Chinese fans of Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Horizons are paying a premium for foreign consoles and finding ways to skirt limits imposed by local regulators on a game that has become both a breakout worldwide hit and political flashpoint.
The game has become a global bestseller as its players describe the ability to create virtual versions of themselves and their homes and interact with other gamers as a form of escapism from the real world of coronavirus lockdowns, but it is not licensed for sale in China's tightly regulated gaming industry.
To obtain the game and play it to its full potential, players in China are paying a premium of up to 50 percent for unlocked Switch consoles sold abroad and brought in by middlemen, getting foreign bank accounts to pay for items, or paying for services to get faster internet speed to access the game's overseas servers.