Player Counts Soar in Wake of Potential Epidemic
The popular flash game Plague Inc has gone offline due to a surge of players swarming to the game. This is most certainly connected to the recent outbreak of the coronavirus in China. The virus is thought to have begun from a “wet market” in Wuhan, a city in central China. There are hundreds of cases that have been reported in China and dozens dead. Smaller amounts of infected people have also popped up in a handful of countries around the world including one in the USA. As it stands right now, there is no cure for the virus and people around the world have been encouraged to wear masks or gloves when going to public areas. In response the creators of Plague Inc, Ndemic Creations issued a statement today.
“The Coronavirus outbreak in China is deeply concerning and we’ve received a lot of questions from players and the media. Plague Inc. has been out for eight years now and whenever there is an outbreak of disease we see an increase in players, as people seek to find out more about how diseases spread and to understand the complexities of viral outbreaks. We specifically designed the game to be realistic and informative, while not sensationalizing serious real-world issues. This has been recognized by the CDC and other leading medical organizations around the world. However, please remember that Plague Inc. is a game, not a scientific model and that the current coronavirus outbreak is a very real situation that is impacting a huge number of people. We would always recommend that players get their information directly from local and global health authorities.”
Plague Inc is a game that tasks players to either create disease and try and spread it or try and stop the spread of a super-virus. This has, of course, lead to a lot of bad press that claims the game is making light of something very serious. It is not hard to see why so think that the game is in poor taste.
Plague Inc is expected to be back up and running soon.