It may seem like our launch in China was softer than people were expecting, but there’s a good reason for that. Normally, CryptoKitties likes to run loud and proud. That’s the pace (and level of transparency) our community is used to from us.

In China, it’s a slightly different story.

The state of cryptocurrencies in China means that we can’t move at our usual pace, nor can we be as transparent as we’d like to be.

Because of the number of crypto-related scams that sprung up in China, the government took a hard stance against cryptocurrencies and banned all exchanges. CryptoKitties isn’t a cryptocurrency, so we’re mostly fine.

However, since our users need to be able to buy ether to take part in CryptoKitties, there is a chance that new government decisions could impact CryptoKitties in meaningful — and potentially not positive — ways.

Across the board, game makers are being cautious.

We’ve seen CryptoKitties copycats spring up from companies like Baidu, NetEase, and Xiaomi, and none of them are moving forward full throttle; they’re waiting to see the government’s reaction to this craze. It’s a factor we anticipated, but the more we grow the community, the more difficult this can be to navigate.

So while we’re moving forward, we have to do so cautiously. We’re focusing on building relationships with influencers and plotting what our marketing strategy will be once the starting pistol goes off and we’re free to run at our usual pace.

So what are we doing in China now?

We are fostering the community, scaling support, and providing more education.

Buying cryptocurrency is really difficult in China! We’ve grown a huge community on WeChat and QQ, but many of the people who are interested in CryptoKitties come from gaming and non-crypto backgrounds. This is a huge success in our mission to bring blockchain to the masses, but it means there’s a lot of work to do to prepare Chinese users for becoming active members of the community.

So for now, we’re putting a lot of energy into serving our community, and waiting to see what comes down the line from the government. When the time comes, we can deploy, grow, and run fast — like you’ve come to expect.

In the meantime, we’re working on our Android and iOS apps.