Since officially being announced for China in November 2018 during an esports event being held at the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai, Valve has reportedly released the alpha version of Steam China. According to the recent Steam Client update, Valve is not only working on the Chinese version of the Steam Client but has also moved the project onto the alpha stage, according to a report by win.gg.
While we might not have the whole picture in front of us, we do know that Steam China will be heavily monitored by the Chinese Government, and will be following a lot of national policies which have been enforced by the government to regulate gaming.
[Also Read: China Allegedly Region Locking All Online Games]
The three big features of Steam China which differentiate it from the original version are as follows,
Default Steam Question Mark
“Limiting the number of gaming hours to 1.5 per day and restricting it between 8 am and 10 pm. For holidays, 3 hours of game time was decided and on top of all this, 400 yuan or 57 USD was set as the limit for the maximum amount of money that could be spent in a game per month.”
Edit: An addition has been made to clarify that the quote above only stands true for Chinese minors.
This might be just the start, as Valve is certainly working fast to release it’s Steam Client in China, in accordance with various Chinese authorities, welcoming changes as they come along to suit their needs and demands. Valve has shown that they are ready to customise and adapt their universal game client, so as to tap into China’s massive gaming market.