Game over for epic 15-year-long console ban, China says

Videogame giants will soon be able to make and sell consoles in China, after Beijing confirmed plans to lift a ban first instituted in 2000. Rules were relaxed in the country in 2014 to allow for the production and sale of "gaming entertainment" in the newly created Shanghai Free Trade Zone. Now, according to the Wall Street …

[Graham Marsden]

What they didn't mention...

... is that the foreign vendors will be restricted to the consoles they were producing 15 years ago, so the Chinese can look forward to the PS 2, Dreamcast, Game Cube and X-Box.

[RetroTom]

Re: What they didn't mention...

No big loss, that generation was the golden generation in recent history, the current generation is flashy, graphically mind-blowing in places but lacks a certain something. There's too much hand-holding in current games, and a general feeling that gameplay is second fiddle to 'modern features' with the system 'experience' getting in the way.

[Mark 85]

Re: What they didn't mention...

Does this mean we'll be able to order one through Alibaba? There were a lot of interesting and fun games from back then...

[Anonymous Coward]

Remind me again why it is in China's interests to give money to US and Japanese companies?

[John Brown (no body)]

To stop their home markets from collapsing and defaulting on the debts owed to China.

[Anonymous Coward]

Last I heard...

I believe there is a requirement that the consoles sold in china have to be built in a specific area of china wants improving, so its allowing US/Japanese companies to spend their money developing Chinese infrastructure

[ChipGayman]

We all know that China has been manufacturing consoles since forever. As for the sale of consoles, they started lifting that ban last year. So, had the author here done any research aside from reading someone elses article, they would know that the entire first sentence of this article is wrong. They are already able to make and sell consoles in China. The software censorship over there is hurting sales, though. They don't have any blockbuster titles available for the consoles.

[OutsiderEX]

Basically the Party wants to get its hands on legitimate tax revenue for the production and consumption of the vidya because everyone and their child knows that you can barely throw a brick in a Chinese city without coming across a bootlegged copy of something that goes beep boop.