China Considering Lifting Ban on Game Consoles

"The People’s Republic of China is considering lifting a 13-year ban on video-game consoles. Apparently, back in November, the PlayStation 3 received a certification from the Chinese safety standards. Rewind to 2000, and the government established the ban because according to their own research, it would jeopardize the mental stability of children’s minds."

[SolidStoner]

China's government should be banned to the moon! Reason, they might get mental illness on earth!

[Kran]

What did the moon ever do to China? :(

[SolidStoner]

It seems that N4G isn't banned in china! LOL

[ATi_Elite]

China = NO Consoles

meanwhile PC Gaming has been raking in Billions in China for YEARS!

PC Gaming is everywhere!

[DeadlyFire]

I wonder what would happen if console ban was lifted. Its alot of cash for anyone that puts a console in India or China market. They are the two biggest places in the world.

Undoubtedly consoles are in the country regardless. With a certain number of people in one place you know someone has an interest in same things as we do here. Its just a matter of looking in the right places. Its not a bad idea at all. Likely gaming is everywhere on more than one platform there with likely imports.

I just wonder how China will do with their Vii, Polystation, and other knockoff product sales compared to the norm of consoles we have around.

[ElectricKaibutsu]

I'm glad I don't live in China.

[Tapani]

Your comment is very immature. Have you ever even been to China?

I have lived in China for two years, and also in Japan for five. I can say I immensely enjoyed both of the countries, their people, language and culture. That includes the gaming culture that is very present also in China. You can literally go to a bar and play the latest games on Xbox 360 or PS3 there with a nice sound and 200" video projector. We had loads of Tekken and Virtua Fighter tournaments while drinking together with people all over the world.

You can practically find ANY console, new or old, everywhere in China. You can find Japanese, English, Hong Kongese, Taiwanese or even Korean versions of the games in all medium sized cities.

This law is as ridiculous as the new smoking law. What happens in China's government is absolutely different from what normal people, like you and me, think and do.

Believe it or not, compared to many "civilized" western police states where everything is controlled and monitored, China is actually much more free.

Sorry about the rant, but I just cannot ignore ignorance. Gamers should be international and open-minded to cultures and find information instead of making prejudiced assumptions.

Besides, we all will be playing a lot of good Chinese games in the coming years :)

Be open-minded, because the Chinese people are as well.

[e-p-ayeaH]

comparing this to a smoking law that´s immature..

gaming doesn't get you cancer.

[Jek_Porkins]

I have to call you on some of your points, especially when you stick up for countries that are dictatorships and don't allow its people to procreate when they wish.

I'll stick to living in the good USA. I agree those places might be good to visit, but I'd never, EVER want to live there. When it comes to Government, they work for the people, and you can pretty much fight against it in the courts if something is unconstitutional. Which is why video games will never be banned here.

I can understand you want to stick up for places you've lived short term, but I've lived in the United States my whole life and wouldn't want to live anywhere else, things aren't perfect, but at least I have basic freedoms and don't have a dictator telling me what to do.

Also, I don't play Chinese or Japanese games very often. I'm not into JRPG's at all. Most of the games I play are Western, and even the latest DMC I prefer over the old ones.

To each their own though, just saying that everything you said isn't exactly accurate.

[Qrphe]

@e-p-ayeaH
" gaming doesn't get you cancer. "

Idk man, I started getting some light symptoms after playing the DmC demo.

[UnholyLight]

lol....I wouldn not want to live somewhere where I feel oppressed and not entirely free. I'll stick to Canada thanks. My standard of living is amazing.

[SilentNegotiator]

Visited China for 2 years.
Thinks they know what it's like to be a Chinese citizen.

It's like the kid that visits Europe for a semester, year, etc and comes back thinking that Europe is a glorious wonderland because their parents paid for them to experience a new culture, not actually be a long-time citizen in an European country.

No, China is definitely more oppressive. I don't know what "international" world you've been living in.

[kevnb]

lets not kid ourselves, if video games werent so interwoven into american culture and economy theres a good chance consoles would be highly restricted if not banned. It seems to me that things are getting more restrictive every day in north america.

[Tapani]

It's the same in Europe (that's where I'm from).

@e-p-ayeaH: The smoking law, that I was comparing this law to, is ridiculous. They banned public smoking. But in real life, absolutely nothing changed, everyone smokes just like they used to. The same is with this game console law. It hasn't been applied on the grassroots level. So it was not a comparison between game consoles and smoking, but between the methodology of application of these laws.

@SuperSonic266: Everything is manufactured in cheap labor countries, the people who make your ipads and iphones that are considered high quality goods, create the standard. Not the country of origin, but the hands of the factory workers (with of course local+foreign leadership).

The real point is, that they want to monetize the gaming market that they know already exists in the country. Chinese gaming market is worth billions of dollars, thanks to mobile devices. So they see the potential to grab the piece of the pie from the already existing console market by regulating it.

Rulers in Beijing are actually incredibly smart people. They are just not the most right-minded. However, they are not completely off the chart either.

The western medias demonization of the eastern countries makes the normal folk believe what they see on Fox or CNN even while they know it's all subjective and bad journalism. If you just repeat terrorism or "oohh the big bad china" enough on telly the stupid masses buy the stuff.

And all this without even knowing a single mainlander or stepping on to their country's soil.

That's why I call it ignorance. I mean honestly, where do people base their opinions on? Intuition, tv and internet?

[ElectricKaibutsu]

You're right, that was pretty insulting the way I said that. I just meant that according to this article, video games are illegal. Video games are my hobby so I would not not like to live in a country where video games are illegal. I didn't mean to insult anyone.

[Tapani]

Now I understand much better what you meant :) I appreciate your attitude as well! 電気の怪物はやっぱり怪物じゃないみたいですね。

You can find all the latest games everywhere in China, and they are much cheaper as well. Although, if you want the official (read:legal) ones, they cost almost the same as everywhere else. If you are on a budget you can get a 500Gig PS3 with pre-installed games for around 230usd or so from the local games dealer. They are usually slightly off the main streets (that's exactly how effective the law is!), but they are still plenty.

There are many problems in China, such as the censored Internet and human rights problems, but overall it's a great place. University students especially like to play games.

Nowadays you can see loads of people in public using their fake/real iphones and ipads playing Angry Birds and whatnot, just like we do in the "civilized world". When that generation grows up to become hardcore gamers, we can expect some of them to develop games. It will take another 10 years or so, but eventually a population of 1.5 billion should come up with a few good games :)

[ElectricKaibutsu]

「エレクトリックな怪物」って好きな曲の歌詞なんです(^_^)

Well, hopefully the ban is lifted and we get some good games coming out of China.

[g-nome]

Kids not spending time on video games is their master plan for world domination. It might just work..

[NYC_Gamer]

The Chinese are MMO addicts

[MASTER_RAIDEN]

China doesnt have time to worry about their disastrous environmental footprint.
theyre way too busy making sure nobody gets their hands on a playstation.

[Garuda]

Its simple Chinese law makers suck

[penguinhunter]

Make a few dollars for 12 hours of work a day is good, Call of Duty however, is damaging to their society!

[No FanS Land]

I don't get why China would be interested in letting Foxconn manufacturing the consoles and not trust the consoles themselves for their own entertainment purposes.

Is there anything we should know about Foxconn?

[Dogswithguns]

Oh oh, but all the Chinese play MMO on PC all the time and that's okay??!!

[CaptainN]

Nintendo has the best chance to break into that market first since most of their games are family friendly.

[torchic]

wait what are you kidding me they'll hop straight onto competitive multiplayers, like CoD, Battlefield, Tekken, etc. and tournaments will crop up all over the place.

I really hope they get bundled into the EU servers! (highly, highly unlikely but one can hope!)

[Qrphe]

Your conclusion would be right only if your premise were not to be off

>China preferring family friendly games

@DarthStewie

Sounds about right.

[CaptainN]

China will not allow violent games if they do decide to allow gaming to take place, those games would be considered too violent....that's the reason its banned now. If they undo the ban, there will most certainly be restrictions...wake up !!!

[kevnb]

so they don't think Chinese people can play games on their tv without consoles? lol

[a08andan]

IF the ps3 is allowed to be sold in China, then it might surpass the ps2 in total lifetime sales. If 4% of the chinese people buys one = 60 million sales (ish).

[Darth Stewie]

If this happens China will determine the winner next gen.

[jacksheen0000]

China Considering Lifting Ban on Game Consoles.

That's real funny because all they'll do is just hack the gaming console/pirate the games and then sale it on the market for dirt cheap like they did with the XBOX.

[josephayal]

Good news for Microsoft

[e-p-ayeaH]

awesome hope this helps to boost the gaming industry.

[stragomccloud]

Join the dark side. We have cookies!

[LostDjinn]

I'm just curious as to how this would impact online games. User numbers would jump massively and how much cheating would be going along with it?

Think of all the games you play now that have cheating $%!#s in them. How many exploits are there being used? China doesn't exactly have a sterling reputation when it comes to abusing systems (be they law, human rights, personal information, technology based infrastructure, etc). Does anybody remember WOW gold farming with Chinese prisoners?

Now I'm not saying China shouldn't be provided the opportunity to freely purchase and play consoles. I just don't know if the rest of the world is ready for it, that's all.

[ThyMagicSword]

China should ban their way of thinking and all Mao-Posters in everyones house there. I pity them ...