The TikTok divest-or-ban bill has come for Marvel.
In a surprise side effect of the bill that forced TikTok to go dark Saturday night, the digital game Marvel Snap has also gone offline. The game was developed by the American independent gaming company Second Dinner Studios, in conjunction with the gaming publisher Nuverse.
Nuverse, however, like TikTok, is owned by the Chinese conglomerate ByteDance. Nonetheless, the developers of the game were caught off guard when the game went offline.
“Unfortunately, Marvel Snap is temporarily unavailable in U.S. app stores and is unavailable to play in the U.S. This outage is a surprise to us and wasn’t planned,” Second Dinner Studios said in a statement. “Marvel Snap isn’t going anywhere. We’re actively working on getting the game up as soon as possible and will update you once we have more to share.”
Marvel Snap launched in 2022 to positive reviews (it was also nominated for a BAFTA Game Award), and sees players “compete in an online Marvel universe with digital decks of cards that contain special powers,” per the company.
When visitors opened the app or went to the Marvel Snap website, it showed a message indicating that the game was “currently not available in your country or region.”
Marvel, of course, is owned by The Walt Disney Co., though the shutdown of Marvel Snap is unlikely to have significant impact on the company’s bottom line. The company licenses its IP, including the Marvel Comics and Marvel Cinematic Universe characters, to a number of game developers for different games.
TikTok went dark in the U.S. Saturday night as the divestiture bill was set to become law. While the app is offline for now, the company wrote that “We are fortunate that President Trump has indicated that he will work with us on a solution to reinstate TikTok once he takes office. Please stay tuned!”
Trump has indicated that he wants to try and bring TikTok back, though in what capacity and by what means remains unclear.
Read the full article here
