Chinese authorities have decided to allow the sale of video game consoles across their whole country, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. If this enables players to fully adopt the machines in the world’s largest game market, then it could be a significant boost for the entire game industry.
After a 14-year ban, China had previously begun allowing the sale of consoles such as Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 last year. But sales were restricted to Shanghai’s economic development zone.
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I’ll be heading to the ChinaJoy game trade show in Shanghai next week, and 250,000 people are expected to attend the event. The consoles will no doubt be a major topic of conversation.
Niko Partners, which specializes in Asian-games-market research, previously said that it expects only 550,000 total PlayStation 4 and Xbox One systems to sell in China in 2015. However, Niko said that sales will improve if the prices for the systems drop and if more triple-A titles become available in the region.
China’s entire gaming market is expected to hit $22.2 billion this year, up 23 percent from a year earlier, according to market researcher Newzoo.