Plague Inc., a game in which players have to infect the world population with a self-invented virus, has been removed from the Chinese App Store. That writes Ndemic Creations, the company behind the game, Thursday in one blog post.
In the game, players themselves create a virus that they then have to spread around the world. The goal is to infect the entire world population with the virus. The game has been around for eight years, but has gained popularity since the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. At the end of January, the game was the most downloaded iOS app in China.
The company was told that Plague Inc. has been removed from the Chinese App Store because the game “contains content that is prohibited in China”. It is not known whether the removal of the app has to do with the outbreak of corona virus in the country.
Plague Inc. is intended as an informative game to provide insight into the way diseases spread. The educational importance of the game has been repeatedly recognized by health organizations such as the American Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Well warned Ndemic Creations in late January that people should not forget that Plague Inc. is just a game. “We always recommend that players get their information directly from local and global health authorities,” the company said.
Ndemic Creations says it is working hard to make the app available again in the Chinese App Store. The game is still available outside of China. Plague Inc. is currently the most downloaded paid smartphone game in the App Store in the Netherlands.
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