Steam officially comes to China

https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-and-perfect-world-are-bringing-steam-to-china/

Valve has announced a new partnership with Perfect World Co. to launch Steam China, which "will provide Chinese gamers and developers with a new way to access Steam's expansive selection of games and entertainment."

The size of the Chinese audience makes the launch of an officially-approved version of Steam in the country a huge move for Valve. The store is accessible in the country, but access to the Steam Community, including forums, user profiles, and inventories, is completely blocked, meaning that anything requiring interaction with other users isn't going to work.

Valve's move to launch a region-specific store comes roughly a year after Chinese conglomerate Tencent began making moves that appeared aimed at becoming a major force in Western markets. Tencent owns League of Legends studio Riot as well as 40 percent of Fortnite developer Epic; it also recently partnered with JJ Abrams to launch Bad Robot Games, and holds the rights to publish PUBG in China.

Perfect World, meanwhile, is licensed to operate Valve's Dota 2 and CS:GO in China, and CEO Robert H. Xiao said that it will bring more Steam games to the country via the soon-to-be-officially-sanctioned platform. This could be a sort of "Clash of the Titans" shaping up for the fate of the Chinese market, then, and if that's the case then Steam China will be a major win for Perfect World.

Valve didn't say whether Steam China will have access to the full lineup of games and services, but stated that no changes to its existing international operations and services are planned. We reached out to Valve for comment and were told "more information, including launch details, will be made available soon."

Time for Steam to smash their old playerbase records then.

Huh, i thought they were already there.

Given that the Chinese government routinely engages in corporate espionage of companies that set up shop there, I can't imagine it's going to be to their benefit. If anything I can just see the state trying to figure out how to counterfeit game keys and sell them online.

@Ant_17:

It was but did not have much support and was restricted

@lamprey263: I doubt valve has anything useful for them. Valve already works with Chinese companies to release their games there and giving the chinese audience access to more games is a good thing.

steamsucks CD keys 4 life

Hahaha a state sponsored counterfeit videogame program.

What would you call such a department.....

I wonder how limited it will be...

@lundy86_4: It'll suck if it gets restricted like all the other services, its been working well so far because it allowed gamers to play games that would be banned upfront like GTA V and Fallout.

Console gaming could thrive so much in China. I have no idea why they ban it.