Chinese government is backing coronavirus slashing game

China Coronavirus

Coronavirus outbreak has caused a lot of damages to the game industry starting with a shortage of hardware stocks to delays and cancellations of big events. At the same time, it helped a lot of games to climb the charts like A Plague Inc. Now the Chinese government is backing a mobile game about killing / slashing viruses for educational purposes.

slash coronavirus in “Battle of Pathogens”

According to South China Morning Post, the game is developed  by casual gaming studio Ohayoo, a subsidiary of TikTok owner ByteDance. The game’s title is translated to “Battle of Pathogens” as we mentioned above and in it, players must prevent different viruses including coronavirus and other popular diseases with Fruit Ninja game style.

Battle of Pathogens coronavirus

The game which launched on Monday was initiated by the publicity department of the Haidian District Committee in Beijing and People’s Daily, an official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.  Battle of Pathogens aims to educate the Chinese players about diseases, which is something needed in a time of crisis.

It’s not the first mobile game about viruses

Back in 2012, a strategy game called Plague Inc released which players take on the role of causing a pandemic. When coronavirus first broke out, it climbed the charts as we mentioned above and it became the most downloaded paid game on iOS in China and the sixth most downloaded paid-for app overall. according to Ndemic Creations, its developers. “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,” a spokesperson said. “We specifically designed the game to be realistic and informative while not sensationalising serious real-world issues,” they added. The spokesperson urged gamers to “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.”

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