Game over: New game plan

Updated: 2014-08-06 16:21

(Shanghai Star)

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Game over: New game plan

"I'm very excited to see the Xbox. Its launch price (3,699 yuan) is okay. I've been a gamer all my life and now there will be a proper channel for me to pick up my favorite games." - Yu Silu

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Even with the huge population focused on online gaming, companies such as Microsoft and Sony have set their sights on the Chinese market.

Through new regulations on the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, Sony and Microsoft have created joint ventures to launch their gaming devices in China.

Nintendo, the only one of the traditional big three gaming companies not to have announced plans to launch in China, is already in the country through a joint venture called iQue.

Set up in 2013, the FTZ allows console makers to release their video game consoles within China, provided the companies are registered in the FTZ and the devices are made there.

Many gamers such as Hu are elated that the console ban is coming to an end.

To them it will mean a new way to play video games and a means to legally play games that have only ever seen foreign releases.

"This is good. I'm very excited to see the Xbox. Its launch price (3,699 yuan) is okay," says Yu Silu. "I've been a gamer all my life and now there will be a proper channel for me to pick up my favorite games."

Yu says that while he's elated, he's contemplating either buying the Xbox One or the Sony Playstation 4. Most of all, he's interested in seeing what kind of games will be allowed in China.

Unlike game releases in Western countries, new releases in China will be subject to government approval.

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