According to various sources, China has banned the global edition of the Steam store. The revelation was first reported by Twitter user Ricky Owens (@ FireMonkey) earlier today and has since been confirmed by a variety of sources.
According to Comparitech, the Steampowered domain is no longer accessible to Chinese users, but Steamchina is. That’s the address for the Chinese version of Steam, which Valve debuted in February 2021 with the help of Perfect World.
However, Steam China has considerably fewer features than the global version. It was designed to adhere to the Chinese government’s rigorous videogame and Internet usage laws. First and foremost, a developer would need Chinese government approval to launch a game on this platform. That’s why, upon debut, the Chinese version only had 53 games, not to mention a lack of services like Steam Forums, Steam Workshop, Steam Market, and others.
If verified, this would appear to be another crackdown on video games by the Chinese government, given the enormous limitations placed on kids’ ability to play online just three months ago.
- Strictly limit the time of providing online game services to minors – All online game enterprises can only provide one hour of service to minors from 20:00 to 21:00 daily on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays, and legal holidays.
- Strictly implement the requirements for real-name registration and login of online game user accounts – Do not provide game services in any form to users without real-name registration and login.
https://t.co/CIws7JthEb still works (so only global Steam is affected).
— SteamDB (@SteamDB) December 25, 2021
Steam client itself is unaffected and users in China can still play just fine at the moment.
However, SteamDB claims that the Steam client is untouched thus far, and Chinese players can continue to play without problems. It’s unclear whether the restrictions put on the store and API subdomains will be extended to the client.
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