Sony’s PlayStation 4, following the footsteps of Microsoft’s Xbox One, is all set to hit the Chinese shores later this year, in two joint-ventures with Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development, a subsidiary of the Shanghai Media Group.
Sony on Monday announced that it will bring its PlayStation consoles and games to China’s 1.3 billion consumers, following the country’s lift of a 14-year ban on video game sales.
The two joint ventures – Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) Shanghai presumably to handle software licensing and sales and Shanghai Oriental Pearl Sony Computer Entertainment Culture Development to focus on hardware manufacturing and sales – will be established in a new free trade zone in Shanghai.
According to a stock exchange filing from Shanghai Oriental Pearl’s parent company, Sony is said to have a 70 percent stake in Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE) Shanghai, with a 49 percent stake in the other. The company has refused to provide further details on its plans of launch of PlayStation consoles in China.
Last month, Microsoft announced that the Xbox One console will land in China, starting September, in a $79 million gaming venture with BesTV, another subsidiary of the Shanghai Media Group. The company estimates that the revenue in China from PC, mobile and online gaming is worth more than $13 billion, with more than half a billion gamers.
Sony’s PS4 has been outshining the Xbox One in the US for months, and is also available in more countries compared to the Microsoft console.
There’s no word yet about when Sony’s next generation gaming console PS4 will go on sale in China, but it wouldn’t turn out to be surprising if PS4 makes its way to the market before Xbox One, which will hit the shelves this September.
