As a game, Plague Inc surges in popularity every time there’s an outbreak of diseases, new or old. It’s much the same story with the more recent episode with the new coronavirus outbreak from Wuhan, China. This has prompted the game’s devs to remind people not rely on the game for info.
Ndemic Creations has issued a statement late last week. In it, the company says that while Plague Inc is made to be realistic and informative, it’s still just a game. The devs go on to ask players to get information from health authorities, be they local or international ones.
The devs also posted the statement on its website, as well as Twitter. The latter is so that the statement is visible, even when its servers go offline. Which briefly happened last week due to player surge coinciding with the new coronavirus outbreak. The sudden increase in interest for the game also made it the most popular paid app on the Apple App Store in China.
The real-world virus outbreak also brought out the black humor in gamers. 2012's Plague Inc. — where players evolve a pathogen to wipe out humanity — is now China's top paid iOS game. https://t.co/JdYrVJzwZX pic.twitter.com/inJ5jGvEJ2
— Zheping Huang (@pingroma) January 22, 2020
The last time Plague Inc was in the news was last year, when it announced that it would add anti-vaxxers into the game. Now, for better or worse, it looks like the game will remain popular for a while, with the ongoing developments surrounding the outbreak.
(Source: Ndemic Creations [1], [2] / Twitter via CNN, The Verge)
