New console, better game

Sexy tech: Scantily clad booth girls (top) and hired dancers add to the excitement. Photos by Gao Erqiang / Shanghai Star

Snapshots from ChinaJoy 2014

Shaolin develops kung fu games

Custer, who relocated back to the US last year, says the expansion of the console market into China will have minimal impact. He says he believes that the consoles will find a market among upper-middle-class gamers who want to be a bit different and show off that they’re playing games on an Xbox.

"I think there is a market for legit consoles in China but it's going to be pretty small, especially when compared to the console market in the West," says Custer.

"It's not going to be some massive windfall for Microsoft or Sony. And if it's really going to work in the long-term, they'll probably have to totally reinvent their business model to account for the fact that Chinese gamers aren't going to pay $60 for a game."

Custer points out that the most popular games in China right now are of the "free-to-play" model, where gamers play a game and can choose to pay to gain in-game items or perks.

Console games, however, tend to be a full-on immersion experience for a one-time fee.

While modern Chinese gamers indulge in free-to-play online games, Chinese game developers who grew up loving console games such as Super Mario are seeing the advent of the FTZ and the arrival of the Xbox One as a boon.