Videogame giants will soon be able to manufacture and sell consoles in China, after Beijing said it was lifting 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 Journal , the country's Ministry of Culture said that foreign and domestic console vendors would soon be able to make and sell their wares in the People's Republic.
It means that the likes of home-grown console manufacturer Eedoo, which is backed by Lenovo, will be competing with Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo.
China's gamers – having adapted to Beijing's attempt to protect its youth from supposedly unhealthy content – are big fans of massively multi-player online role-playing (MMORPG), which work better on PCs than consoles.
That said, the world's biggest videogame makers will no doubt be relishing the opportunity to return to such a potentially huge market.
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Android game consoles maybe not dead: Razer Acquires Ouya software assets
I wasn't even aware that Razer had an Android gaming division, but apparently it does:
It has bought the software assets of Ouya; and it has acqui-hired the company's technical and developer relations teams to expand Razer's Android TV gaming business, specifically around its Forge TV console and the Cortex gaming platform.
One thing I found odd about the deal: This is only for the software side:
Notably, Razer is not acquiring the hardware part of Ouya's business, specifically the microconsole and controller that helped make Razer's name in the first place.
Isn't Razer mostly know for its gaming hardware? I'm surprised that they wouldn't acquire both sides - unless they really feel that their Android device is that far ahead of Ouya's (which is entirely possible, given the Ouya was a Kickstarter thing to begin with [raised $8.5 million] and as far as I know hasn't had a hardware refresh yet).
The Register explains that Razer has acquired Ouya's employees and assets, but not its hardware division, and will be displacing the Ouya console with its own Android box, Forge TV. It costs $99 or $149 with a controller, the same as Ouya. Methods of migrating to Razer services as well as discounts will be offered to Ouya users. Shaun Nichols notes that this deal comes as China finally ends its 15-year console ban, and a low-cost Android option may gain traction in that market.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2015, @12:02AM
you want sneaker net you son of a bitch
hey dont call me a son of a bitch
i just did you son of a bitch
well what does that make you
what do you mean
i saw you jacking off with mama's good napkins
what!?
yeah, you were there in the bathroom, with your pet snake coiled around your penis
bullshit, prove it.
I can't you had sex with it then threw it like a boomerang
across the street, yes, i know
which is where the trash co picked it up
yeah did you see the guy laughing he said hey come here, this smells like semen!
you're a sick fuck, you know that?
well the snake was gonna chomp on my penis head so I had to do something
next time, just call dad in, he loves what you love.
what? dad is gay?
no, dad is tri-sexual
how do you know
because he told me at disney world at my 21st birthday party
wow what bad timing
no he actually hooked me up with a stuffed pig
stuffed pig?
yes, one stuffed to look presentable at any occasion
really
yes i dressed it up real nice in victoria's secret then
i dropped some E
and i woke up and dad was standing over me and the
stuffed pig, laughing.
why was he laughing?
because i took the wrong pig
eh?
the cooked pig for the bbq
why?
it just *felt* better.
you dead pig fucker
no! dinner was on me that night.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2015, @12:22AM
videogame makers will no doubt be relishing the opportunity
Trying to make a buck out of folks who can't afford to buy the gadgets they produce because they earn less than $2/hr?
I wonder how that is going to go.
-- gewg_
(Score: 4, Informative) by takyon on Monday July 27 2015, @12:35AM
You might be right, but not for the reasons you think:
China's Rising Wages and the 'Made in USA' Revival [bloomberg.com]
Malaysia Joins the Outsourcing Parade [asiasentinel.com]
The iPhone 6's Battery Will Be Built By 'Foxbot' Robots In China [businessinsider.com]
China’s Troubling Robot Revolution [nytimes.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday July 27 2015, @03:05AM
I've been reading these sort of articles for a few months now, particularly the robotic factory stories, but I'm not buying it.
If the Chinese Communist Party want to have millions of unemployed former manufacturing workers rioting in the streets, then that's the way to go about it.
I don't think they'll let the big companies do this.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by takyon on Monday July 27 2015, @03:14AM
The alternatives are wages rising too fast, causing outsourcing from China to cheaper countries and back into the U.S. (with a greater ratio of robots to workers), or an exasperation of income inequality between rural and urban Chinese. Or they can use robots themselves to stem the decline and figure out some socialist way to keep people busy and from dissenting.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2015, @03:47AM
The Communist Party can only control the economy so much. The real estate boom in China and the stock market crash are examples of how the economic forces are moving beyond the command and control phase of the Communist system. The rising standard of living will be a ratchet that slowly erodes the Communist party's power as the people expect more and the Communists can't dictate to the multi-national companies. Just think, major Chinese companies incorporate overseas to trade on stock markets outside of China. These companies will eventually mature to the level of other multi-national corporations in the Western countries, growing beyond their dependency on the Communist party.
And the multi-national corporations are going to find the lowest cost of production no matter where it is in the world. The economists who think that these companies are going to stay in China because of inertia are fooling themselves. There were economists who thought American industry would stay put because of the supply-chain advantages of the existing infrastructure. Everyone in the rust belt knows how that worked out. Companies will move their production to the lowest cost country, even if it only saves a couple of cents on the dollar.
What worries me most about China is there military build up and posturing. When their economy sputters, there will be a good chance that war will be seen as a way for the Communists to keep power. The war machine would provide full employment and an outside target to unify the people. And there are plenty of targets for China to pick on.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 27 2015, @05:57AM
way to keep people busy and from dissenting
Perhaps allowing the sale of these consoles is seen as a way of pacifying the masses. Juvenal's phrase panem et circenses can be translated as "bread and circuses" or "bread and games [tertullian.org]".
Now that no one buys our votes, the public has long since cast off its cares; the people that once bestowed commands, consulships, legions and all else, now meddles no more and longs eagerly for just two things----Bread and Games!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday July 27 2015, @02:42PM
(Score: 2) by GoonDu on Monday July 27 2015, @01:28AM
This is rather interesting for a variety of reasons. I would think a strong PC culture there means it could be hard for console to get a piece of the gaming market. Besides, it's not as if the Chinese are isolated from AAA games and what not. There is also a strong piracy mindset there which means gamers in China probably have been playing pirated games on their PC for quite some time already.
With many gamers with gaming rig, I would think building a rig would probably be cheaper than buying a console but we will see.
(Score: 2) by moondrake on Monday July 27 2015, @09:04AM
I think it is most interesting because when I lived in Shanghai there were consoles for sale literally everywhere, with soldered in modchips and a box of games to boot....
It might be they are now actually going to crack down on that, which would be unfortunate for many people...