red carpet, ample seating, and a raised stage area. And what's really neat is that this was thought up and staged by the students themselves with no prompting or input from the school. If nothing else, it's nice to see something wholesome come out of this whole coronavirus mess.
In related news, we've thought for a while that the manufacture of the next-gen consoles - PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X - might be delayed due to the spread of the coronavirus and Chinese factories working at a much lower capacity. But according to a recent report from the games industry research firm DFC Intelligence, it seems more and more likely that this could be the case.
"Coronavirus is likely to have a major short-term impact on the delivery of both systems," DFC explained. "There is a strong likelihood one or both systems will not make a 2020 launch. If the systems do launch, supply will likely be constrained and initial pricing could be higher than expected."
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So if you've been counting on a 2020 release for the new consoles, you might want to revise your expectations slightly. Obviously, we'll do our best to keep an eye on the situation to keep you updated.
Featured Image Credit: MicrosoftTopics: Minecraft
