As users from China report, the global version of Steam is no longer accessible from China, even though the Chinese are crazy about PC gaming. The ban came on the evening of December 24th. Users in English-speaking forums are not particularly sympathetic: Generally, they wonder why it took so long.
Where did the news come from? The news surfaced on the night from Friday to Saturday. It spread through forums like Resetera, reddit, or via the well-known data miner “Santa Ricky” on Twitter.
About 9:00 PM on Christmas Eve German time, on December 24th, the website domain “Steam” is said to have been blocked in China. This means that the international Steam page with all its sub-functions is no longer easily accessible from China.
Further details on the news, any clear statements from the Communist Party are unknown, rather people are just speculating what might be behind it.
China has its own version of Steam, but with less than 100 games
What could be behind it? Forums speculate that the ban of “Global Steam” is a logical consequence of China having its own version of Steam since February 2021, which hardly anyone uses as there are only 98 games compared to 60,000 in the international version.
The Chinese government has opted for a rigid course against online gaming in recent years, primarily targeting mobile games. Officially, they fear for the sight of children and adolescents, as myopia is rampant in China, because children stare at their phones like crazy.
In recent years, there has been a ban for over months, so no new games were allowed to be released, and strict playtime restrictions for children and adolescents, which were accompanied by facial recognition software.
Overall, China has the industry firmly in its grasp; huge corporations like Tencent have close ties to “the Party,” but fear every press article in party-affiliated newspapers, which have described online gaming as “digital opium.”
The glorious times when Chinese companies raked in profits during the gold rush seem to be over for several years now – they are now balancing on a thin line.
How is this being discussed? There is not a lot of solidarity in English-speaking forums. There are about 3 opinions:
- Some say: “I wonder why this didn’t happen earlier” – essentially, they trust China to do anything related to censorship and restrictions.
- Others say: “Oh, that probably means there will be fewer cheaters in CS:GO now and I can finally play PUBG again” – as Chinese players are often labeled as cheaters.
- Third say: “They will probably just use VPNs and we won’t notice much”
No one seems to be really surprised by the news.
How does one play in China?
- The big difference from the West: Consoles like PlayStation 4/5 or Xbox play virtually no role in China
- PC gaming mostly does not take place at home, but in public internet cafes. There, multiplayer online games are played: some that we also know, like LoL, Overwatch or CS:GO, but also many local titles like Crossfire, Dungeon Fighter Online or Journey to the West
- For many years, mobile gaming has been trending in China: A game like “Honor of Kings,” a kind of mobile LoL, has incredibly many players because it is closely linked to huge social media platforms
We deal with the phenomenon of why Chinese players are considered cheaters here on MeinMMO:
