Animal Crossing: New Horizons is no longer available for sale on Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Taobao, a move that comes not long after the game was used by Hong Kong activists to post protest messages against China.The hit Nintendo Switch game was pulled from Taobao and fellow digital store Pinduoduo, Reuters reported Friday. Screenshots shared by Taobao sellers showed that merchandise and other hardware related to the game have also been prohibited, according to Nintendo Life.
Nintendo launched console sales in China with tech giant Tencent in December, but players in China can only access multiplayer connections for games such as Animal Crossing via foreign editions available on the grey market via platforms such as Pinduoduo and Taobao.
However, since Joshua Wong’s Twitter post, searches for Animal Crossing: New Horizons have showed no results on Pinduoduo. On Alibaba’s Taobao, some vendors are trying to circumvent the crackdown by directing potential buyers towards listings that sell the game without using its title in the description. If you are in lack of Animal Crossing New Horizons Golden Tools, visit our site 5mmo.com, a reliable and cheap online in-game currency store.
Some Animal Crossing players in China have created scenarios that mirror the real world, with temperature check points and avatars wearing face masks.Joshua Wong has since shared pictures of his island showing portraits of Chinese President Xi Jinping and World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom at a funeral simulation with a sign saying “Wuhan pneumonia”.
China censors content, including video games, if the government finds them in violation of the country’s core socialist values. However, it remains unclear if the ban on the sale of the game was ordered by China’s content regulator, or if it was a voluntary act by the digital stores.To circumvent the action against the game, some Taobao sellers have been trying to direct potential buyers to listings that sell the game without its title in the descriptions.