People always try to voice their opinions, even in times when COVID is impacting the world. Animal Crossing: New Horizons has become one such avenue, but it seems that China has taken issue with Nintendo’s beloved series.
It stems from the Coronavirus. Since everyone is inside, people cannot publicly protest, but that won’t stop the Hong Kong Activists. They will go to any means to bring awareness to their cause, and the Nintendo Switch hit Animal Crossing has allowed them to voice themselves. If only China made it that easy, however.
This situation seems to be the brainchild of Joshua Wong, a Hong Kong activist who dedicates his life to protesting. Make sure to follow him on Twitter here because he really is a great guy. Anyway, China caught wind of what was going on within the game, and not too long after, Animal Crossing has been removed from several Chinese retailers, which shows how desperate China is to silence anyone who opposes them. This is not the first clash we have seen between China and video games.
Last year, Hearthstone player “Blitzchung” was banned from playing professionally for a year and had his prize money that he won in the Grandmasters second 2019 season taken away for saying “Liberate Hong Kong. Revolution of our age.” in a livestream after the season ended. Many argue the punishment was too harsh and although Blizzard, the creators of Hearthstone, have backpedaled a bit on the situation, it does not change how much of an iron fist China seems to have over anything in regards to what is going on in Hong Kong.
Animal Crossing being removed from Chinese retailers seems to be quite similar to the Hearthstone situation from last year, but China cannot silence the likes of Joshua Wong and Blitzchung so easily. These two gentlemen, along with millions of others, are fighting to have their freedom realized, and removing a game from retail is not going to slow them down.
Joshua Wong is still protesting and playing Animal Crossing, and we look forward to see what he does next. Everyone’s voice deserves to be heard, and no entity, no matter how big, will ever be able to change that.
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