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Chinese Platforms Remove Animal Crossing: New Horizons Game After Protest
posted on by Jennifer Sherman
Reuters reported on Friday that e-commerce platforms in China have removed Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the latest entry in the Animal Crossing game franchise, after pro-democracy Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong used the game for protests. Wong began posting screenshots on Twitter last week of his in-game island decorated with a banner that reads "Free Hong Kong, Revolution Now."
China's Ministry of Culture and Tourism oversees game hardware in China, and the country's State Administration of Press and Publication must approve games. Tencent earned approval to begin selling the Nintendo Switch in China last year.
Multiplayer connectivity for games such as Animal Crossing: New Horizons is only available in China through platforms on the "grey market." According to Reuters' checks, the game no longer appears on the Pinduoduo platform. Alibaba's Taobao is reportedly listing the game without its title in the description. Reuters noted that "It is not clear whether the pulling of the game is a directive from China's content regulator or a voluntary act by politically sensitive e-commerce platforms."
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is the first in the series for the Nintendo Switch. The game was originally slated to ship last year, but was delayed to March 20, 2020. The game sold 1,880,626 copies in Japan its first three days, the highest ever number of first-week copies sold for a Switch game in Japan.
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