For thirteen years, China has banned the sale and trade of game consoles in their territories. But this will be coming to an end on October 1st, when a brand-new free-trade zone in Shanghai will be established that will allow foreign-funded companies to sell gaming hardware. All hardware that will be sold this way needs to be approved by China’s Ministry of Culture, and the rules for trade in this zone are still being negotiated.
During the years of the console ban, mobile games have boomed in Chinese territories. Chinese gamers have become used to freemium models of play, where games largely make their money on microtransactions. They literally haven’t seen the traditional model of gaming since the old 16-bit days. As a result, it will be hard to sell Chinese gamers on the standard sixty-dollar model of video game pricing.
Nonetheless, all major video game companies have announced plans to expand into Chinese territory. Just this week, Microsoft announced that it would be investing $237 million in a new company alongside Chinese TV and Internet company BesTV.
Source: Polygon