China has banned the global version of Steam?

Steam Global seems to be blocked in China according to reports. Steam usually has a local regional store as well as a global version. The regional stores have limited game selections, so the global version is used to bypass this. However, now gamers in China won’t be able to do it.

But according to some sources, there’s a DNS Cache Poisoning attack causing some players in China not able to access: Steam’s store page during the beginning of Winter Sale –being confused for an alleged Steam ban in the country

There's a DNS Cache Poisoning attack causing some players in China not able to access: Steam's store page during the beginning of Winter Sale (Dec 22)

— being confused for an the alleged Steam ban in the country.

• The last attack happened before 2017's Steam Winter Sale pic.twitter.com/DShiL0LYtb

— PlayerIGN (@PlayerIGN) December 25, 2021

One Steam user, allegedly from China according to a Twitter post, can access a number of its features such as messaging but cannot purchase any games from the store.

The website domain for Steam has been blocked in China ~8 hours ago. pic.twitter.com/sBQkHQ6eWS

— 🎄 Santa Ricky (@_FireMonkey) December 25, 2021

 

China’s recent effective ban of Steam came with news that China has been rapidly increasing their restrictions on gaming. Earlier this year they also banned Fortnite after opening the game in limited capacity for Chinese players.

After the Chinese government made comments denigrating gaming, companies have taken a huge hit. The company, Tencent, lost billions in stock value after repeated crackdowns on games led to much lower earnings.

China is taking steps to limit the development of society’s future by restricting children’s use of technology such as blocking gaming time or livestreaming. China has a goal for 10 years to better develop their citizens and limit children online activity.