British game developer Ndemic Creations has announced that its long-running pandemic simulation game Plague Inc. has been pulled from the App Store in China.

What Happened: The Cyberspace Administration of China told Ndemic that the mobile game "contains content that is illegal in China" and has been removed from the country's App Store. The release did not say whether the game was removed from the Google Play or Windows Phone app stores.

Behind the Scenes: The Chinese government has a long history of censorship of its video game industry, banning all consoles in 2000 ostensibly to combat violence in games. That lasted until 2014, when the ban was lifted, though approvals for new games were slow and began to seriously dry up in 2018.

What they said: “It is unclear to us whether this removal is related to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak in China,” the developers wrote in their statement. Ndemic says the game has been recognized as educationally important by the CDC and that the company is currently working with major global health organizations to support efforts to contain and control COVID-19.