Many players are now at home working on completing their current backlog of games or enjoying new releases due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Steam is seeing a rise in concurrent gamers, and other digital store platforms are offering sales or even free games to encourage gamers to stay at home.
Some video game developers and publishers are doing their part to help give back.
Ndemic, the developer of Plague Inc., has announced that they are donating $250,000 to help fight COVID-19. Along with an announcement on their official website, Ndemic posted on social media.
Everyone is impacted by COVID-19. On behalf of all Plague Inc. players, we have just donated a quarter of a million dollars to @CEPIvaccines and @WHO to help fight it.https://t.co/kAZtjwn89b pic.twitter.com/DinQpvRqCk
— Plague Inc. / Rebel Inc. (@NdemicCreations) March 23, 2020
“Eight years ago, I never imagined the real world would come to resemble a game of Plague Inc. or that so many players would be using Plague Inc. to help them get through an actual pandemic,” said James Vaughan, creator of Plague Inc. “We are proud to be able to help support the vital work of the WHO and CEPI as they work towards finding a vaccine for COVID-19”.
The donation is being split between the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organisation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
While Plague Inc. has primarily focused on the spread of a virus, a new update has players working on stopping an outbreak instead. A new game mode has players trying to stop a deadly disease outbreak before it takes over the world.
“Players will have to balance managing disease progression and boosting healthcare systems as well as controlling real-world actions such as triaging, quarantining, social distancing and closing of public services.” states the official website. The new game mode is being developed with help from experts, such as WHO and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network. The major update has not yet been released.
Plague Inc. has been in the news several times during the recently COVID-19 outbreak. The game suddenly became the top paid app in the iOS App Store, which has previously happened before during other illness issues across the world.
In late February, the game was also removed from digital game platforms in China because of claims it “includes content that is illegal in China as determined by the Cyberspace Administration of China.”
Plague Inc. is available now on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android.
