Console games set to lift off in Chinese market

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According to Xie Enwei, general manager of Microsoft's greater China region, more than 9,000 Chinese game developers have contacted the company in the past four months with the aim of launching their games on the Xbox console.

Microsoft has looked far beyond that. Apart from setting up two studios－in China in the hope of bringing the best games from overseas and providing local games－entertainment, fitness and online education programs are being researched for future provision on the Xbox consoles sold in China.

Microsoft's plan in China is definitely a better practice, according to Shirley Lin, vice-president of the mobile marketing company YeahMobi, which is a subsidiary of the US NDP Media Corp. The market is huge－the output of the Chinese gaming industry amounted to 13 billion yuan last year, excluding console games, and China surpassed the United States to become the No 1 buyer of new TV sets in 2013. But a global market leader such as Microsoft should tread carefully with regard to a number of issues including game content, which was a major reason for the ban 14 years ago.

"It is crucial for overseas companies coming into China to locate the right content partners that have been granted IP licenses and have loyal audiences," Lin said. Only in this way can the console providers find the right channels of distribution and localize their games.

"The pie is big, but chewing is challenging," said Lin. "China is a large addressable market. The hunger for superb quality games is only increasing, never reducing. We are now glad to see that the black market has come into the light."

With the availability of these overseas game consoles, the Chinese market players will soon come up with their versions of consoles so that the devices will become more affordable, she added.