The 13 year long ban on game consoles in China might finally be coming to an end, allowing game companies like Sony, Nintendo, and Microsoft to sell their game consoles and handhelds in the country without any stipulations. The only requirement to doing this, however, is that the products being sold in China must have been made in China. Specifically, in the proposed Shanghai Free Trade Zone.

The move is part of a detailed policy blueprint for a new Shanghai free trade zone; it comes as a series of measures by Premier Li Keqiang, as a part of initiatives to make the Chinese economy more open to the rest of the world and to make its currency more widely used.

If this move goes through, companies would still require to have their products approved by a ‘Ministry of Culture;’ regardless, this stands as a good first move to open up the Chinese market. So far, Nintendo has been partnering with iQue, and other consoles have been sold in the black market. Rgeardless, this should make China an interesting market in the upcoming console wars, along with other emerging markets like India and Brazil.  Currently, all game consoles and handhelds are manufactured on mainland China via various contractors.

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That summary includes all online transactions, retail games, used games, and newly purchased consoles. However it does not account for console accessories or used consoles, which researchers estimate amounts to another $9.7 billion.

You can see the full breakdown for each country below.

In all countries except Germany (where PC games are strong), console game spending and used game spending accounts for more than half of total money spent. The report suggests that many consumers now play more than one or two genres, and own different platforms. About 39 percent of U.S. console gamers also play online casual games on portals, and 42 percent of MMO gamers also use their mobile devices as game platforms.

Below you can see the breakdown by platform/genre;

Thanks, Newzoo.