Plague Inc. Takes A 180° Turn; Announces New Mode To Save The World, Rather Than Destroy It

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Plague Inc. Takes A 180° Turn; Announces New Mode To Save The World, Rather Than Destroy It

Plague Inc., the pandemic simulator from Ndemic Creations has been very popular as of late due to the coronavirus outbreak. Now though, they’ve now announced a major update to the game. This update will essentially take a 180-degree turn in it’s core mechanic, and will allow players to work to stop the outbreak of diseases, rather than cause it.

Considering that the goal of the original Plague Inc. game is to spread diseases across the whole world, and killing everybody, this is a rather steep turn. But it makes sense.

In their announcement, James Vaughn, creator of Plague Inc. was at disbelief at how the real world had imitated his game.

“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,” he said.

“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”.

This new update will also have players 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. Wonder if we’ll see an option for people panic buying, because those are some real reactions to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The new update will be free for all players during the pandemic, and they’ll be updating on the release soon.

They’ve also donated $250,000 split between the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organisation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.

Though I will say, when I was first reading about the game gaining such popularity, I was sort of confused. How are people taking something so lightly, to play a game simulating the Earth’s demise? It was either a very dark joke, or just curiosity on how things would go. This could potentially help educate gamers into understanding the real-life ramifications through playing the game. I guess that’s what simulators are all about, right?