Valve set to launch a version of Steam in China

Valve, in collaboration with Perfect World, will be launching a version of its popular platform called Steam China.

The company has not indicated any official release date or if it will be tailored for the Chinese gamers, Engadget reported.

Owing to the country's restrictive policies, Valve is partnering with the local company. The two first collaborated for bringing DOTA 2 and CS: GO to China.

Prior to the news about Valve launching a version of Stem in China, the last we heard about Valve was when Apple issued new guidelines in response to its rejection of Steam in the App Store. Apple issued new review guidelines for its lucrative App Store platform after it moved to block plans by Steam, the biggest distributor of PC-based video games, to extend its reach into iPhones and iPads.

Apple uses these guidelines to decide which apps can appear in the App Store. Apple now explicitly says apps cannot host anything that looks like an app store within an app or give users the ability to “browse, select, or purchase software not already owned or licensed by the user.”

Steam, the foremost online store for downloaded games played on Windows PCs, had intended to release a free of charge mobile phone app called Steam Link so gamers could carry on playing on their iPhones while not at their desktop machines.

But Steam’s parent company, the Bellevue, Washington-based Valve Corp, said last week that Apple had rejected the Steam Link app, blocking its release. Neither Steam nor Apple commented on why the app was rejected, and neither responded to requests for comment on Monday about whether the new App Store rules were indeed aimed at Steam.

Apple’s update seemed proposed to explain the rules around what is known as in-app purchases or micro-transactions, in which gamers can spend small amounts of money inside games to buy tokens, extra lives or others so-called digital goods.

(Source)