Animal Crossing: New Horizons Becomes Harder To Buy In China

While Animal Crossing: New Horizons isn't technically available in China, the game has become popular nonetheless through imported foreign copies. Although Nintendo released the Switch in China in December 2019, very few games are officially available for that market.

Chinese players have still been able to access Animal Crossing: New Horizons by purchasing foreign versions through small game importers, changing the Nintendo eShop location to buy digitally, or through online retailers, Polygon reports. Two of the largest online retailers, Pinduoduo and Taobao, suddenly stopped stocking the game after players began to use it to host online versions of the ongoing Hong Kong protests.

The removal of listings for Animal Crossing: New Horizons comes after some players in China had been using the game to share messages criticizing the country’s president, Xi Jinping, and Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam. New Horizons allows players to easily create custom images within the game and then place them wherever they’d like. They can then use the Switch to take screenshots and share them online. In addition, Cheap Animal Crossing Digital Code is on hot sale at our website 5mmo.com.

“Animal Crossing is a place without political censorship so it is a good place to continue our fight,” Joshua Wong, a Hong Kong political activist since the 2014 protests, told Wired in an interview earlier this week. “Free Kong Kong. Revolution Now,” reads a message outside his villager’s front door in the game.

Despite forcing some online retailers to pull Animal Crossing: New Horizons from their virtual shelves, the Chinese authorities face an uphill struggle banning the game completely. As Ahmad points out, Animal Crossing still works offline and online in China, and it's still available to buy, either from certain stores, or via switching region on the eShop. And people can always contact Taobao sellers privately and buy the game under the counter.