About a month back Microsoft announced that its next generation console, the Xbox One, is going to be launched in China this September. The People’s Republic has kept consoles out of its market for a long time but given that the ban on import of video games and consoles was recently lifted, Microsoft joined forces with a local company to swoop in. Sony today confirmed that its console is also going to enter the market as well and for that purpose it too has teamed up with a local company called Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development.
Microsoft joined forces with BesTV, and its quite interesting to note that both BesTV and OPCD are part of the big Shanghai Media Group. Two companies will be formed as a result of Sony and OPCD’s joint venture. One will look after manufacturing and sales of hardware and the other will manage licensing, distribution, software R&D, sales and services.
The restriction that Microsoft had to accept to bring its console to China applies to Sony as well. A statement released by the joint venture states that only those games that are “suitable to China’s national conditions and preferences of domestic players” will be introduced. China’s Ministry of Culture will have the final say on which titles make the cut.
This opens the door to the possibility that many censored PlayStation games will be released in China and its possible that consoles manufactured for this particular market might not work with games released in other countries. It hasn’t been revealed exactly which PlayStation products will be released in China and when, we’ll just have to wait and see.
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