Marvel Snap partners with Skystone Games following January’s TikTok-related shutdown

Second Dinner, the developer behind Marvel Snap, announced that the game is partnering with Skystone Games as its new publisher. The card game developer pivoted after facing legal issues related to the TikTok ban. Second Dinner apologized to gamers by gifting them in-game rewards.

The US government’s recent TikTok ban held certain ramifications for the gaming industry. Marvel Snap was among the affected games, with the card game becoming briefly inoperable. The ban resulted in Second Dinner, the game’s developer, shifting operations.

Second Dinner pivots in a new operation partnership

HEEEYY! Thank you for your incredible support and patience during the recent outage in the United States. Now that we’re available for download on mobile app stores again, we're excited to share some news about the future of MARVEL SNAP!

To ensure this never happens again, and…

— Second Dinner (@seconddinner) January 29, 2025

Marvel Snap developer Second Dinner, announced its partnership with Skystone Games as its new U.S.-based publisher. As per the announcement, the deal represented Marvel Snap’s future to ensure that the game never faces issues such as the TikTok-related shutdown again.

The agreement signed with Skystone Games will bring most of the operational and publishing responsibilities in-house. The collectible card developer added that the agreement had been signed with help from its current publisher, Nuverse. Second Dinner thanked its fans for its support, adding that the developer was excited about what would come next for Marvel Snap.

Marvel Snap was forced to halt its operations in the U.S. after the federal government voted to ban TikTok, effective from January 19, 2025. The ban targeted the operations of ByteDance, the Chinese-owned tech company founded in 2012. It also affected ByteDance’s subsidiaries, such as Nuverse, the current Marvel Snap publisher. After the ban was implemented, the game was suddenly inoperable for over 24 hours and was even pulled down from the Play Store. 

After the game was pulled down, Second Dinner took to social media to inform Marvel Snap players that they had no prior notice that they would face the downtime. According to the statement issued, Second Dinner admitted that the shutdown came as a surprise. The card game developer also defiantly said, “Marvel Snap isn’t going anywhere.” The developer then assured gamers that it was working to ensure that the game was back up as soon as possible. 

On January 25, 2025, Second Dinner announced that the game was back online and that it was thankful for gamers’ support and patience.

As a thank you, Second Dinner announced that it would reward players to compensate for the disruption. The rewards include a U.S. Downtime Package and a Global Gratitude Package. The rewards will be available for players who had created accounts before January 20, 2025. Second Dinner also announced the resumption of global in-app purchase services and app downloads/updates via the Play Store. 

Gamers react to Marvel Snap’s shutdown mess

Gamers went online to discuss the Marvel Snap shutdown and resumption of services. Some gamers supported the developer, saying they had done a good job communicating with their fans and were glad the whole ordeal was over.

Some gamers said that Second Dinner had done well getting the game back up and running and that they were looking forward to the game’s future. 

Some gamers also thanked Second Dinner for the rewards it gave for the disturbance. Some gamers said that Second Dinner’s move was awesome, and they couldn’t wait to get their hands on them. When questioned on when the rewards would be available, the Marvel Snap developer said that they were working on the details and that the studio was aiming to issue the rewards next week.

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