China lifts console ban -- will that affect supply for US PS4 and XBox One gamers? (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Collins]

For the past 13 years, the sale of video game consoles was banned in China. China’s State Council has now decided that video game consoles can be sold across the entire country so long as the foreign companies establish sales and production operations in Shanghai’s new free trade zone.

Console manufacturers and game developers would love to leverage China’s population of 1.4 billion people as new customers, and China would love to get its new trade zone brimming with successful modern businesses. Look at it this way, the PlayStation 3 has sold a little less than 80 million units worldwide. If just over 5 per cent of China’s population purchased a PS4, that would equal 80 million units – the number it took the entire world to hit over the course of seven years – sold in one country alone.

I know that XBox One is manufactured entirely in China, so what audience would it be easier to sell to? Air freighting over consoles or putting them on trucks from where they originated?

 

[Morgan Jolley]

This will have zero impact on PS4/XB1 sales or availability. If anything, Sony/MS will delay release of anything new (they might push PS3 and 360 there soon instead) and focus on their already announced plans.

Also, consoles are not that hard to come by in China. The grey market is huge.

 

[Aaron Silverman]

I doubt that 5 percent of China's population could afford a next-gen console, let alone actually purchase one of them.

 

[Ejanss]

I doubt that 5 percent of China's population could afford a next-gen console, let alone actually purchase one of them.

"So now, little Chinese kids can play X-Box Ones, instead of just making them."
- Jay Leno.