Update (06-01-22) China Bans Steam Global? No, It Seems!

Is China going to ban the Steam Global version?

According to recent but conflicting reports, China has banned the international version of Steam for its users.

China Bans the International Version of Steam? – Steam Global

Update on Steam Global in China, 06-01-2022

Concerns that the world’s largest video game platform Steam was blocked in China on Christmas Day spread on social media as gamers complained about issues connecting to the website days after it kicked off its popular year-end sale. Access to the store appears to be facing intermittent connectivity issues in different parts of mainland China, with some users saying they had no problems connecting.

The government did not issue any announcements about Steam, nor did Valve Corp, the platform’s US-based owner. The global Steam store has long operated in a legal grey area on the mainland. Games sold in China are supposed to be officially licensed, which is not the case for all games on the global platform.

While China has already blocked many of Steam’s social features – including discussion boards, workshops, markets, and broadcasts – Steam has for years been allowed to sell titles directly to consumers through its international platform. Niko Partners has investigated the issue and has found that intermittent issues still persist for users accessing Steam International from China.

Steam Global Version

The report surfaced when Chinese demography users failed to access the Steam Global version for the past week or so. There are reports suggesting that China has banned the top PC gaming digital store due to violations.

While some reports suggest there was a DNS attack that took down the platform just before Christmas to dent its sales. Both stories are backed by people in China and the situation of Steam Global being down in China is still evolving.

Steam is a top digital game distributor and hosts millions of games on its platform. It covers all ranges of games including AAA games as well as low-budget indie games. Its direct competitors like Epic Games Store fall nowhere near its massive strides.

However, Steam’s popularity is also a curse for Valve as it regularly gets attacked by hackers and also suffers DNS attacks. Moreover, Steam also comes under scrutiny by government agencies due to its massive popularity.

Previously, Steam has suffered several DNS and hacking attacks which embargo Steam fans to access the website. DNS attack is carried out to stop users’ access to Steam to dent the ongoing sale.

The year 2021 for Chinese gamers has had some bad news as China has gone further stringent on its regulations for game licenses, gaming hours, game launches, and more.

China Bans the International Version of Steam?

In a recent move, China also asked Google and Apple to restrict P2E games on their respective platforms. The restrictions on video games are being implemented with force and the fans have nowhere to go.

If the reports are true about Steam, then this is a massive blow for Valve.

There isn’t any official statement from Valve or Steam about the outage. For those of you worried about the sale, Winter Sale will stay live until January 5.