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A Nintendo Switch video game has been removed from China’s gray market e-commerce platforms, Reuters controls show, after Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong used the game to protest against the Beijing government in the territory. Chinese.
The game, “Animal Crossing: New Horizons”, is a colorful social simulator in which players can decorate their own island and invite others to visit it. It became an instant hit after its launch last month and has been used by many players to interact and simulate real-life scenarios while trapped at home due to measures to curb the coronavirus outbreak.
Joshua Wong, a Hong Kong democracy activist, brought his protests to the game last week and posted on Twitter a screenshot of his island decorated with a banner saying “Hong Kong free, revolution now.”
“Animal Crossing is a place without political censorship, so it is a good place to continue our fight,” Joshua Wong. “Even legislators in HK are playing this game,” he says. Joshua recently started playing the game himself. https://t.co/mXtmWu8x87
– Joshua Wong 黃 之 鋒 😷 (@joshuawongcf) April 8, 2020
China has strict rules on content, from video games to movies and music, censoring everything it believes to violate fundamental socialist values. Gaming companies must also seek licenses for the games they wish to publish.
Nintendo launched console sales in China with tech giant Tencent in December, but gamers in China can only access multiplayer connections for games like Animal Crossing through foreign editions available on the gray market through platforms like Pinduoduo and Taobao.
However, since Joshua Wong’s Twitter post, searches for “Animal Crossing: New Horizons” have shown no results on Pinduoduo. On Alibaba’s Taobao, some sellers are trying to evade the crackdown by directing potential buyers to listings that sell the game without using its title in the description.
Some Animal Crossing players in China have created scenarios that reflect the real world, with temperature control points and avatars with face masks.
Since then, Joshua Wong has shared photos of his island showing portraits of Chinese President Xi Jinping and the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom, in a funeral simulation with a sign saying “Wuhan pneumonia.”
“This is what we do at #AnimalCrossing … maybe that’s why these people are so eager to get back into the game!” he said on Twitter.
It is unclear whether the removal of the game is a directive from China’s content regulator or a voluntary act by politically sensitive e-commerce platforms.
Representatives for Alibaba and Pinduoduo were not immediately available for comment on Friday afternoon.
In February, the video game “Plague Inc”, where gamers create a pathogen to destroy the world, was removed from Apple’s Chinese app store after regulators said it contained illegal content.
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