Another year passes and Plague Inc. continues to keep infecting new players thanks to 85 million wonderful people all over the world. Each year when I write the report card, I expect it to be the last one before we hit ‘peak plague’ but thanks to the support of our tremendous community - it keeps on going! (at least for now) 2016 has been a really busy year for us as we worked to update the game with new content, bring the game to new platforms and even made a physical board game!
I’m extremely proud of what we have achieved this year - here are some of the highlights:
- Over 85 million people have now been infected with Plague Inc. That's over 1% of the world population!
- For the 5th year in a row, Plague Inc. was one of the most popular paid apps on iOS worldwide.
- Plague Inc: Evolved sells over 1 million copies on Steam as well as becoming an Early Access success story when it launched out of Early Access
- Plague Inc: The Board Game was released via Kickstarter to critical and popular acclaim
- The Vampiric Shadow Plague disease type was released which turns the normal rules of Plague Inc. upside down and lets players control a single vampire in its mission to consume all humans and bring in a new era of darkness
- Ndemic Creations recognised by the Sunday Times as one of the top 100 fastest growing tech companies in the UK (72nd to be exact!)
- Fun Fact - players have infected a total of 11 quintillion people in Plague Inc. (11,903,205,450,400,819,041). I think that makes Plague Inc. the most deadly video game ever!
Thanks so much to everyone that has played the game and supported us, we couldn't have done any of this without you!
Notable events of 2016
- Released Mutation 11 for Plague Inc. which adds a tutorial, enhanced graphics and a new cheat mode
- Added Co-Op multiplayer to Plague Inc: Evolved on Steam
- Launched Plague Inc: Evolved out of Early Access on Steam - over 800,000 players helped the game become a real Early Access success story
- Added Parasite and Fungus disease types to the multiplayer mode of Plague Inc: Evolved on Steam
- Released Mutation 12 for Plague Inc. which lets players be infected by hundreds of new scenarios made by the Plague Inc: Evolved community as well as adding a random name generator for your diseases
- Plague Inc: The Board Game announced and launched via a hugely successful kickstarter campaign which was 1046% funded!
- I did a Reddit AMA covering all sorts of things linked to Plague Inc. and developing a successful game
- We successfully launched Plague Inc: Evolved for Playstation 4 - infecting over 100,000 people on PS4 and XB1
- Moved offices from London to Bristol (still in the UK)
- Trump and Brexit topped the popular disease names chosen by players
- Sold over 1 million copies of Plague Inc: Evolved on Steam
- Ndemic Creations was recognised by the Sunday Times Tech Track 100 as one of the UK's fastest growing tech companies (number 72 to be exact)
- Mutation 13 released which adds the all new vampiric Shadow Plague expansion as well as a Brexit narrative chain
- Throughout the year, scientists and teachers continued to use Plague Inc. for educational purposes which is always exciting. One of my favourite links is a video featuring a microbiologist going into depth about where Plague Inc. is accurate and where it focuses more on gameplay
- Companion App for Plague Inc: The Board Game released which teaches the game and has optional extras for enthusiasts
- Plague Inc: The Board Game sent out to kickstarter backers - to rave reviews as well as a seal of excellence by notable boardgame reviewer The Dice Tower
- Apple announced their ‘Best of 2016’ charts and Plague Inc. is the 8th most popular paid app in the US and similar worldwide (Plague Inc. has now topped the charts for 5 years in a row!)
Plans for 2017
2017 is going to be another busy year and we have some very exciting stuff coming up...
- Complete kickstarter fulfilment for backers who provided their address late or encountered delivery issues
- Release the Shadow Plague update on Xbox One and Playstation 4
- Sell Plague Inc: The Board Game at retail (probably Amazon initially)
- Make more community custom scenarios accessible to Plague Inc. players on mobile and console
- Release top secret, v exciting Plague Inc. stuff
- Work on mega secret, potentially exciting other stuff (!)
As ever, be the first to hear about all these things by following us on Facebook/Twitter, or signing up to our mailing list below. We are also looking to expand the team as well as offering some paid internships - keep an eye on the Careers page for more news and get in touch if you are interested.
Stay healthy and have a wonderful 2017!
James
