Animal Crossing: New Horizons disappears from Chinese platforms

By Aaron Mamiit April 10, 2020

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is no longer available for sale on Alibaba’s e-commerce platform Taobao — 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.

While there has been no official explanation on Animal Crossing‘s disappearance, the game’s takedown follows its rise as a tool for Hong Kong protesters to spread pro-democracy content while observing social distancing rules.

One of the protesters, Joshua Wong, is a well-known democracy activist who uploaded an image of his in-game island to Twitter. It featured a banner with the words “Free Hong Kong, revolution now.”

Wong also shared pictures of his island with portraits of Chinese President Xi Jinping and World Health Organization head Tedros Adhanom at a virtual funeral, with a sign reading “Wuhan pneumonia.”

China censorship

Nintendo Switch sales only launched in China in December, through a partnership between Nintendo and Tencent. However, multiplayer connections for games may only be accessed by players through foreign editions available on the gray market sites such as Taobao and Pinduoduo.

Since Wong’s tweets, there has been a crackdown against Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Reuters reported.

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.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Contributor

Aaron received a NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was 4 years old, and he has been fascinated with…

Gaming

After 25 seasons, Ash Ketchum is retiring from Pokémon

Ash holds a Pokeball while a lot of iconic Pokemon stand behind him.

The Pokémon Company confirmed that Ash Ketchum will no longer be the main protagonist of the series' anime starting in 2023.
Ever since Pokémon! I Choose You! first aired in Japan on April 1, 1997, the Pokémon anime has followed the exploits of 10-year-old Pokémon trainer Ash Ketchum on his quest to become Pokémon Master. After trying and failing many times across 25 seasons, Ash finally managed to become the world's greatest Pokémon trainer in Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series after winning the Pokémon World Coronation Series.
The Pokémon Company is deciding to leave Ash's journey on a high note and will retire his character as the protagonist of the Pokémon anime after the current season. Thankfully, he is getting a proper send-off across the final 11 episodes of Pokémon Ultimate Journeys: The Series, with classic anime characters like Misty and Brock returning to help tell "the final chapter in Ash and Pikachu's story." These final 11 episodes will start airing in Japan on January 13, 2023.
This won't be the end of Pokémon anime adaptions, though; The Pokémon Company will start a new series later next year, following two new characters named Liko and Roy. Details on this new series are still scarce, but we know it will also feature Sprigatito, Fuecoco, Quaxly, and a Shiny Rayquaza in significant roles. We're likely to see them venture through Paldea, the region Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are set in.
While the announcement that Ash Ketchum will no longer be the protagonist of the Pokémon series is bittersweet for those of us who grew up with the Pokémon anime, we can hope that the series will give him a beautiful farewell, and that Liko and Roy's series can successfully capture the hearts of a whole new generation of Pokémon fans.

Gaming

Animal Crossing: New Horizons bug guide for November 2022

Catching a bug in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is a game for completionists, giving you tons of things to collect that can take up a lot of your time. In particular, bug catching can eat up lots of your time, especially since so many of them only appear during certain times of the year. Each month, different bugs come and go, even though the overall list might not change much from October to November, for example.

In this guide, we'll go through the new Animal Crossing: New Horizons November 2022 bug list, including tips on when they appear, where to find them, how much they're worth, and more.

Gaming

Animal Crossing: New Horizons fish guide for November 2022

Catching a fish in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

One of the nifty features of Animal Crossing: New Horizons is its ever-changing seasons that are a reflection of the real world. When it's summer in real life, it's summer in Animal Crossing, meaning there are always new things to enjoy as you play. As each month goes by, the selection of fish that appear throughout the game changes, so you'll always want to be aware of the selection for any given month.

Sometimes, certain fish are only available for a few months out of the year, while others appear more frequently. It's also important to consider which hemisphere you're in, as this will impact the fish that appear in your area. For the month of November 2022, New Horizons has a lot of changes with its fish selection, and below, we'll cover everything you need to know about the new additions.