Plague Inc. vanishes from Steam and Apple's App Store in China

Disappearance comes days after the game was pulled from China’s iOS App Store during the ongoing coronavirus epidemic

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Plague Inc. vanishes from Steam and Apple's App Store in China

Published: 3:48pm, 2 Mar 2020

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Plague Inc., a popular game that lets players create a pathogen to wipe out humanity, is no longer available to mainland Chinese users of Steam -- Valve’s online game store. But the title remains accessible to users in other countries.

This comes just days after the mobile version of the game was taken down from China’s iOS App Store, where it became the most downloaded paid game. The game was released nearly eight years ago, but it saw a resurgence in popularity after the coronavirus outbreak.

Ndemic Creations, the game’s UK-based developer, said last week that it was informed that Plague Inc. includes content deemed illegal by the Cyberspace Administration of China. The studio said its priority was to contact Chinese authorities to try to find a resolution, though it admitted that “the odds are stacked against us.” On Sunday, new regulations published by China’s cyberspace watchdog came into effect, which ban “improper comments on natural disasters and other serious incidents,” among other content.

Valve did not immediately respond to our inquiries outside of office hours. We will update this story if we hear back.

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