Sony is following Microsoft into the land of the red dragon with its new plan to start selling the PlayStation 4 to the potentially massive gaming market in China.
Just a month after Microsoft announced that it has forged a partnership with the Chinese-owned BesTV to sell Xbox One in China starting September, Sony said it has partnered with Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development (OPCD) to form two joint ventures in China's free trade zone in Shanghai.
Sony China will own 70% of Sony Computer Entertainment (Shanghai), which will be responsible for the production and sales of hardware, but only 49% of the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Sony Computer Entertainment Culture Development, which will handle software. Interestingly, OPCD is a subsidiary of the Shanghai Media Group, the same company that owns BesTV, which works with Microsoft.
Earlier this year, the Chinese government lifted a 14-year-old ban that prohibited the manufacture and sales of gaming consoles, citing the harm they may cause on younger players. However, games must be produced in the Shanghai free trade zone and will have to undergo strict inspection and regulation, which means many PlayStation games popular in the U.S., will most likely not become available in China. For instance, China prohibits the sale of games that "violate the constitution of China" or "promote violence," which essentially bans all shooter games available on the PS4.
Sony intends to introduce games that are considered healthy and of good quality by the Chinese government.
Both Sony and Microsoft see huge potential in China, where the gaming population consists of nearly 500 million players spending up to $14 billion in games every year. Consoles, however, represent a mere fraction of the industry following the all-out ban imposed by the government in 2000. PCs and mobile games currently dominate the Chinese gaming industry, but consoles are expected to rise following the government's lifting of the ban.
But could Sony's $399 gaming console possibly compete in a market where buyers consider price a major deciding factor when it comes to buying gadgets? We have yet to see if Sony will drive down the cost of the PS4 and its individual games, which normally cost $50 apiece in the U.S., a price not many Chinese gamers are willing to spend on their games. It would be a good move, considering other China-based companies such as Huawei, ZTE and TCL are also racing against each other to introduce cheap, Android-based gaming consoles into the Chinese market.
Sony did not specify when it will start selling the PlayStation 4 in China, but given its record in introducing its consoles in other countries ahead of Microsoft, the PS4 will likely go east earlier than the Xbox One's September debut.
