Why Animal Crossing Is Banned In China | Screen Rant
Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Horizons was a runaway hit in 2020, and seemingly one of the most innocuous Switch games anyone could play—so why is it banned in China, one of the world's biggest gaming markets? Interestingly, Animal Crossing: New Horizons never officially launched in the country, with players using platforms like Taobao and Pinduoduo to buy the game on the gray market. Alternately, though, some gamers turned to imported Switches, which have the Nintendo eShop set to different regions.
For years now, activists have been protesting China's increasing stranglehold on the former British colony, flooding the streets with thousands of people in sometimes violent clashes. Naturally the movement has also extended to the internet, at least in places that are harder for the government to reach. To that end, some activists started using Animal Crossing: New Horizons' crafting tools to forge protest displays and related objects.
Notably, in April 2020, Joshua Wong shared images and slogans related to the protests from his own Animal Crossing: New Horizons island. The Chinese government responded to Wong by making it harder to play the game. Domestic units are locked to servers run by China's native Tencent, making them easier to censor. Even with such heavy censorship, though, some players have found ways around the ban. Physical copies may be available by knowing the right keywords and descriptions for store searches, or by managing to obtain a foreign Switch.
Since custom crafting is an inherent feature of the game, it seems unlikely that an official Animal Crossing: New Horizons release in China is coming anytime soon. Nintendo, certainly, has been extremely quiet, likely unwilling to jeopardize sales of other titles or the Switch itself, which by February had sold nearly 80 million units worldwide—a figure surpassing its most popular dedicated handheld, the 3DS.
This is far from the first time video games have intersected with political movements. Infamously, Hearthstone e-sports player Chung Ng Wai was punished by Blizzard for vocally supporting the Hong Kong protests, which triggered a public backlash in some countries including boycott threats. Blizzard was forced to scale back the punishment, restoring the player's prize money and shortening the competitive ban. It's clear from this story and the ban of Animal Crossing: New Horizons in China that things can become murky in the video game world when protests are added in. However, players are unlikely to stop voicing their opinions anytime soon and will likely continue to get creative in that regard.
Source: Joshua Wong