Since China lifted its 14-year ban on importing foreign consoles , it was believed that Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo would soon be setting up shop to take advantage of the country’s gaming market.
As a refresher: Initially put in place back in 2000, consoles were banned from China in order to protect youths from a perceived corrupting influence. 14 years later, the ban was lifted in China’s new free-trade zone located in Shanghai as regulators ponder how console hardware and software may be approved for sale within the country. Under certain rules of the free-trade zone, however, things that are “hostile to China” will still be filtered out, explaining it with a rather apt analogy.
“ Things that are hostile to China, or not in conformity with the outlook of China’s government, won’t be allowed, ” Wu said. “ We want to open the window a crack to get some fresh air, but we still need a screen to block the flies and mosquitoes. ”
As reported by PCMag, following suit with Microsoft announcing that the Xbox One will soon be available in China, Sony has decided to also allow for its PlayStation 4 to be sold in the country. According to the report, Sony will be working in collaboration with Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development (or “OPCD” for short) in order to bring the company’s current-gen console to Chinese gamers.
The collaboration between Sony and OPCD will result in the creation of two brand-new companies: Sony Computer Entertainment (Shanghai) and Shanghai Oriental Pearl Sony Computer Entertainment Culture Development.
SCE(S) is presumed to be handling PlayStation services and sales, as well as licensing and distribution of PlayStation software, and OPSCECD is presumed to be handling the manufacturing and sales of the PlayStation 4 console itself.
However, before Chinese gamers have their access to imported console games, the console games themselves will first have to be subjected to the approval of the “ culture department in charge, ” which has been interpreted to mean the the games would be under the scrutiny of Shanghai’s governmental culture department.
While the approval process is said to take up to 20 days to complete, that doesn’t mean to say that all console games will make it through the filter–there are a lot of things on China’s banned list when it comes to gaming.
[ PCMag ]