China's online game market may reach $3.8b in 2009

That's like $1 per person!

If WoW were to disappear tomorrow that number would be next to nothing. Can't tell you how many chinese gold farmer's I've personally come across just on the server I played on, whether they were actually playing or using a bot program.

Imagine how large that number would be without piracy!
The reason that most of that money is devoted to MMOGs is probably because they require subscriptions, making them harder to pirate.

What? Consoles was banned in China? This Chinese never know! I thought it's just MS and sony find it not worthwhile to release them here. *looking at my 360,PS3 and DS nervously* However imported consoles are sold everywhere and AFAIK nobody raised an eye

"Niko Partners, it's your cousin, Roman!"

PRC government. >:-[

Poor China...

Uh.. advanced casual?

I bet Half of this is illegal piracy money, maybe more 75% - 80%

Well, since it's not likely that FBI will be knocking on my door soon ;) I be honest here:As most Chinese players, I pirate games. As one who relatively well-off I can afford some legit games too. BTW if PS3 is cracked, I'm sure you would hear of it!

Yes, there are legit PS3/360 games sold here. Imported, mostly from Hong Kong I think. PS3 titles cost from $25 to $70 (for new and popular games), XBOX360 counterparts are usually a little lower. Price reduction is at a slower pace compared to US/Europe:( Because of low demand for legit games and mail-order sales mode, there is really not much concerns about shelf space. I make about $700 monthly, so I can spare to buy some legits. Even if my income is quite high for my age and city, since China has 1.4 billion people, statistically there should be a reasonably large consumer body. And of course, China has her share of richie riches, they play games too, you know.

For the shady part. Most console players (Students, kids, not-so-riches) do go with 360 (ready-made pirated copies are sold on street for $1 or less). Some others with extra-but-not-too-much cash, like my guilty self play most cross-platformers on 360 and exclusives on PS3. (Actually I own 2 xbox360s, one of them is uncracked and used to play legit games online. Cracked consoles can go LIVE too, at a risk of been perma-banned - the risk is not very high, I think not much higher than RROD :( ). And then the remnant of the once mighty Playstation devoters.

Out of curiosity, I think average usa people make $2000 or so, how come so many people end up with only one console and engage in console wars? It's not like you have to shell out a months salary for one(like average chinese do - $300+ for 360 Arcade here). Where did you spend your money?

If Nintendo tried to combat piracy in China by DS, they certainly didn't make much effort. Do you know how many DS games iQue published ever? 4, that's it, namely: Yoshi touch & go, Polarium, Mario 64 DS, Wario touched. I think iQue is content to just selling hardwares. Flash-carts does have quite a business outside China, if what I heard is correct?

As for PC games, legitmate copies are quite common, at price of $5~12. And Steam is available too. Chinese government actually banned very few games. It's just publishers choose not to. One problem: an annoying portion is of low quality/buggy English to Chinese conversion, sometimes I just bought for the CDkey and torrent English version instead.