Playstation 4 & Xbone to be sold in China - new battleground for next generation consoles

[Sut1]

Sky News :

"PlayStation consoles and games will be made and sold in China after the country dropped a long-standing ban on video game consoles.

State-owned Shanghai Oriental Pearl has signed a deal with Japanese electronics firm Sony, according to a filing made on Monday with the Shanghai stock exchange.

Under the deal, both organisations will set up two joint venture companies in Shanghai's free-trade zone.

Sony will have a 49% stake in one company and a 70% share of the other.

Authorities in China ended the ban on video game consoles in January after 14 years.

The move was among a series of looser investment controls promised when Shanghai brought in its free-trade zone in September.

In April, Microsoft said it would be partnering with BesTV New Media to sell Xbox One consoles in China.

In the same month, Sony announced it had sold seven million PS4 consoles worldwide since its launch at the end of 2013.

But earlier this week, the Japanese company revealed that strong PlayStation and smartphone sales had not prevented it recording a $1.26bn (£750m) loss for the financial year."

Now this could cause a seismic shift in both financial power and indeed game culture if this takes hold and Sony or Microsoft do well in China, it will add another region with the potential size of the NA market. Also where would this leave Nintendo ? Should they go sell in China as well to not get left further behind ?

Your thoughts ?

[pacguy191]

I'm not sure how it would affect anyone besides the companies. Yeah, they'd be making more money but what does that translate to for us?

[Sut1]

Well games have gradually grown westernised, I'm trying to recall what SegaT refers to them as 'Man-bro' games or something similar. That is predominantly for the NA and European markets.
Perhaps with entering the Chinese market we may see a renaissance in oriental game design ?

[Vexer1]

I'm the glad the people of China will finally be able to legally play video games without having to resort to piracy(most American movies are also banned there, so piracy is the only way to see them).

[Tron1]

Might as well get to play what they manufacture & assemble.

[Viper821]

Interesting development. I once had a guy who lived in China over at my parent's place a number of years back and he knew all about PS2 games and told me how God of War was his favourite. I guess this means he must have pirated them. Hopefully we get to see some more "Chinese" games because games today are getting so boring and generic.

[Vexer1]

Viper82-Strongly disagree, I think games today are not "generic" or "boring" at all, I think they're better then ever!  Watch Dogs is one of the best games i've ever had the pleasure of playing.