One of the markets that console manufacturers have yet to tap into is China. Don’t get us wrong, consoles are available in China, it’s just that they are usually purchased via grey market imports as opposed to being sold officially and legally. This is due to a ruling that China enforced many years ago that prevented the sale of consoles in the country.
Recently we had heard reports that China would start to loosen that rule and would allow companies to sell their consoles on the Chinese market, and it looks like Microsoft’s Xbox One has gotten an official launch date for September 2014. This has been confirmed by a video released by Microsoft which features Microsoft’s CVP of devices and studios, Yusuf Mehdi.
According to Mehdi, “In China, there are over half a billion gamers, so the opportunity to create globally and locally created content to delight millions and millions of of gaming families everywhere is something that we’re really passionate about.”
The launch of the console will be done through a partnership with BesTV New Media who will be Microsoft’s partner in China in helping bring the console to the Chinese market. It will be interesting to see how entering a new market, officially, will help Microsoft. As it stands it seems that Sony’s PlayStation 4 is leading in terms of console sold, so perhaps the Chinese market could end up favoring the Xbox One platform, but we guess we’ll just have to wait and see.