Steam Is Getting a China Only Client

Valve is going to release a localized Steam client exclusive to China on February 9. This will be the start of the open beta phase. Perfect World will be operating the Chinese version of Steam.

The partnership between Perfect World and Valve started some years ago. A special version of Steam was always the end goal. Western companies have to partner with a Chinese company to operate in the country. Double that with the strict censorship and laws concerning gaming, it was inevitable that a Chinese version of steam would be released.

Here is the statement from Daniel Ahmad, an expert on video games market in China & Asia:

For many years Steam existed in a gray zone when it came to the Chinese market. People from china could technically use the store to access many of the games, however, not all of the said games were “compatible” with Chinese law. Chinese players will have to open a new account, although their date will be transferred.

It is not clear if the international version of steam will be still accessible when the beta ends. And we can definitely say that the Chinese version will have a lot fewer games than the international version. At worst, just like the plethora of other non-accessible apps, Chinese players will probably start using a VPN to access the international version of Steam.

Is the ‘China Exclusive Steam’ a Good Thing?

Depends on who you ask.

Many Chinese players think this will restrict the number of games they can play while developers fear that they might lose a big chunk of their audience and subsequently the revenue that comes with them.

The concern from Chinese players is quite valid, however, I do not agree with Chinese developers. There are many games (small and big) that were made by them, and some of these games are played by thousands of gamers. This though does not mean that they have a sizeable “western” following. Most of these games don’t even have English localization, so I am not quite sure that they will lose much revenue from this move. However, the Chinese approval process might hurt a lot of indie companies.

As for the non-Chinese players, I think they are quite happy by this move. Chinese players do not have a great reputation as gamers. They mostly don’t speak English and known for using cheats. Western players often demand that the game developers should put Chinese players on a different server, or outright deny them the game. If the international version of Steam is made unavailable in China, there will be a quite a drop in their numbers, which would make most of these players happy.