Recently, the Chinese government has been tightening its rules for internet use in the country. These rules also made it difficult for tech giants to keep up with the government and caused companies to shut down their services in the country. Previously, giants such as Google, Twitter and Microsoft had withdrawn some of their services from the country due to these pressures.
In addition, China was increasing its pressure on games in the country and enforcing various bans. In the past months, the government has banned children under the age of 18 from playing online games for more than 3 hours a week by restricting the playing time. In addition, the government imposed restrictions on the giant game company Tencent last month on the grounds that it violated the rules. Now the country has made a move towards Steam, one of the largest gaming platforms in the world.
Steam Global banned in the country
According to the report published by TheGamer, the global version of Steam is banned in the country. In the statements, it was stated that only the Chinese version of the giant platform can operate in the country. It should be noted that this version contains only 103 games among thousands of games offered by Steam.
Ricky Owens (iFireMonkey), a trusted leaker, was the first to notice the ban. In the screenshot shared by Owens on Twitter, it was observed that Steam Global, which was launched last February, is among the websites banned in China. In the news shared by The Verge, it was stated that the situation was checked and Steam was blocked all over the country, while Steam did not make any comments on the subject.
Thus, the government’s ban on Steam was added to the bans imposed on games this year. The Fortnite game, developed by Epic Games, has also announced that it has decided to withdraw from the country due to increasing pressure in the past months. In addition, China implemented the bans on technology giants and cryptocurrencies in 2021 and continued its pressure on internet use.
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