Microsoft has recently announced that it will be releasing its Xbox One console to the newly opened China market, a move that has many around the world waiting to see how the market of a billion people responds to the console. Indeed, China may well be the deciding factor in this round of console wars, and might actually manage to help turn the fortunes of the Xbox One around, which is otherwise trailing the PS4 around the world (although it is still doing exceptionally well for itself).
However, American McGee, a game designer who lives in Shanghai, points out that this is just a bad move and a waste of resources for Microsoft, and that the market will not be receptive at all, pointing to the fact that all the consoles are already available in China on the grey market for cheap, the fact that culturally, video games are viewed as a luxury and child’s play in China, and much more. He talks about this and more on his Facebook page (Facebook account may be required to view it).
He might be right- indeed, remember that there was similar anticipation when the Indian market opened up to game consoles more than a decade ago, but for almost exactly similar reasons, India has not been the major force in the world console market that it was thought to be. Whether China plays out similarly is anybody’s guess. For now we will just wait and watch.