Sony has suspended its PlayStation Store in mainland China in order to improve the online store’s security.

In a statement to its Weibo account on Sunday, PlayStation China said it was for a “system security upgrade” without providing further details.

The closure follows reports on social media that mainland PlayStation users were able to switch to overseas services via a backdoor and circumvent China’s restrictions to download unlicensed games. The spedific "crack" is sold for a fee of less than $5 on e-commerce platforms.

Companies need to obtain a license from the content regulator before launching any game in the country. The amount of approved games are limited. For example, only 13 new games were added to the PlayStation Store in China in 2019. Nintendo Switch has been allowed to offer only three games in its China store in partnership with Tencent.