Xbox One Launched in China With 10 Approved Games

[Mike Hoffman]

Xbox One Launched in China With 10 Approved Games

Xbox One launches in China after a 14 year ban on foreign consoles. Finally, Chinese gamers can play Kinect Sports Rivals.

There are people in China today playing on an [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/xbox%20one"]Xbox One[/a] who weren't even born when the last major console launched in the country. Fourteen years ago, the Chinese government ministries [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131078-China-Lifts-Ban-on-Sale-and-Production-of-Consoles"]banned the sale and production[/a] of foreign game consoles due to the perceived effect they had on children. Today, Microsoft released its most recent platform, the Xbox One, in 37 cities in China.

Only ten games have been approved by the government: Kinect Sports Rivals, [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/dance%20central"]Dance Central Spotlight[/a], [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/rayman%20legends"]Rayman Legends[/a], [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/forza"]Forza Motorsport 5[/a], Neverwinter Online, Trials Fusion, Zoo Tycoon, Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, Naughty Kitties, and Powerstar Golf. The titles are available as downloads with 70 more supposedly on the way, potentially including [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/sunset%20overdrive"]Sunset Overdrive[/a] and [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/halo%20master%20chief%20collection"]Halo: The Master Chief Collection[/a].

[a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/133959-China-Reveals-Censorship-Critera-for-Console-Games"]Censorship criteria[/a] were released by the ministries a few months after the government [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/131078-China-Lifts-Ban-on-Sale-and-Production-of-Consoles"]lifted its ban[/a] on foreign video game consoles in January 2014. A focal point of the criteria is to prevent any content that could harm China's image, so [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/130738-Battlefield-4s-a-New-Form-of-Cultural-Aggression-Says-Chinese-State-Media"]it's not likely[/a] that [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/battlefield%204"]Battlefield 4[/a] will be available.

Games have already adjusted to prevent creating tension with China, even before the ban was lifted. [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/homefront"]Homefront[/a] shifted its antagonist from [a href="http://kotaku.com/5732623/china-is-both-too-scary-and-not-scary-enough-to-be-video-game-villains"]China to North Korea[/a], and it launched in 2011. Could the potential of selling to the enormous Chinese market cause more games to adjust to pass the government's censorship criteria? Those criteria also address obscenities, insults, and racial/ethnic hatred, so it wouldn't be terribly surprising to see more games tone down that content to reach the wider market.

PC and mobile gaming have thrived in China while the ban prevented Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo from releasing hardware in the country. Nintendo hasn't stated any intention to hit the Chinese market, but [a href="http://www.polygon.com/2014/5/26/5751360/sony-plans-to-enter-chinese-video-game-market"]Sony will bring the PlayStation[/a] brand over eventually.

The Xbox One launch was expected last week, but was hit with [a href="http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/137615-Xbox-One-Launching-in-China-September-29th"]an unexpected delay[/a] on launch day. The first Xbox launched in 2001, a year after the ban began, making the Xbox One the first Microsoft console officially sold in China.

The hardware release is part of a partnership between Microsoft and BesTV. Companies are permitted to sell consoles that are manufactured in Shanghai's free trade zone.

Source: [a href="http://venturebeat.com/2014/09/28/its-official-finally-microsoft-launches-xbox-one-in-china/"]Venture Beat[/a], via [a href="http://www.engadget.com/2014/09/29/xbox-one-china-launch/"]Engadget[/a]

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[Jacked Assassin]

So.... how long until Bethesda decides to rewrite the history of Fallout?.... Hell they could do a cross over with Metro if they replaced the Chinese with Russians....

 

[Kenjitsuka]

Naughty Kitties
Ghasp! Such a salacious title was allowed! The world is doooooomed!!!

Could the potential of selling to the enormous Chinese market cause more games to adjust to pass the government's censorship criteria?

It already has, and only will continue to be as MSFT and Sony fight over that market share, wringing out every penny...

 

[Fox12]

So.... how long until Bethesda decides to rewrite the history of Fallout?.... Hell they could do a cross over with Metro if they replaced the Chinese with Russians....

Meh, they'll probably just change the country of origin in the Chinese edition, and keep the dialogue the same. That's what they did with the fat boy for Japan. "America has been an irradiated wasteland ever since its mutually destructive war with [mongolia] led by its deranged leader [Attila the Hun jr]."

Besides, America doesn't exactly have the best image in those games.

Really Nintendo? If anyone can get past censors, it's you. Why would you let Microsoft take the initiative? China is RIGHT NEXT DOOR! Plus they won't want to invade you if they're too busy playing ocarina of time for the first time.

 

[Norix596]

Reading the attached censorship criteria, it seem like as long as a game doesn't involve China, it has the potential to be fine as long as it complies with the gambling and obscenity standards. I know the MOBAs and some MMOs are popular in China, if Microsoft can leverage that into products aimed at China (and I'm saying MS not 3rd party publishers because it's probably a risk that is only worth the money to increase the coverage of the Xbox One) it has the potential to scoop up a lot of market. Alternatively, having lacked console products for so long, the target audience (urban wealthier educated Chinese)might just find the idea of paying several hundred American dollars up front before you have any games off-putting. Especially since there's so much free or easily obtainable alternatives.

 

[SonOfVoorhees]

I think consoles are going to be big in China. MS might do well and Sony have the added issue of being Japanese and some Chinese dont like them due to WW2. So no idea what console will do well. I guess it will be down to which console caters to the Chinese gamer. Some one make Dynasty Warriors an exclusive.....that would do well.

 

[Scrythe]

Ten approved games? That's nine more than when it launched in the US! [http://instantrimshot.com/audio/rimshot.mp3]

OP: I was going to hate you for making me Google "Naughty Kitties", but now that I've seen the screenshots, it looks kinda fun.

 

[Denamic]

A bit late, but hey, having more than half of the console's library isn't bad for such a censorship heavy country.

 

[Xan Krieger]

"A focal point of the criteria is to prevent any content that could harm China's image,"
Know what really harms China's image? The chinese government.

Ten approved games? That's nine more than when it launched in the US! [http://instantrimshot.com/audio/rimshot.mp3]

This pretty much sums up the release, sounds like a joke, actually pretty spot on.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Is this why they're rioting in Hong Kong then? Not enough titles released = riot... Either that or they really really wanted the PS4 and got stuck with the XBone.

 

[Strazdas]

"A focal point of the criteria is to prevent any content that could harm China's image,"
Its funny, since what harms chinas image the most is the fact that these criteria exists.

I think consoles are going to be big in China. MS might do well and Sony have the added issue of being Japanese and some Chinese dont like them due to WW2. So no idea what console will do well. I guess it will be down to which console caters to the Chinese gamer. Some one make Dynasty Warriors an exclusive.....that would do well.

there is a saying in china "the mountains are large and the emperor is far away". It fits the consoles very well. consoles were officially banned. in practice, anyone that wanted one - had one (provided they could afford it of course). the black market is very big in china. This is nothing but official acknowledgement that yes we have consoles when it comes to practice. So while some will be sold now of course, i wouldnt expect a big jump. That being said, i expect china to remain dominated by PCs, as pretty much only two locations in the world are console central and thats Japan and US. And Japan is actually moving away from it slowly.

Well that and the fact that Sony still hasn't announced a date for launching the PS4 in China will certainly go a long way to helping Microsoft establish a foothold in the country. And it looks like they need all the help they can get. According to a poll in progress set-up by NetEase, more than half of Chinese gamers (57.3%) want to buy a PS4, while only 10% favor acquiring an Xbox One outside the grey market. Source http://kotaku.com/survey-says-chinese-gamers-more-interested-in-ps4-1604560549

Care to provide a source for these statistics? (no, kotaku is not a source)

 

[Strazdas]

Well that and the fact that Sony still hasn't announced a date for launching the PS4 in China will certainly go a long way to helping Microsoft establish a foothold in the country. And it looks like they need all the help they can get. According to a poll in progress set-up by NetEase, more than half of Chinese gamers (57.3%) want to buy a PS4, while only 10% favor acquiring an Xbox One outside the grey market. Source http://kotaku.com/survey-says-chinese-gamers-more-interested-in-ps4-1604560549

Care to provide a source for these statistics? (no, kotaku is not a source)

There is an embedded link to the poll on the page I cited, but if your really the raw data http://vote.game.163.com/vote2/showVote.do?voteId=32102#result In Chinese

sorry, i refuse to go to shitaku and give them pageviews due to recent events, so i could not see anything they linked or embed to.
The pool you linked has the console options then, according to google translate:
Buy!

continue to buy parallel imports to ......

Now im not sure what "buy!" implies and if it is a mistranslation, but the point is that the poll only asks whitch console one would buy if the consoles are officially listed. This means that ONLY people that are interested in these consoles will bother voting to begin with. as such, its completely impossible to determine how many people are actually interested in consoles or if the number has increased/decreased since for this poll purpose 100% is interested (there is no option for those that are not, nor does the question allow for it).

Therefore this poll in no way shows that either console will get any foothold it did not already hold via grey market.

P.S. thanks for the link though

Capcha: and that's the way it is

even capcha agrees with me!

 

[Strazdas]

Thanks for the clarification, I took it a little personal the first time I saw your post.

I very rarely get personal. i care about what is posted, not what person is posting it. I am not always the best at expressing it however, since i am not a native speaker and my languages sentence structure is different than english.

I checked the other western sources and apparently the "buy" option is supposed to mean "buy all" as in people who want to get every system listed. The point of the poll isn't supposed to show actual numbers though, just percentages. Of course only people who are interested in these consoles will bother voting to began with because people who don't want consoles don't matter in this context. Of the people who do want to buy consoles, this sample population implies that more people want PS4s. How many sales this will translate into is not what what it's solving for here. Just like opinion polls can't tell you exactly how many people will vote in the next presidential election but they can give you some idea of who is going to win.

And we're talking about a foothold in terms of legitimate sales because those are the only numbers that matter to Sony and Microsoft.

I see, makes sense to include "all" option in such poll.
As far as legitimate sakes vs illegitimate goes. from MS/sony perspective its just bragging rights. they still sell these consoles that chinese buy on the grey market, they just sell it in another country and it later gets exported to china. from sales perspective it still remains same amount of sales, just the different shift among countries. so they all get counted as legitimate sales anyway, unless you imply that chinese dealers steal them from the manufactories (whitch are in china so its not as unlikely as it may seem).

It does not imply that most people want PS4. it implies that most people who want to buy a new console want PS4. this does not allow comparing the whole console market population increase or decrease as there is "not buying one" option represented.