A Real Life Epidemic Weirdly Boosted This Game's Sales

As with all media, sometimes video games have a way of representing our real world struggles in new lights. However, that doesn't always mean they're an exact road map. In an odd example of people turning to video games for guidance, we have the unexpected spike in sales for Plague Inc. 

As reported by Eurogamer, Plague Inc. was a rather grim real-time strategy game that tasked players with the creation and release of a devastating plague. The ultimate goal of the game is to decimate the human race with this virus. Sounds fun, right? 

Well, despite the bleak subject matter and the fact that the game is nearly a decade old, its sales have gone up in China due to a recent real life epidemic. It appears that the outbreak of the Coronavirus in China has brought nervous gamers to the title. In fact, the game was reported to be the best-selling app in China earlier this week. According to James Vaughn of Ndemic Creations, the creator of Plague, Inc., this is not a new phenomenon at all. 

"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," explained Vaughn. "We specifically designed the game to be realistic and informative ... However, please remember that Plague Inc. is a game, not a scientific model."

Vaughn also stressed that players should always go straight to higher authorities for their information on these subjects. This is particularly important in cases of an outbreak like the Coronavirus, which has affected around 800 people. Misinformation in these circumstances can literally be a matter of life or death.

Ndemic Creations has since reported that its website has gone offline due to heavy player traffic. In other words, it's obvious that people are nervous and are looking for information in a medium they can understand, like video games. Meanwhile, there are others taking to Twitter to make light of the situation using screenshots from Plague Inc. At least we know that the dark humor of gamers will remain the same, even in unpredictable situations like this.