Plague Inc.‘sofficial Twitter accountreported that its site went offline due to an all time high concurrent player count on Steam. And the cause of this anomaly? The Coronavirus outbreak that’s currently affecting China. And in response Ndemic Creationsreleased a statementaddressing that very reason:
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 sensationalising serious real-world issues. This has been recognised by the CDC and other leading medical organisations 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 which is impacting a huge number of people. We would always recommend that players get their information directly from local and global health authorities.
If you need more information onPlague Inc.and the CDC, you may read up on them bothin this interview. You can also find out more about the Novel Coronavirushere.
Ndemic Creations announced back in 2017 that after the release of its strategy gamePlague Inc.on mobile, console, and PC, it has reached a player count milestone ofover 100 million players. That same year saw a brand new update called Mutation 15 which addedMad Cow Disease, as well as two new modes.
In 2019 Plague Inc. developer confirmed andintroduced anti-vaxxersto the video game. The planned addition came from the success of a Change.org petition that gained a great deal of interest.
Plague Inc.is available on iOS and Android devices. The enhanced version,Plague Inc.: Evolvedis also available on PS4, PC, and Xbox One. The game has even made its way to tabletops inPlague Inc.: The Board Game. It seems there’s no telling where the plague will hit next.
