Ndemic Creations has warned players that its real-time strategy simulation title Plague Inc. does not provide any legitimate information concerning the current coronavirus outbreak in China.
The UK-based developer urged users (via a blog post) that were seeking advice on the issue to look for information from local and global health authorities.
At the end of December, China made the World Health Organisation aware of numerous case of pneumonia from an unknown virus in Wuhan. This outbreak has subsequently been identified as a coronavirus and has moved its way through Asia, with thousands of cases of the disease coming to light. So far four reports have been found in the US.
"Not sensationalising"
"We specifically designed the game to be realistic and informative, while not sensationalising serious real-world issues," said Ndemic Creations.
The company went to state 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."
Our website is currently offline due to very high player numbers. I'm copying our statement on the coronavirus outbreak here so people can still see it.https://t.co/pA6CUS7nJI pic.twitter.com/StXP6aemDe
— Plague Inc. / Rebel Inc. (@NdemicCreations) January 24, 2020
Whenever a disease of this nature transpires, the firm sees their player base rise dramatically, such as in 2017 when the game surpassed 100 million players.
We previously spoke to Ndemic Creations founder James Vaughan on how games-as-a-service has become the status quo.
Anyone seeking more information on the coronavirus can find out more on the World Health Organisation's website.
