After Microsoft disclosed its plans to launche the Xbox One in China, Sony is following suit, having signed a deal with Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group, as it was announced today.
I've given this a lot of thought ... but I'm beginning to wonder if Sony will actually have a much bigger chance in China than MS. We know the market is pretty new to them but the internet isn't and I'm certain all the negativity surrounding the XB1 will be widely known over their too. In fact MS might be launching themselves into a brick wall of public disapproval. We'll see. Either way, I feel as if Sony has a much better chance (as I said below) because they have three products that can be aimed at three demographics.
Chinese teenagers probably bear more grudges against american companies because of recent events (NSA, etc.) than against japanese for historical wars. But it doesn't matter, if they like a product they will buy it. And I can imagine China becoming a big market for home consoles in the next few years.
That's especially false, just recently Japanese products have had issues with sales due to a boycott. Only Japanese products that have done well are those which aren't known to be Japanese.
The Japanese-China ordeal is very real. Also, most savvy gamers are likely to be NBA fans in China thus they already have a love of America.
"Liu and Yu claim that their store specializes in selling legitimate copies of games imported through the gray market and that they pretty much only sell PS3 games"
When it comes to gaming, they love to pirate but they also love their gaming, so PS software and consoles actually do well there even with some people boycotting
@gribble: about your psp comment, if you read the thread on Neogaf concerning this, you'd have seen a few Chinese posters commenting on the PSPs popularity in china.
There's quite a lot of Japanese games released in Asia with the Chinese language. Lots of support from Japan, and while it hasn't been technically legal, it's not like people didn't play games there.
I would imagine that the Chinese people in general probably feel the same way about foreign products as American's feel about foreign products....which is to say it doesn't really matter at all. Country of origin is rarely a concern, it's more about if the product itself is appealing.
Its not like tension between China and Japan hasn't caused some products for suffer like Japanese cars, but the tension is usually on and off again, hence the sales of Japanese cars are improving in China.
An article on Kotaku about pirating consoles in China showed that most of the rich kids in China own legit or pirated copies of PS3 and a very few own Xbox(info surprised me as i thought there would be more gaming on PC).
So yes there are likely tensions with some Japanese products or buisnesses in China, but most importantly they gain from each other economically in employment and production.
As far as Sony goes, they would have done their research so the PS4 can gain a lot of momentum there, I believe especially when partnering with Chinese companies
This is very interesting news. I've always thought that Sony would struggle in China because of their less than friendly history but I'm not so certain it actually translates to 'products'. With three platforms of varying prices, Sony have a decent chance because they can market for different demographics.
Sony infact has electronic component manuf, in China they have factories employing people of china and has for years! i do not get why this idea that Sony is following Microsoft even is a notion about release in china is even entertained, they were there years well in advance than Microsoft.
And has been employing people of china building electronic components too boot.
this is not just starting to open up dialogue, this is along the lines of they are already there not only putting people to work building electronics, but also this is not just one factory this is multiple factory's at that already there and has been for years.
Yeah, I'd always maintained that Sony would struggle in China because of their history but many people on other forums have persuaded me otherwise with the exact same (but less overt) point.
I'm not sure it was widely available to ALL of China though, and I'm sure more people will buy the product now that it's not breaking any laws over there.
The last I heard this internet thing is pretty big...
It is everywhere. After American McGee made his remarks I went and did a fair amount of digging. It is widespread. Naturally it doesn't cover large sections of China where they have barely functioning power. A great amount of China is still a third world country. Japanese products are not unpopular in those areas because of political, social, or historical reasons but rather because they lack application.
While Amazon China does not sell the PS4, they do sell the Vita and plenty of PS4 accessories. So do sites like dangdang. The point is the aversion mention by the OP doesn't exist on any scale among the demographic likely to buy a PS4.
You are completely missing the point madskull. Your remark clearly demonstrates for all to see that you had no grasp of the conversation at all. None. Zero. Zilch. Null. Nada. Nechevo. It went right over your head. Did you even bother to look at what was being discussed before your ego made you leap blind into this conversation?
WE WERE NOT DISCUSSING PER SE WHICH UNIT WOULD SELL BETTER. DIDN'T YOU SEE THAT? IT IS PLAIN AS DAY. WE WERE TALKING ABOUT THE HISTORY BETWEEN CHINA AND JAPAN AND HOW SOME PERSONS FELT CHINA MIGHT STILL HARBOR ANIMOSITY AGAINST JAPAN FOR PAST MILITARY CONFLICTS AND IF THAT WOULD AFFECT THE SALE OF A JAPANESE PRODUCT IN MAINLAND CHINA.
Anyone with minimal comnprehension skills would have understood the nature of the debate. But you apparently either lack the reasoning skill or else you failed to read before you commented.
I've been reading a thread about this over at Gaf and one of the guys over there is Chinese. He's been saying that the media have blown the conflict between the countries out of all proportions, and that the 'middle class' Chinese have no problem with buying a Japanese product. He did say that there ARE pockets of society that still hold grudges but these are largely limited to the poorer regions.
I am familiar with that. To most people that have moved out of all but the most rural areas, matters such as the Nanking Massacre, commonly called the Rape of Nanking, is history and something with which they no longer concern themselves to any extent that it interferes in their buying choices.
Certainly there are some driven by either personal memory or an overblown sense of nationalism that are unable to forgive or forget such actions. And there might be something to that if Japan were still the country she was in WWII. But that is simply not the case and such beliefs are little more than lunacy harming those that harbor them the most.
The point behind all of this is that such history isn't going to have any noticeable impact as those that still hold onto that past are not individuals likely to be among the target buyers.
From what I understand it is pretty widely available, and people know where to find them. The gov't just turns a blind eye to it, along with many other things.
The biggest advantage to the lifting of the ban is that the console manufacturers can now openly market their consoles, which will increase sales.
Price will probably go down for the consoles too, since there are no extra import fees to pay and there can be a more standardized pricing model, unless they go the UK route where MSRP is not routinely followed.
China practically owns America with the amount of money the USA keeps borrowing from them. Why do you think the USA has never invaded or threatened to invade china over their lack of democracy like they have everywhere else in the world. If China were to call in their debt the USA would be screwed
Remember USA were also allies with Japan when invading America, so the Chinese might not have so much tension with USA as much as Japan, but the history is still there that some Chinese are anti western
The fact that people like you think that this new generation in Japan and china actually care about historical wars in this day and age really shows how much you don't know. Most don't have any issues with each other in fact I've seen the different countries international students in my school conversisng with each other.
Move blocked...Everyone happy? not that it would have mattered anyway. Both console makers would have to create games specifically for the region...taking away resources from other regions.
Basically every game released would be banned in China.
I have a feeling that the censorship related to game releases isn't going to be strictly upheld over the long term.
Many publishers around the world already release Asian versions of their games, often with the Chinese language, and importing is easy enough, so when the government sees it's losing money because people aren't buying as many games locally produced they'll change some things.
In any case, more often than not, localization is done by a 3rd party contractor, or through a special division of a publisher and it rarely takes away resources from the actual project. It's not going to affect you in any way, and is more a problem for the Chinese market, as they'll have to wait longer for games to be localized. No publisher is going to short change their initial markets for the sake of same day release in China. They don't do it now for Australia, and it has some pretty stringent rules for game ratings.
with Ken Norton being Sony there. the fact its not about Money , its more about Culture dynamics about all this time since the late 70's to the early 90's all that time Sony has invested very heavy into china not just social culture but also financial culture of china as well.
That is going to be a hard test for Microsoft to overcome there because Sony's had decades of of an advantage there of investmernt's of not just social but the investment into the people of china for employment and increasing investment of funds into China's market.
Stop being prejudice it doesn't mean that All Chinese people will hate PS4, once Playstation hit China, and the First Chinese owner tell their friend the amazing experience they had that means more Chinese will stop hating Japanese product.
I think the win will go to the PS4 in china. History between the two won't matter. The games though are going to be censored bad like everything is there to keep the Chinese people in the dark about anything. If I remember correctly Game Of Thrones was so censored it didn't make sense to anyone watching it there.
Given the explicit slaugthery and nudity in that show they would probably only see a black screen due to censorship :\ that corrupts the product, being it music, films, games, whatever. It's like throwing money to the fireplace.
19 FREAKING 78' Sony was there with 4 Representative Office's
Microsoft was only just founded in 1975!
thus, think about it! Sony was already working and had solid investments into China well before Microsoft even really got started. Hell the PDF shows you exactly why, look it over people this is not being a fanboy this is blunt true facts, Sony already launched and selling PS4's well before even Microsoft started to launch the xboxone there. Hell making deals with other companies does not mean Sony is following Microsoft's footsteps there, it just means Sony already is expanding what investments they already Had there in the first place.
Its not Sony that is the "youngster in the chinese market" its Microsoft..lol
@CaptainN
Nintendo already is there in china also, take a look at the
IQue_Player for reference
" so it will be very difficult for Sony and MS to sell games there since most are very violent (example being FPS) etc"
Sony japanese studios 2nd and 1st party do infact make for more family friendly games hell LBP made by a UK studio's Sony is not shy of making non violent games, and with more investments into indies i would imagine many a student from china would love to make games that are geard for the region they are in to make some extra cash.
It's not about who was first to place there offices there. There's a lot of disputes, the islands being one of them, china claims as theirs. Its a heated topic between Japan and China. Given the fact that they, China are claiming over, past 200 miles off shore as their land. Nations only have mineral claims extending 200 miles out, so china is claiming international water as theirs. Even after all that, I think PS4 will sell like crazy because, even after Japan slaughtered so many Chinese people Chinese people can still relate to Japanese people more the the home of XboxOne. We shall see soon won't we:-) I believe also whatever console gets fully Jail broken/Jtagged or however they do it this time, that console is going to sell like crazy in China everywhere.
"It's not about who was first to place there offices there."
what? How would it not be? think about this for a min, Sony has established investment even before Microsoft was even founded into China!
Thus employing china workers, and you do not think that will have no bearing about how its going to effect the outcome, when Sony was there not just a few years a head of Microsoft but decades! before.
Microsoft entered the OS business in 1980, that was not even with Dos at the time, they were still just starting out. mean while Sony was already in the works getting production up to invest on VTR production in china. that means Job's for China!
When you are not talking about just a few years but decades of a advantage in culture investment you can bet it will have an effect. just look at the PS3 starting late and it over took a [email protected] near 10 million system lead above Sony's PS3 content was not the whole story, culture would also play a big role in it, because its more than just brand name, the fact that SONY invested, and employ people in china in factory work in china and has been investing more and more into such of the culture would in effect with such the years over years time..we are talking about more time than Microsoft's entire company was even founded that Sony has been in china, 40 year's+ time there. that's not something you could say in my opinion .
"It's not about who was first to place there offices there"
In this case with the decades of investment that Sony has in china , yes i think it does indeed matter more than i think many are giving credit too.
Given that scenario Xboxone will sell better then because American companies employ a lot of Chinese directly or in directly because we buy the majority of Chinese products. Have the majority of everything made in China. Maybe your right I'm just saying who was there first doesn't matter anymore. :-) I'm a Sony fan, PC fan, Microsoft Fan & Android fan.
"Given that scenario Xboxone will sell better then because American companies employ a lot of Chinese directly or in directly because we buy the majority of Chinese products."
while i see what you are saying , and im a fan of technology and Software myself, but the big point is, not just buying products from china because, hell pretty much every electronic components making up anything consumer electronic today is pretty much produced there in manuf. anyway, that and korea, but the fact that is not only buying chinese products, but also the infrastructure investments that aslo matter there that Both Microsoft and Sony has invested into China, take a look at this:
that's just one instance of Microsoft investing there is more, while what you and i stated about investment in china is completely True, Sony is just the older company, and by the time on the market in the region gives Sony an Advantage due to the sheer amount of time in logistic's to build the distribution and retail chain there.
its really not the issue of Money but culture and time on the market there, Its mainly an issue of the fact that Microsoft just has not had enough time on the market there vs ' what Nintendo and Sony has had, that does not make it anyless viable it just means by "we will see" what the outcome is, by past history of say the PS2 , PS3 and soon to be PS4 its pretty much trending the way it was with the PS2 and PS3 for regions outside the north american region. yes the region is more open now, but the retail chains are still the way they are because Microsoft has not had as much times there as Sony and Nintendo.
though what is clear that i think is both companies see a very viable reason to launch in the region even if there is large chunks of the land mass that is not geared for network expansion just yet, but in time the area is very much ready for such to be expanded into growth for both Microsoft and Sony is well worth the expense for the market there.
I get what you were saying, I was just making a point that decades old relations don't matter when you have the funds Microsoft does. I honestly hope both concoles do well, as long as Microsoft keeps their word and never brings back DRM. Its better for all gamers in general:-)
Nintendo still has the best chances to succeed in China do to their family friendly IP's. China is very anti violence in their media, so it will be very difficult for Sony and MS to sell games there since most are very violent (example being FPS) etc.
I think Sony have a better chance on China than MS. The X1 is a console made with a main focus on the American market while the PS4 is a console made more to appeal to word wide demographics.
Anyway time will tell but if Microsoft though they were going to enter China without competition of the PS4 they are wrong and obviously, China will not magically save Microsoft sales.
Why do you think they gave sites like play-asia which basically support Japanese, Asian, American version of games the market is not so close as some may think just not known as much.
Some fans might not know China & Japan history
Move blocked...Everyone happy? not that it would have mattered anyway. Both console makers would have to create games specifically for the region...taking away resources from other regions.
Basically every game released would be banned in China.
The fight for China should be interesting.
But.. but.. China was Microsofts ace to get back into this generation.. <sad face>
They need to make sure that they come in lower in price than microshaft. I think they wouldn't have a problem doing that.