On January 19, TikTok, the popular social media platform, temporarily ceased operations in the US, which unexpectedly affected Marvel Snap, a renowned card game developed by Second Dinner Studios and released by Nuverse, a division of ByteDance, TikTok's parent company. The game was unavailable for 24 hours, and although it is now back online, full access has not yet been restored, with in-game purchases currently unavailable.
In response to this disruption, the developers are considering switching publishers and moving some services to internal resources to prevent future failures. This decision comes in light of political risks, as TikTok was only granted a 90-day extension to sell 50% of its business to a local owner. If this deal falls through, TikTok and related projects like Marvel Snap could face reblocking.
Second Dinner Studios has promised to provide more information soon. Despite many players experiencing authorization issues, the game remained viewable on Steam for PC owners. The developers at Second Dinner were taken aback by the incident and are actively working to fully restore the game. According to an official statement on 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.”
One frustrating aspect of this ordeal was the lack of warning to players. Many were unaware of the potential lockout and continued to make in-game purchases, which added to their frustration.
