2nd Dinner Anticipates Swift Revival of Shock Snap Following U.S. Ban

Marvel Snap developer 2nd Dinner is aiming to reinstate the card battler online “within 24 hours” after it was taken down in the United States due to the studio’s connections with TikTok parent company ByteDance.

“We have been tirelessly working to bring Marvel Snap back online in the U.S. and expect to have it accessible again within 24 hours. We will update you once it’s back,” states the latest post on social media from the studio.

The game went offline on Sunday, with 2nd Dinner confirming the news on X while promising to address the situation as soon as possible.

“Unfortunately, Marvel Snap is temporarily unavailable in U.S. app stores and cannot be played in the U.S.,” wrote the developer. “This disruption came as a surprise to us and was not anticipated. Marvel Snap isn’t going anywhere. We’re actively working on restoring the game as soon as possible and will keep you informed as we have more updates.”

Players trying to log into the game found a message indicating it has been banned in the United States.

“Sorry, Marvel Snap is not actually available right now,” the message stated, as reported by IGN. “A law banning Marvel Snap has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately, this means you cannot access Marvel Snap for now. Rest assured, we are working to restore our service in the U.S. Please stay tuned!”

Marvel Snap caught in the crossfire after TikTok ban

Marvel Snap is published by Nuverse, a subsidiary of TikTok parent ByteDance. It seems this association is currently causing issues for Marvel Snap and developer 2nd Dinner following a new U.S. law that banned TikTok over the weekend.

This law prevents individuals in the United States from using the popular social media platform and was supposedly enacted due to concerns regarding its ties to the Chinese government.

According to the BBC, the U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed the decision on Friday after ByteDance failed to sell TikTok to a U.S. company before January 19, 2025.

Although the ban was upheld, President-elect Donald Trump stated he will likely give ByteDance and TikTok a 90-day extension once he takes office on January 20.

In the meantime, 2nd Dinner co-founder and chief development officer Ben Brode mentioned that players in the U.S. could use a VPN to bypass the ban.

“I am hearing that VPN software will allow you to continue playing Marvel Snap for now, as long as you pretend to be from Canada or something,” he noted on Bluesky.

It was previously reported that ByteDance was reorganizing its video game division and in talks about a potential asset sale with Chinese conglomerate Tencent, which was recently added to a list of “Chinese military companies” by the U.S. Department of Defense.

ByteDance confirmed it “made the tough decision to restructure our gaming division” in November 2023, but it remains unclear which subsidiaries have been affected.

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