On January 19, TikTok, the popular social media platform, temporarily halted its operations in the US, causing unexpected disruptions to Marvel Snap, a renowned card game developed by Second Dinner Studios and published by Nuverse, a subsidiary of ByteDance, TikTok's parent company. Marvel Snap was offline for 24 hours due to this blockage but is now back online, albeit with ongoing efforts to restore full access. Currently, in-game purchases remain unavailable. In response, the developers are contemplating a change in publishers and are considering shifting some services to internal resources to prevent future disruptions, as stated in an official announcement on Platform X.
The decision to explore these options stems from political risks. TikTok has been given a 90-day extension to divest 50% of its business to a local owner. Failure to comply with this agreement could result in another blockage for TikTok and its associated projects, including Marvel Snap.
Second Dinner Studios has promised to provide further updates in the near future. Despite the game's return to service, many players are experiencing authorization issues. However, PC players can still access the game via Steam. The developers at Second Dinner expressed their surprise at the incident and are diligently working to fully restore the game. According to an official statement from Platform X:
“Marvel Snap is here to stay. We're working hard to restore the game as quickly as possible, and we'll keep players informed of our progress”.
A particularly frustrating element of this situation was the lack of prior warning to players. Many were unaware of the potential for a lockout and continued to make in-game purchases, unaware of the impending disruption.
