Sony will be rubbing its hands with glee right now, as a ban in China preventing the sale of foreign video game consoles has been temporarily lifted, opening up an enormous potential market for the PlayStation 4. The law, which had been previously in place for 14 years, had stopped the Japanese manufacturer from offloading its wares in the gargantuan territory, though systems could still be obtained through slightly unsavoury means.
However, global news source Reuters reports that China’s State Council has suspended the block, allowing “foreign invested enterprises” to obtain approval from the government, and sell their devices within the nation. We’re sure that there’s a team within the Japanese manufacturer that’s been on standby should this opportunity arise for some time. In fact, it’s something that group president Andrew House partly acknowledged in an interview with Eurogamer.net.
“Through the course of the PlayStation 3 life cycle, we have in essence opened up new markets globally that weren't open to us before," he said at the company’s next-gen launch event in London. “Latin America wasn't a serious market for console gaming. It certainly is now. We're seeing signs that, finally, China may open up, with the Free Trade Zone being established in Shanghai and the opportunity now to sell consoles in that market.” We bet that the firm can already taste the money.
[source in.reuters.com, via eurogamer.net]
Comments 6
I was just reading about this on the BBC news website, where an "analyst" was quoted as saying that Microsoft has a slight advantage here as they could shift manufacturing to China, while Sony and Nintendo have their own factories.
I figured he must not have realised that both the PS4 and Xbox One are already largely manufactured in China by Foxconn. Another example of an "analyst" not really knowing what he's talking about. The interest here lies in potential sales within China, not so much manufacturing.
That said, Microsoft may have an advantage as relations between China and Japan are shaky at the moment. How that affects sales of the systems might depend on whether anti-Japanese feeling is as strong among the Chinese public as it is in government circles.
14 years? I feel bad for those Chinese kids.. That means the last legit console was the Dreamcast.. Jeez
@Cowboysfan-22 I so want a Treamcast! Knock off hong Kong portable Dreamcast, simply awesome. I think Chinese have more common sense than most countries when it comes to tech and with no prior loyalties I can only see ps4 reigning supreme. It will be interesting to see how Nintendo and PS vita do. Sony must be planning a gigantic new order of ps3 consoles!?
@Paranoimia Interesting points. I'd still have to imagine that Sony would better placed to capitalise from this, as it understands the Asian market much, much better.
@Cowboysfan-22 not to be a downer, but children in China have far bigger fish to fry in terms of being disallowed basic human rights (life is 1st, then liberty, THEN property)
@get2sammyb The picture above the article fits perfectly! Pure gold!
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