Steam is finally being launched in China

Steam, the massively popular gaming platform for PC, is finally launching in China. It’s being done with association with Perfect World, who is Valve’s official partner partner in China. Valve launched CS:GO in China through Perfect World back in late 2017.

The rumors for this project had been floating around since quite a while now, and it already appeals to a massive user-base. Steam’s Chinese user base went over 30 million users last month, and a quarter of Steam’s entire user-base uses Simplified Chinese as their language.

Valve, in collaboration with Perfect World, officially signed today an agreement with Shanghai’s government to launch Steam China pic.twitter.com/KvwtMyaEDd

— Nors3 (@Nors3) November 28, 2018

Steam’s official launch in China, named as ‘Steam China’ is expected to make previously banned services of Steam finally be available. Using Steam in China before this announcement meant that only the store would work, but pretty much everything else like the forums, inventories, and other Steam Community features would be banned.

So, Valve’s collaboration with Perfect World to launch Steam China will devoid them of any legal issues, allow them to introduce Steam Community features, and have an official availability in the country.

The Chinese Government has strict content censorship laws, which means that the availability of games on the Steam Store in China will be restricted and in accordance to said laws.

Valve previously announced that for the rest of the world, their content curation system will be simple and allow all sorts of games as long as they weren’t ‘illegal’ or ‘trolling’.

“If you’re a player, we shouldn’t be choosing for you what content you can or can’t buy. If you’re a developer, we shouldn’t be choosing what content you’re allowed to create. Those choices should be yours to make. Our role should be to provide systems and tools to support your efforts to make these choices for yourself, and to help you do it in a way that makes you feel comfortable.” – Official Statement by Valve on ‘Who gets to be on the Steam Store’

There’s not much info on the exact release or any other information, but seems like Valve has a lot to tackle for the release of Steam China.