After 14 long years, China is finally lifting its state-enforced ban on video game consoles. The end of this tyrannical veto on happiness undoubtedly sees Sony keen to enter into an emerging and potentially lucrative market. Indeed, we've known about the platform holder's plans in this area for quite some time, however it's only now that any real details are emerging.
The Japanese giant has confirmed that it will be partnering with the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group in two separate ventures into the Chinese market. It's not clear whether these plans will take the form of the company's current consoles as we know them, or some other redesigned SKU. However, we do know that the platform holder will own a 70 per cent stake in one, and a 49 per cent stake in the other.
Right, that's all of the gross business jargon out of the way, so now onto some good old fashioned speculation. While it would initially seem logical for Sony to simply release the PlayStation 4 in China, we think that there is the potential for it to follow Nintendo's lead and redesign the console.
After all, this is a comparatively untested and untapped market, which essentially makes it the Wild Wild West of the video game industry. And if Will Smith has taught us anything, it's that you should absolutely never star in a movie called Wild Wild West, because it will definitely be atrocious.
Regardless, we'll all be watching on in fascination as this Eastern excursion develops. What do you make of this announcement? Do you think that the Japanese giant will stick with its current SKU, or create a separate line of products for this new venture? Get down to business in the comments section below.
[source gamespot.com]
Comments 5
They should release all consoles and offer giant game bundle deals for ps3 and vita.
With the current chinese goverment conditions, its going to be bit hard for corporations to bring their games to china, quoting another article:
"For starters, anything including alcohol abuse, drug use, violence and obscenity is ruled out from the start. This pretty much applies to anything that even remotely resembles the Action genre (or RPGs for that matter), not just obvious titles such as GTA 5. Furthermore, anything hinting at cults or superstitions is ruled out, as well as anything that even remotely challenges China’s political, national or religious integrity. Games with horror elements and monsters are likely to be ruled out too."
So technicaly no M rated and even some T+ games over there.
Its easy to see it as negetive if you are not from a country that imposes such laws.
But it's niice to see they are finally relaxing their grip on the peoples choice.
@Epic I had almost as many restrictions on games imposed by my parents when I was young, only I was allowed rts, SW and JP games. I'd hate to see the ps4's selection there: GT is a shoe-in, at least!
Finally something the Chinese & Japanese can agree on besides interfering on stranger tides =D
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