Plague Inc. has been removed from Chinese App Store for ‘illegal content’

Plague Inc. is no longer available in the App Store in China. The iOS game has been removed by order of the Cyberspace Administration of China for allegedly containing “illegal content.” The game has been very popular since the outbreak of the new coronavirus.

Developer Ndemic Creations reports on its website that the studio cannot do anything about removing the game from the download store for iOS. The game has only been banned from the App Store in China, in other countries that is not the case.

The British studio is trying to get in touch with the Chinese agency to get the game available again. The studio has not been told what the “illegal content” is being referenced.

According to the studio, it is not clear whether the removal of the game is related to the outbreak of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Since the virus outbreak, the popularity of the game has soared worldwide. That became clear at the end of January. Plague Inc. is eight years old and, according to the creators, there are more than 130 million players.

The goal of the game is to wipe out the entire world with a disease. Recently, the makers emphasized that Plague Inc. is a game and not a scientific model. The studio does say that the game has educational value and that various organizations recognize this. The developer says it is currently working with “major health organizations” to determine how the studio can help efforts to limit the spread of the current coronavirus.