In what might be the most distasteful game announcement since Hatred, Polish studio Jujubee has revealed an upcoming title, COVID: The Outbreak: [prebreak]1[/prebreak]

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COVID: The Outbreak is a real-time strategy game in which you play the role of a global organization that has to deal with a global pandemic. Issue decrees, manage resources, develop projects, and construct buildings. A race for the vaccine begins!

In addition to crisis management, the game provides the players with information on how to behave in the event of an epidemic, what actions to take, and how to protect themselves and their loved ones in the most effective way. The game is based on the data published by WHO and on the information acquired from experts and consultants.

“Here at Jujubee we are passionate about educating our audience while they are having a good time playing our games. Currently, there is a plethora of misinformation circulating the topic of the coronavirus, so we hope our strategy game will serve as a source of entertainment and education for our players.” - says Pawel Nitta, Head of Marketing & PR.

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GAME FEATURES

Pandemic Management - advise the world what needs to be done in order to survive the dreadful disease; manage funds, staff, medicine, and research priorities.

Issue Emergency Decrees - declare national emergency and close borders, enforce obligatory vaccination, close schools and airports. Do whatever it takes to stop the coronavirus.

Research New Projects - developing new ways to fight off the disease is a sound strategy. Remember to be cautious as your enemy may mutate, rendering your newly acquired ability completely useless.

Unpredictable Events - how you handle the ongoing fake news, mass stockpiling of supplies, or people ignoring the incoming threat will go a long way towards deciding whether you will prevail against the disease, or succumb to it.

Construct Vital Buildings - build hospitals, emergency tents, research institutions, checkpoints, police stations, and a whole lot more. Every building you enact may become the decisive factor in stopping the outbreak.

Games Beyond™ - educate yourself on how a coronavirus operates, what can you do if you become infected, and why quarantines are issued. Understand why a pandemic is a threat to humanity.



COVID: The Outbreak release May 19th on Steam.

 

[Pipistrele]

Not sure if distasteful or not (I'm not the one to judge), but I'm not betting on quality - looks like an uninspired mix between Plague Inc and DEFCON.

 

[windmill]

bruh

 

[matpower]

ITT: People without reading comprehension that fell for the outrage simply due to the name,
This game is exactly the opposite of Plague Inc. Still, if it is somewhat good, they should have named it something else to be long lasting like Plague.

 

[FAST6191]

Still, if it is somewhat good, they should have named it something else to be long lasting like Plague.

Do you imagine people are going to forget this one in a hurry?

 

[YBLP]

I'd say it's too early for this

 

[FAST6191]

I'd say it's too early for this

Why? How long, or maybe just how would we be begin to formulate an acceptable timeline for the creation of such things?

 

[matpower]

Do you imagine people are going to forget this one in a hurry?

Maybe? Give it two years at best and people will have moved on if we get a vaccine or treatment this year. After we get that out of the door, then the economic impact will leave people bitter until it recovers. I'm being optimistic we can leave that behind in two years.

 

[UltraDolphinRevolution]

I thought this game would be a zombie game. Fighting for the last toilet paper or sth.

 

[Sundree]

Listen, Hatred? As someone who enjoys edgy crap (I have every Postal game); I understand, despite how distasteful it is. But this game is going WAAAY too far, just by basing this off of recent real world events.

EDIT: I accidentally sent this message before finishing typing.

 

[Deleted User]

i'm in the camp that doesn't get why everyone's freaking out about this

what makes this different from oregon trail, the countless ww1, ww2, vietnam and middle east war games
sure it's soon and the pandemic isn't even over yet, but freaking out about it is a bit dumb

 

[Delerious]

The true question is will this game let me play as Trump and tell people to inject cleaning products?

Or at least be the Georgia governor and pretend I didn't know it transmitted from person to person, or Mayor De Blasio expressing concerns about Jewish people gathering!

 

[FAST6191]

i'm in the camp that doesn't get why everyone's freaking out about this

what makes this different from oregon trail, the countless ww1, ww2, vietnam and middle east war games
sure it's soon and the pandemic isn't even over yet, but freaking out about it is a bit dumb

While I agree with the sentiment do we have a selection of World War 1 and Vietnam games I somehow missed? I am rather lacking in options for both of those.
Similarly we did see some whiners knock out a middle east game a little while back citing recentness (see Six Days in Fallujah), this despite TV shows being made of similar events years earlier (and books before that).

At this point one traditionally wonders where one might fall in the games as art debate.

 

[MikaDubbz]

It's weird to see a real world pandemic turned into a game, unlike what Ndemic did with Plague Inc, since it was outright banned in some countries for liking it to real events.

I agree it's weird and in poor taste. But I think we all know that movies and/or TV miniseries based on the virus are inevitable.

 

[FAST6191]

I agree it's weird and in poor taste.

How is it in poor taste?

It is a thing out there in the world, possible in the world, with plenty of other things exploring similar things* in games. It does not seem to be venerating a virus, nor saying those that suffered it were filthy bastards that deserved it.

*I remember many years ago as a young kid playing a game where rabbits, foxes and the like were simulated and you could send a nice asteroid/volcano in to see what happens. They called that part of a biology lesson.

I watched a video the other day in which I guy was playing with some numbers on a spreadsheet to help simulate basic things (though still things common to all transmissible diseases). Was that in poor taste?

I really am struggling to see how a game like this would be in poor taste. As far as weird then everything gets a simulation these days, indeed it has been so widespread that it has now been over half a decade since everything getting a simulator was itself parodied in goat simulator.

 

[MikaDubbz]

How is it in poor taste?

It simply falls under the category of "too soon" for me. There were some 9/11 films that came out much too early in my opinion, made me feel very uneasy how they were turning a national tragedy into forms of entertainment, especially so quickly after it happened.

 

[UltraDolphinRevolution]

That´s fair. But if people thing something is bad, they can just decide to ignore it. Speaking of poor taste: Nintendo allegedly decided not to launch Disaster: Day of Crisis (Wii) in America due to a natural disaster (I don´t remember what it was: Hurrican Katrina was 2005, the game came out in 2008). It´s fairly likely that we would have seen the main protagonist in Smash Bros if this hadn´t been the case.

 

[pustal]

If the purpose is to educate, and not to take advantage of the situation, then they should make it free. Then they better get things really right and source their information. If done right, might actually do some good to educate on the matter.

 

[Deleted User]

While I agree with the sentiment do we have a selection of World War 1 and Vietnam games I somehow missed? I am rather lacking in options for both of those.
Similarly we did see some whiners knock out a middle east game a little while back citing recentness (see Six Days in Fallujah), this despite TV shows being made of similar events years earlier (and books before that).

At this point one traditionally wonders where one might fall in the games as art debate.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_I_video_games
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_World_War_II_video_games
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Vietnam_War_games

there's actually a loooot of games that take place in ww1 and vietnam

 

[MetoMeto]

Cringey. That deep voice and atmosphere and whole existence of the game, as if its the next T-Virus...

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If the purpose is to educate, and not to take advantage of the situation, then they should make it free. Then they better get things really right and source their information. If done right, might actually do some good to educate on the matter.

The whole point of video games is not to educate. If they educate than thats a plus, but a game should have good experience as a video game, and we are on a video game forum, not on a public school website, so i believe my opinion stands.
As for educating, the actual real sources and updated informations is best education, not a cringey video game with SERIOUS voice.

I'm just talking from a gamer pov.

 

[Bladexdsl]

if anyone pays actual money to play this than your an IDIOT