Marvel Snap got caught up in the TikTok ban; so what does this mean for us?

If there’s a contender for the biggest news to take place over the weekend, for better or for worse, one of the top picks would have to be TikTok going offline in the United States. Having been on the cards for a while in the wake of a congressional act that targeted it as a "foreign adversary controlled application," the ban seemingly finally took effect this Sunday.

Of course, by now you probably already know that President-elect Donald Trump immediately pledged to return it to service, and ByteDance brought their hot social media app back from its self-imposed exile in short order. However, some of its other applications have yet to see such a fanfare-filled return.

For instance, Marvel Snap, the equally popular comic-themed card battler, was also affected. As we reported over the weekend, Marvel Snap, along with other releases from ByteDance subsidiaries such as Moonton’s Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, saw service halted in the United States with a clear message indicating it had been banned.

The message from TikTok owner ByteDance was unequivocal: you either accepted all of what they had to offer or you would get none of it.

The real kicker? It seems that developer Second Dinner wasn’t exactly warned about this and has been running damage control on social media for the past 24 hours. Despite this, they’ve promised to return Marvel Snap to service promptly, but this whole ordeal raises some interesting and rather unpleasant questions.

Catch!You don't need a degree in political science to see that TikTok going offline and its pointed message singling out Trump as its potential savior was likely a shrewd move by ByteDance to get people talking. And it seems to have paid off, allowing them to waltz back into availability in the United States in suitably dramatic fashion.

However, this match of political football also swept up the aforementioned gaming releases, and ByteDance appears to have left some of its developers holding the bag. Second Dinner themselves have had to pledge some lucrative free rewards to make up for time lost when players get their hands back on their cards, hopefully by the time of publishing.

It's unlikely that this will result in them ending their lucrative partnership with ByteDance, but it probably hasn't done much to instill confidence on their part. The seeming message is that mobile gaming is much less important than the algorithm-fueled social media enterprise that ByteDance has banked on.

Game overThis isn't the first time ByteDance has indicated that gaming comes second to their social media enterprise. Back in 2023, their highly-touted gaming division saw hundreds of employees laid off in a massive round of layoffs that saw many projects cancelled before they could see the light of day.

Despite this, Marvel Snap seemed to indicate that ByteDance's new tactic would be partnerships rather than homegrown releases. However, a betrayal of trust this big could make a lot of other potential developers and publishers very nervous about getting caught up in the next political firestorm that ByteDance finds itself in.

Over at Disney, they're unlikely to be happy either, as they've just had a fresh shot of relevance with the release of NetEase’s Marvel Rivals, which itself gave mobile a big boost with a crossover collaboration earlier this month. ByteDance may have called the bluff of politicians, but players, developers, and IP-holders are unlikely to be so forgiving.

They think it’s all over…Yet already there are rumblings that ByteDance was only the tip of the iceberg. Tencent, NetEase, and a myriad of other Chinese gaming companies could be the next targets. The FTC has already taken aim at MiHoYo for their use of loot boxes, and even this highly-publicized spat and its rather deflating conclusion may not be enough to dissuade the next politician with an axe to grind coming after gaming.

What might happen next? In the case of Marvel Snap, I saw a great many people, especially older folks who were ambivalent about TikTok at best, suddenly sitting up and taking notice when their favorite card battler was yanked. As shrewd and unexpected as it may have been, ByteDance’s gamble did pay off, which sets a worrying precedent.

After all, how are people going to feel when their favorite pastime is suddenly subject to the whims of someone in Washington, and their self-appointed opponents half a world away? There’s a saying about bread and circuses that could very well blow up in the faces of everyone involved.