The spread of the coronavirus has been eliciting tons of crazy and sometimes justified, responses from governing bodies all over the globe. The deadly COVID-19 respiratory infection has been spreading at an alarming rate, and COVID-19 has a much higher mortality rate compared to similar viruses like influenza. The response has even gotten so severe that entire provinces in China have gone on lockdown.
These containment efforts appear to have had some impact though, as reports suggest that COVID-19 infections in China have been on the decline. Although the global spread of the disease is still ongoing and growing. There have as of now been no reports of asymptomatic spread, so that’s one saving grace in this terrible time. This allows authorities to more readily identify sufferers and place them in quarantine.
But one of the stranger responses has to be a new allegation that the Chinese government has pulled Plague Inc. from the App Store in the country over unspecified “illegal content”. The developer behind the disease-based educational game has claimed that the Chinese authorities have as of yet failed to report what this offending content is. The developer announced the news on its website.
The developer says that they are working on it though, “Our immediate priority is to try and make contact with the Cyberspace Administration of China to understand their concerns and work with them to find a resolution.”
“It’s not clear to us if this removal is linked to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak that China is facing. However, Plague Inc.’s educational importance has been repeatedly recognised by organisations like the CDC and we are currently working with major global health organizations to determine how we can best support their efforts to contain and control COVID-19,” explained the developer.
This is just the latest in a string of problems for the games industry surrounding COVID-19, colloquially known as coronavirus. The company behind Plague Inc. also ran into some trouble earlier this year when their game was pulled from the Epic Games Store giveaway over concerns that it would send the wrong idea about the deadly new virus. CD Projekt Red and PUBG Corp dropped plans to attend PAX East over fears surrounding the virus as well.
It’s possible that this could be poor timing on the part of the Chinese authorities in charge of managing the app store, but it definitely feels very fishy indeed. If it is just a case of miscommunication or error, it certainly doesn’t seem like it.
