Rumor: Chinese Xbox 360 in "next few months"
by Kyle Orland 
{ Jan 15th 2007 at 12:30PM }
Reuters is quoting unnamed "industry sources" in a story about Microsoft's plans to launch the Xbox 360 in China in "the next few months," possibly in time for February's Chinese New Year. According to the report, Microsoft is in talks with Chinese internet providers and government ministries to get the approvals necessary to import and sell the system in the tightly-controlled country.
It's no secret that Microsoft wants to enter the Chinese market -- they publicly stated as much in 2005 and launched the Xbox 360 in semi-autonomous Hong Kong in early 2006. Getting into China would greatly expand the Xbox 360's quickly growing worldwide footprint, which already includes 36 countries, some of which had never seen a console launch before. Launching in China would also mean dealing with the country's rampant software piracy, a problem that has dogged Chinese releases of the PS2 and PSP. Still, a booming market of over 1.3 billion potential customers is too juicy for Microsoft to pass up.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Diman @ Jan 15th 2007 12:51PM
More money more problems. Let the globalization comince.
alex @ Jan 15th 2007 12:54PM
The chinese market is far from 1.3 billion potential customers. The majority of the chinese population cannot afford or is not interested in video games. Even within the city demographic, which represents a small but relatively wealthy portion of the Chinese population, the potential market remains well below 50 million.
Aeris130 @ Jan 15th 2007 12:54PM
I wonder how many foreign companies up until now have though "w0wza, lyk teh 1,3 b!llion ppl ftw!". A Chinese consumer can only buy so much, you know. :)
bandit @ Jan 15th 2007 12:59PM
I doubt MS really cares about pirated software at this point. They are already making a profit on every 360 sold so if they make a $1 profit on every sold and hit just 5% of that market the have an instant 50 million. Right now they are somewhere in the $20 per console profit range so that 50 billion could easily be 1Billion in easy money BEFORE any software sales.
Ann @ Jan 15th 2007 12:57PM
With globalization new problems will come. MANY problems, especially with government. If the console will be allowed, there is no guarantees that all games be available
Colts and Saints in Superbowl @ Jan 15th 2007 12:58PM
@3
I think there is more potential than 50 million.
dvdguy @ Jan 15th 2007 12:59PM
This must have been part of the deal that got Jack Bauer released.
BklynKid @ Jan 15th 2007 1:27PM
Good for them, I guess.
delsvr @ Jan 15th 2007 1:50PM
Question: why isn't Joystiq covering this story on fan noises: http://www.engadget.com/2007/01/15/console-showdown-which-produces-the-most-noise/ ? Possibly because they're having a tough time putting a positive spin on the Wii being the loudest of them all?
just_somebody @ Jan 15th 2007 2:01PM
@dvdguy- awesome.
Thats gonna be hard to top for best post award...
Miibody @ Jan 15th 2007 6:24PM
This actually looks like an act of desperation.
oh and delsvr Engadget is Joystiq's sister site so....duh!
Maybe why they haven't run the article is because the 360 has 2 different models (the Hitachi and the Samsung) and no noise tests took that into consideration.
I have owned both. The Samsung is really quiet and my current Hitachi (thanks to crappy MS quality it's my 4th replacement) you can hear in the next room.
It's really loud.
Sometimes I have the Wii and 360 fired up at once and you can't even hear the Wii accessing the drive with my 360 going.
Norm @ Jan 15th 2007 2:29PM
who the he|| cares about fan noises? and have you ever compared the items yourself? my 360 is noisy as frick, that doesn't mean I like it any more or less than my PS3 or wii, but it certainly is the loudest.
GO CHINA!
alex @ Jan 15th 2007 2:40PM
@5. The market for video games in China is undoubtedly below 50 million. This is not counting Hong Kong. It is admittedly a rapidly growing market due the rising wealth of the average population. However, the combination of poverty, a culture of frugality, and the easy access to pirated material severely reduces the demographic of potential console buyers. 50 million is almost as large as the European gaming demographic and thus a prime market for video games. I was only pointing to the fact that stating China as having a 1.3 billion potential video game buyers is a clearly a misrepresentation of the country's demographic.
fyreblazer @ Jan 15th 2007 2:48PM
lmao @ dvdguy. well played sir, well played indeed.
BIGGEN @ Jan 15th 2007 3:26PM
i like how people talk like they know ANYTHING about the chinese game market potential.
Nick @ Jan 15th 2007 3:36PM
@5 Yeah, but 15-20 years down the line. Over 800 million are poor country people. How many of the city people are willing to put serious money on video games?
mike @ Jan 15th 2007 3:36PM
your a jerk DVDguy. I wait for the DVD sets of 24 before I watch them (Just finished watching season 5 on dvd which I got for xmas). Now you go and spoil season 6 for me.
GamerG @ Jan 15th 2007 3:44PM
Funny enougth I was in Beijing recently and I witnessed a 360 being sold in one of the electronics markets. It was quite funny because this American was haggling saying that in the states the premium model cost $200, and the poor chinease girl wasn't having any of it!
So you can get them in China if you want one!
TexRob @ Jan 15th 2007 5:21PM
China is a great market in Asia for MS, because what the 360 shines at, online play, is what the Chinese are big into. Japanese culture really doesn't seem to care much about XBL, I think the Chinese would embrace it with open arms though.
Scott @ Jan 15th 2007 5:56PM
The currently addressable Chinese console market is undoubtedly waaay smaller than 1.3 billion. You probably have 200-300 million reasonably well-off people in the cities. Narrow that down further by age, income and whatnot, and 40-50 million *potential* buyers sounds about right.
Still, Microsoft found it worthwhile to launch in Hong Kong (7 million total population), Taiwan (30 million total population) and Singapore (5 million total population).
All consoles can currently be bought in China, but they are gray market imports, usually from Japan, and you will pay a premium of about $100 over the price in the original market. With the Xbox and PS2, many of these had been modded to be region-free and play pirated games, which you can buy for a couple bucks. There is no way to access Xbox Live from China at this point.
But Live could be a way for Microsoft to kill two birds with one stone. Chinese, like Koreans, love online play (they also are more favorable to shooters than the Japanese), and online verification could help thwart piracy. China has more than 100 million people online, second only in raw numbers behind the U.S. There is growing broadband penetration, but quality is spotty, especially when connecting to sites and services outside China.
The major obstacle has to be the game content passing muster from the authorities. You're never going to get Battlefied 2, which lets you play as Americans fighting Chinese, or Splinter Cell, where you have to infiltrate the Chinese embassy in Burma to get the dirt on corrupt PLA generals.
I wonder if Microsoft will support local developers to create games with Chinese characteristics, like "Grand Theft Auto: Forbidden City", or a Tiananmen Massacre RTS.
FrankTheCrank @ Jan 15th 2007 7:38PM
Sweet...
Piracy soon to follow.
LordAshe @ Jan 15th 2007 8:32PM
It's sad, because in my country - Malaysia - there is the beginnings of a strong anti piracy stance among gamers. We would LOVE for MS to launch officially here. Right now Sony has launched the PSP, with the PS3 following suit, and even Nintendo (wonder of wonders) has decided to have a small presence here (via Singapore).
Although MS may dismiss Asian markets as being piracy-owned - there is enough of a clamor for official support - and of course, original products.
Alex @ Jan 16th 2007 12:43PM
China may have millions of World of Warcraft subscribers but it doesn't mean there is a strong demand for an online-capable console. Warcraft is played in cheap webcafes or on multiuse PCs in rich people's homes. Moderately wealthy Chinese invest in a PC to help there child's education or to further their own oppertunities. An X-Box 360 would do none of this so it would be less in demand.
The X-Box would not sell many games because DVD's are hard to pirate.
I think Sony would have more of an advantage in China as it is harder to pirate blu-ray and there is a small core of high earning single men. But even this market is tiny
fanan89 @ Jan 16th 2007 8:24AM
what about, at least, an official support in Israel?
We want support.