Chinese Consumers Can Now Buy Formerly Banned Consoles, Nationwide 39
PC Magazine reports that China has entered a new phase in its liberalization of game console sales. Restrictions amounting to a nationwide ban were loosened recently, so that manufacturers which produced (and sold) consoles in Shanghai's free trade zone were allowed to also sell their wares elsewhere in China. The newest change is to remove that geographic requirement, so Chinese buyers are expected to be able to buy whatever consoles they'd like. Games to play on those consoles, though, are a different story.
But the games? Yeah... (Score:3)
Did you see the restrictions on game content? It's broad enough to mean "anything we don't want to allow is banned."
* Gambling-related content or game features
* Anything that violates China’s constitution
* Anything that threatens China’s national unity, sovereignty, or territorial integrity.
* Anything that harms the nation’s reputation, security, or interests.
* Anything that instigates racial/ethnic hatred, or harms ethnic traditions and cultures.
* Anything that violates China’s policy on religion by promoting cults or superstitions.
* Anything that promotes or incites obscenity, drug use, violence, or gambling.
* Anything that harms public ethics or China’s culture and traditions.
* Anything that insults, slanders, or violates the rights of others.
* Other content that violates the law
The old men that run the government still believe that console games are meant exclusively for children - or at least adults who need to be "protected from dangerous ideas" as though they were children. This is no different than what many of our own legislatures and citizen activists wished to impose on us... "for the children", of course, but fortunately, saner heads prevailed.
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the Chinese are great at pirating software. Hardware was the real hurdle.
If you know what a "Famiclone" is, you might see why it's not too much of a hurdle.
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The Famicom couldn't be emulated back when it was released, personal computer were running at around 20MHz back then.
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A Famiclone is a Famicom clone and the Famicom is a 29 years-old system.
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Famiclones appeared prior to 1997 when NESticle became usable.
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"We have to respect their laws while selling our products on their territory? HOW DARE THEY?"
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There's a solution to that. Big AAA game will start to be censored for China once the Chinese become a major consumers of console games. That may mean in some circumstances the rest of the world will get censored versions as well. It may also mean we get a more interesting variety of games as not every AAA game will need to be a power fantasy for white 20 somethings.
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The people in their government are politicians and bureaucrats, just like anywhere else, and corruption is rampant throughout all levels of their government.
"Curated system" is a really cute way of saying "your betters will decide the important things for you". No thanks. I don't need a little red book or my "betters" telling me how to think.
Prediction (Score:2)
Modern Warfare and Command & Conquer: Red Alert will probably not be approved for sale in China.
I was going to add Sleeping Dogs to the list, but I hold out hope that "Why don't you have a pork bun in your hand?" will someday become as important a cultural touchstone in China as it has become in the West.
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heh...Sleeping Dogs ..heheh.. China...
Dogs better sleep with one eye open
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I figured they'd love "China will grow larger."
grab them by the hardware (Score:2)
A VPN and a HDD (Score:1)
Reality on the ground.... (Score:4, Informative)
The reality of gaming in China is this:
The domestic version of the consoles is restrictive, actually, especially for foreigners in China in many cases. The domestic version of the PS4, for example, will only work with a Chinese playstation store ID - so you can't log in to your overseas-created ID from the Chinese console.
That being said, in China - now, as before, as always, you can very easily purchase whichever console you choose from graymarket shops. By gray market I mean fully legally functioning and not hiding anything shops (in Chengdu typically found on the 4th floor of the 'computer city' malls), often legally imported (illegally only if they were brought in without paying import taxes), from a variety of countries. In China, typically it means HK or Japanese models of the consoles and associated games. The shop I get my games from often has US versions of the games also, which I by far prefer because it lets me use the bonus content with my Canadian account.
Consoles and games were only really 'banned' from legitimate channels of mass market entry - never illegal in the sense they weren't allowed to be sold or owned or played, that's a notion that many people overseas simply don't understand when they read articles like this, which are a little bit misleading.
Oh, also, the piracy aspect of all consoles is equally gray market - each of those shops will mod any console they sell and let you transfer games from their game library upon purchase, or bring your HD in for a bunch of transfers, at the cost of about $1usd/game....banned, pfft.
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If you read slashdot often you probably see the 'negative bias' towards china.
I'd say 99% of those posting here have never been and are just quoting something they heard. Further, of those who do post, i'd even venture to say a lot of them dont even own a passport.
Posted by a fellow Canadian who happens to own property in China.
Which is why you just go PC (Score:2)
The only console that makes any sense is the Nintendo products.
The PS4 and the XboxOne are just limited PCs. There's no reason to own one besides caving to corporate hostage taking techniques and ignorance.
http://static1.gamespot.com/up... [gamespot.com]
http://i.imgur.com/7ezaq7w.png [imgur.com]
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The PS4 and the XboxOne are just limited PCs. There's no reason to own one besides caving to corporate hostage taking techniques and ignorance.
Sure there's a reason. Gaming without Microsoft/Windows, at least if you go Sony or Nintendo. There's also the console exclusive games that have never had a PC release. And the consoles are designed specifically for gaming, you don't have to worry about AVG or whatever deciding it wants to run a scan when you're playing, you don't have to worry about the OS monitoring a print spooler, and all the other things Windows does that isn't gaming.
Console gaming is gaming without the hassle.
Besides, PC gamers on
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And what is your problem with gaming with windows that isn't 1000 times worse on Sony?
And as to exclusives, those are just games that are arbitarily held hostage by corporations. Rewarding the corps for holding games hostage makes you a dupe.
As to PC gamers being a master race... sales on the PC equal that of any of the consoles. As to paying less... you're right... we do... we're less stupid.
We also have more control over our platform. We have mods. We don't have to pay for multiplayer like complete fuckta
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And what is your problem with gaming with windows that isn't 1000 times worse on Sony?
Microsoft IS worse than Sony, always has been. Some divisions of Sony might have a "minor" in evil, but Microsoft has a Double-major in evil, a Minor in evil and is professional chair throwing extend embrace extinguish brand evil.
And as to exclusives, those are just games that are arbitarily held hostage by corporations.
So PC centric developers are holding games hostage as well, right?
As to paying less... you're right... we do... we're less stupid.
You don't pay less, you "spend" less, there's a difference. PC gaming is some Ian in the UK or Ivan in Russia spending all his quid or rubles on a PC, and then pirating all his stuff instead of paying less for hard
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1. explain why gaming on windows is compromised in any way by something MS did in any meaningful way?
2. PC developers are not paid to keep their titles exclusive to a console. The console makers pay the console game makers to keep their games exclusive. There is no parity.
3. No, we actually pay less. You can buy a full blow PC that is better than the consoles for 400 dollars. There are build videos of people doing it all over youtube. Consoles are inferior. And that's okay so long as you know it. But if you
Right... (Score:1)