Today brought strange news for Steam as its global store page seems to be banned in China. Multiple reports came in regarding this news. China is known to utilize censorship and restrictions on many fronts for various media, yet certain localizations are allowed for outside companies and industries to keep them operating within their borders.
Steam’s China branch, Steamchina, is still accessible but global domain “Steampowered” is currently not working inside the country. Bad news is that Steamchina is pretty much limited in many aspects compared to its global version. Considering the strict regulations of China for video games and internet usage, it is not really surprising at all. For example, to publish a game on this platform a developer would need Chinese government approval for the game. That’s why the Chinese version only had 53 games at launch, not to mention the lack of features such as Steam Forums, Steam Workshop, Steam Market, and more.
If this is to be confirmed by Chinese government in following days, it means that they are bringing in even further and more massive restrictions on video games. Just three months ago or so, China already imposed some serious limitations on Chinese children about video games.
Steam client is unaffected, and users are able to play games without issues.
