Imported sales of Crossing the Animals: New Horizons banned in China, it has been reported.
The order is filtered through Alibaba's e-commerce platform for retailers yesterday (April 9) and is expected to go into effect today. According to a screen posted online by Taobao vendors, the ban does not affect the game but all sales and related hardware.
Although no official explanation has been given for the ban, some suspect it has to do with the fact that the game can be used to distribute online materials – such as political slogans – often found by the Chinese government. Game pattern editing mode allows players to create their own messages and themes that other players can view around the world.
Bloomberg reports that the game is just one of many items used to highlight the political struggle in Hong Kong. One of Hong Kong's most famous democrats, Joshua Wong, decided to use the game to share his message:
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is not officially available in China yet, but Nintendo is partnering with Tencent to bring a special Animal Crossing console to the region. In fact, you can legally buy only three games at the time of writing, which has forced many Chin Nintendo fans to re-enter both free games in the country using services such as Taobao and Pinduoduo.
PingWest reports that demand for articles such as Animal Crossing in China has resulted in the sale of the switch to the skyrocket. New Horizons, like many switch games, has the Chinese language option even though it hasn't been officially released in the area yet.
It is not yet known whether the game will actually come out of China following this ban, and if it does, it is highly likely that some of its features will be disabled to prevent players from using online protests.
