Plague Inc.
Create and evolve a pathogen to annihilate humanity.
Last updated
Plague Inc. is a real-time strategy simulation game developed and published by Ndemic Creations. The player creates and evolves a pathogen to annihilate the human population with a deadly pandemic.
The game uses an epidemic model with a complex and realistic set of variables to simulate the spread and severity of the plague. It was released on 26 May 2012 for iOS, 4 October 2012 for Android and 13 May 2015 for Windows Phone. According to Ndemic Creations, Plague Inc. has been downloaded over 160 million times as of May 2021.
Development
Development likely started in 2011 with British creator James Vaughan working on the game in his afternoons and evenings. The game was released on 26 May 2012. In July 2014, Ndemic Creations partnered with 20th Century Fox on an update tied to the film Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, allowing players to cultivate the Simian Flu virus. In 2017, the developer released a physical board game based on Plague Inc., titled Plague Inc.: The Board Game, which raised $355,000 on Kickstarter.
On 6 December 2018, Ndemic Creations released Rebel Inc., a follow-up with a political theme about stabilizing a post-war country. On 28 February 2019, the studio announced an in-game scenario about vaccine hesitancy after a Change.org petition gained over 10,000 signatures. On 24 March 2020, the studio announced a cure mode due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The remake Plague Inc: Evolved for Steam and consoles includes features not in the mobile version, such as multiplayer. On 11 November 2020, Ndemic Creations added a new game mode, Plague Inc. The Cure, in which players attempt to cure the disease. It was first released on mobile and later brought to Evolved on PC via a downloadable content update on 28 January 2021. Ndemic released the DLC for free until COVID-19 was under control; as of 28 October 2022 it cost €3.29 or $4.99.
Reception
Plague Inc. earned an 80 out of 100 on Metacritic, placing it in the "generally favorable" category. Wired.com highlighted it as a major indie success, noting it stayed near the top of charts in many countries for its entire run and generated millions in revenue. It hit number one as a paid app on both iPhone and iPad in the U.S. within two weeks of release.
IGN remarked that "killing billions has never been so fun," while TouchArcade said the game "will snag your attention in all the right ways and keep it there." In late 2012, it was among five nominees for IGN's Best Strategy Game of the Year, across all platforms, and won the Players Choice award for best mobile strategy game that year. It ranked as the 15th most downloaded paid iPhone game in the U.S. for 2012 and the 76th highest-grossing game overall. In March 2013, it took multiple Pocket Gamer Awards, including Overall Game of the Year. It was the 5th most downloaded paid iPhone game in the U.S. in 2013, the 3rd best-selling iPhone game there in 2014, and the number one best-selling iPhone app in China that same year.
In 2015, it was the 7th best-selling iPhone game in the U.S., and in 2016, the 4th. By May 2021, Ndemic Creations reported over 160 million downloads. The board game version had sold more than 35,000 copies as of April 2019.
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Plague Inc. (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Word definitions: the , each quoted from its Wikipedia article.
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