As a result of a longstanding partnership between Valve and Chinese gaming company, Perfect World, Steam China will officially be coming to the Chinese market. The two companies began their partnership six years ago to bring Dota 2 and CS:GO to China and more recently hosted Dota 2’s SuperMajor in Shanghai. Now as the gaming industry grows stronger every day in the east, Valve and Perfect World are looking to open more opportunities to bring western games to one of the biggest gaming markets in the world.
Steam is technically already available in China but in less than a legitimate capacity. Despite having a reported 17 million users, the community features are currently blocked. Games released in China are subjected to heavy regulations and are oftentimes banned by the Chinese government due to blood, violence, and mature content. The government heavily favours local companies and now with Valve and Perfect World working together to bring Steam to China in an official setting, it should bring more western games and features that are currently blocked.
Steams main competition in China is Tencent’s WeGame platform. As Tencent is locally based it’s had an easier time with laws and regulations bringing games like Fortnite and Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds to the Chinese market. With WeGame’s already expanding platform there’s no telling how games will be split as Steam will officially be joining the market.
No release date has been announced for Steam China.
Esports Insider says: China is one of the largest and fastest video game markets in the world and it’s easy to see why. Although Steam is technically already available in China, this is a great move to further legitimize the platform. This decision will hopefully make western developers pay more attention to the eastern market. The more users and more eyes on games and gaming platforms, the better!
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