Today marked the official ban of TikTok in the United States, and surprisingly enough, the online card game Marvel Snap has been wrapped up in this development as well.
For anyone not hiding under a rock, it’s no secret that TikTok has been dealing with the threat of a U.S. ban for quite some time now. The ultimatum was to sell itself off, but since that didn’t pan out, the hammer finally came down. Now, the reasons chalked up for its ban are arguably questionable (considering domestic platforms like Facebook also raise security eyebrows), but it is what it is. In a twist of events, Marvel Snap has inadvertently faced the same fate. At first glance, it might seem puzzling to see a card game tangled up with one of the world’s top social media giants. The crux of the issue lies in the fact that both TikTok and the game’s publisher, Nuverse, are under ByteDance’s ownership.
The developers at Second Dinner were just as caught off guard as the rest of us, taking to Twitter to express their surprise: “Sadly, Marvel Snap is temporarily off the grid in U.S. app stores and can’t be played within the country. We didn’t expect this blow reaching us, but due to TikTok’s ban on January 18th, our game got hit too. Rest assured, Marvel Snap isn’t disappearing. We’re hustling to resolve this and will keep you updated as soon as we have any news.”
If you try to launch the app right now, you’ll be met with a message announcing its current unavailability, yet reassuringly promising efforts to get it back online in the U.S. It’s mind-boggling how neither Second Dinner nor Nuverse foresaw this outcome, but if you’re a dedicated player, it looks like it’s time to play the waiting game for now.
