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The Chinese government is backing a new virus killing game

It is available on WeChat and Douyin

The Chinese government is backing a new virus killing game

China's government has backed a game about killing viruses despite the coronavirus outbreak.

As reported by the South China Morning Post, the title's name is "Battle of Pathogens" when translated to English. The game itself was developed by Ohayoo, a subsidiary of ByteDance.

The game is Fruit Ninja-inspired. Players must slice up various diseases - including the coronavirus - before they can infect a female character. As the level progresses, the ailments become more aggressive and mutate - much like diseases do in real life.

Despite the coronavirus claiming hundreds of Chinese lives, one resident in Shanghai described the game as "cute." Currently, the title is available on Tencent's app WeChat and will be coming to the social platform Douyin in China - a full app is believed to be launched soon too.

The deadliest game

"Battle of Pathogens" isn't the first game to be released set around deadly diseases. Plague Inc. by Ndemic Creations allows players to create their own virus similar to coronavirus, leading to the developer telling its consumers that the game does not offer legitimate information about the current coronavirus.

Due to its association with the virus, Plague Inc. recently became the top paid app in the US.

Epidemic

The coronavirus has wreaked havoc across China, impacting several major companies.

Apple has not only limited travel for its employees, it has also been forced to delay its increased iPhone production. Furthermore, the tech giant has claimed it might not hit its quarterly sales target due to the outbreak.

Japanese publisher Nintendo has also suffered at the hands of the disease - not only has Switch production been affected in China, but it has also been impacted on a global scale.

The Mobile World Congress 2020 was cancelled thanks to the pandemic. However, GDC 2020 is still set to go ahead. Chinese exhibitors have been forced to either delay to next year or send a North American representative.


Staff Writer

Kayleigh is the Staff Writer for PocketGamer.biz. Besides PGbiz and PCGI she has written as a list writer for Game Rant, rambling about any and all things games related. You can also find her on Twitter talking utter nonsense.