Plague Inc. gets an update in which players have to do the opposite of the current goal: save humanity instead of wiping it out with a disease. The creators are working on an update for such a mode after being repeatedly called upon to do so.
Developer Ndemic Creations reports that it has made a $250,000 donation on behalf of players that will be split between the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 Solidarity Response Fund. While arranging the donations, the developer said he received “repeated requests if we could make a game that requires the player to stop an outbreak.” Ndemic Creations is now responding to this.
In addition to the aforementioned financial support, the developer says that they are working faster on creating a new game mode from Plague Inc. in which players must ‘save the world from an outbreak of a deadly disease’. In this mode, players must manage the progression of the disease, strengthen national health systems and deal with aspects such as triage, quarantines, social distancing, and the closing of public facilities and services.
The call for the arrival of such a mode seems to have been prompted, among other things, by calls from the World Health Organization. Ndemic Creations says the new mode is being developed with the help of this specialized agency of the United Nations, among others. When exactly the mode will be released is still unknown. The developer reports that the new update will be “free to players during the pandemic.”
Plague Inc. was removed from the Chinese App Store a month ago, because the game contains “illegal content” according to Chinese authorities. Since the outbreak of the new coronavirus, the game has become very popular. The studio behind the game previously emphasized that Plague Inc. has an educational value and that all kinds of organizations endorse this. Ndemic Creations previously said it was working with several major health organizations to see how it could help efforts to limit the spread of the current coronavirus.