The game Plague Inc used to be an innovative game in which it was the players’ job to develop a disease with the sole objective to wipe out humanity. Back in the day, when this title was released on iOS, Android, and later on PC, this seemed like a good idea. It was a challenge on many levels and good fun for many hours.
However, with COVID-19 hitting humanity hard, the idea of playing such a game was really not that popular anymore. Developers who are now working on similar titles act in a tasteless manner, looking for some shock profit and monetizing these challenging times. Nemic Creations and Miniclip are different, however, since they had this game releases years before that.
Working on the cure, not the demise
Having it out early or not did not save them from the controversy, and this is why they are now releasing the DLC Plague Inc: The Cure to escape the PR fallout and allow gamers to play the game they like without feeling ethically challenged. This new content has been put together with the help of health experts from around the world as well as the WHO. The game’s new goal is now to fight the pandemic with smart policies and the development of medicine.
Ndemic and Miniclip currently offer this new content for free for all who already bought the base game, but the way they are phrasing this news suggests that it will no longer be free once COVID-19 is no longer a problem for the world. Since all good work should be paid for as well, this should not sound like a problem, though. If you want to find out more about Plague Inc: The Cure and how vaccine development works in the real world, make sure to also check into the info page by Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). To buy the base game or download the DLC, you find the download links below.
Donations made
CEPI also reports, “On behalf of all players of Plague Inc, Ndemic Creations made several donations in March this year, including US $125,000 to support CEPI’s efforts to expedite the development of vaccines against its priority diseases with epidemic potential. The investment will also help advance innovative platform technologies for rapid vaccine development against unknown pathogens, which are already in use to develop vaccine candidates against COVID-19.”
I, for one, will feel a lot better playing on a game that works towards saving us, that purging humanity for good, and I appreciate the efforts to make such donations as well.
YouTube: Plague Inc – The Cure – Out now on Steam
Photo credit: All material used was part of a press kit from CEPI and is owned by Ndemic Creations.
Source: Steam mailer to game owners / CEPI press release
