Steam has just launched in China with the help from Perfect World. The store has now only 40+ games, including Valve’s own hits like CS:GO and Dota 2.
Niko Partners’ senior analyst Daniel Ahmad shared the news on Twitter. He also noted that a public beta of Steam China (available here) also has interoperability with the store’s international version.
As for now, it has just a little bit more than 40 titles available, including CS:GO, Dota 2, and some Chinese games. Another 10 projects are coming soon, but all of them should be approved by the local regulators.
Steam China will only work in China and requires gamers to sign up on the store’s new version or use their current international accounts to log in. Gamers will still have access to the global catalog, but there’s a chance that China’s government will ban Steam International in the future.
Valve first announced its plans to bring Steam to China with the help from publisher Perfect World back in 2018. The company hopes that local players will also be able to buy games on Steam International, but some experts believe that it’s just a matter of time before Chinese regulators block access to it.
Last year, China’s government approved 1,413 titles, only 97 of which were games from foreign developers. This trend signals that Chinese players could be deprived of thousands of titles that don’t have a license. A similar case happened when Tencent helped officially launch Nintendo Switch in China, and the local version ended up having only 13 games available.