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China’s Xbox One and games will be totally region locked

1

1st Course

Member
From Gamesinasia

The news of the Xbox One launch price last week was met with a surprising level of positivity from China’s gamer community. The reason, in part, was that although Microsoft hadn’t announced anything, some e-commerce sites were advertising the system would not be region locked.

But those ads have since been revised, and Microsoft China VP Xie Enwei made it very clear that the console and its games will be totally region locked.

Specifically, according to Sina Games, Xie said that Chinese Xbox One games will not be playable on other Xbox One consoles. Similarly, Xbox One games and apps from other regions cannot be downloaded or run on the official Chinese Xbox One.

In other words, Chinese gamers who’ve already purchased an imported Xbox One will need to buy a new console if they want to play any of console’s official China titles. Similarly, Chinese gamers who were hoping to import foreign Xbox titles to play on their official Chinese Xbox Ones are out of luck.

That may be bad news for Chinese gamers, but it’s likely good news for the gray market vendors of imported Xbox One consoles, which are likely to remain in demand so that China’s console gamers have access to popular foreign games like Grand Theft Auto (which have virtually no chance of getting government approval and seeing an official domestic release).
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http://www.gamesinasia.com/chinas-xbox-one-and-games-will-be-totally-region-locked/
 
H

hongcha

Member
It sounds like this is due to the Chinese government. They control/monitor/censor the content of everything in their country.
 
O

Ogawa-san

Member
Are they trying to counter the grey market, or are games going to be cheaper there and they're afraid it'd cannibalize other asian markets?

If it's #1, well... They're shooting themselves in the foot with a goddamn cannon.
 
SolVanderlyn

SolVanderlyn

Thanos acquires the fully powered Infinity Gauntlet in The Avengers: Infinity War, but loses when all the superheroes team up together to stop him.
I'm pretty happy they're getting an official console at all, but this still sucks for them.
 
R

Ratros

Member
But their games would only be priced from 99 Yuan (16 dollars) to 249 Yuan (40 dollars). And Microsoft marked down the price of the 12-month XBOX Live Gold Membership in China, which is 199 Yuan (32 dollars). With prices like that and the 2 free HD movies a month, the deal still sounds fair to me. Have no idea what local players think of it though.

Maybe that's the reason for the region-lock. They are selling games for such a cheap price that one could actually make a profit by importing games from China and selling it again at his/her own country (at the cost of Microsoft's local sales).
 
Z

Zerin

Member
Probably a condition of being able to even sell it in China. Plenty will see the headline as a reason to snicker and forget this isn't like launching in any other region but that's not the case.
 
M

MRORANGE

Member
Games will be be cheaper no doubt, this isn't new it even happens on PC games in Hong Kong where you can buy region restricted steam retail games for half the US/EU rep.

Only problem is that some publishers might not publish their games in china.
 
K

KoopaTheCasual

Junior Member
Nightengale said:
6 months free Gold or somewhere along those lines.

Kind of a necessity though, because of F2P paywall.
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So... yeah. I don't think the region-lock is to hurt the grey market. They just don't want anyone else to get a Chinese XB1, since it's probably going to have significantly cheaper games and free (for a limited time) Gold.
 
N

Nightengale

Member
Ratros said:
But their games would only be priced from 99 Yuan (16 dollars) to 249 Yuan (40 dollars). And Microsoft marked down the price of the 12-month XBOX Live Gold Membership in China, which is 199 Yuan (32 dollars). With prices like that and the 2 free HD movies a month, the deal still sounds fair to me. Have no idea what local players think of it though.
Click to expand...

Regionally adjusted pricing isn't uncommon.

Asia PS+ is around 35 dollars, though our lineup of Plus games and discounts are crap compared to US and EU.
 
F

foolishoptimist

Member
Zerin said:
Probably a condition of being able to even sell it in China. Plenty will see the headline as a reason to snicker and forget this isn't like launching in any other region but that's not the case.
Click to expand...

Then why are Chinese releases blocked from Non-Chinese xboxes? That doesn't seem like it would be a government requirement.
 
O

omnislayer

Member
Spectrasonic said:
I'm surprised about the reaction I'm seeing here. How many people have imported a game? In my ~15 years of gaming I've never had the need to buy a game outside of my region.
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Lots of people. I've imported like 10 games from Japan alone. Unfortunately many games dont get released in all regions. Many japan only games are actually very good. (Gundam vs extreme)
 
D

DidntKnowJack

Member
Microsoft China just shot themselves in the foot.

But seriously, I'd be surprised if it were any other way. It's probably one of the stipulations for bringing this content to their country, the way they are with censorship and all.
 
T

Trojan

Member
Spectrasonic said:
I'm surprised about the reaction I'm seeing here. How many people have imported a game? In my ~15 years of gaming I've never had the need to buy a game outside of my region.
Click to expand...

Did you read the OP? It's assumed the Chinese government is going to ban a lot of popular games, so the only option to play them is to import (e.g. GTA5). Most other countries don't have that level of censorship and can buy the localized version.
 
Duxxy3

Duxxy3

Member
Doubt there's a lot of demand for games that wouldn't be approved by the government anyhow. The system is going to be loaded with MOBA's and MMO's for the foreseeable future.
 
S

shacklesmcgee

Member
Spectrasonic said:
I'm surprised about the reaction I'm seeing here. How many people have imported a game? In my ~15 years of gaming I've never had the need to buy a game outside of my region.
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Uuuh, do you live in a country that heavily censors what media is released there? Not even that, a metric shit tonne of people import Japanese games that never get released anywhere else.
 
A

atomsk

Party Pooper
Spectrasonic said:
I'm surprised about the reaction I'm seeing here. How many people have imported a game? In my ~15 years of gaming I've never had the need to buy a game outside of my region.
Click to expand...

If you've got a better way to play E.X. Troopers, Mister Mosquito 2, Zangeki no Reginleiv, Earth Defense Force 2, Yakuza 5/Kenzan/Ishin/PSP...I'd like to hear it.
 
Z

Zephyx

Member
Totally? :p

I imagine this is because of some China government policy regarding network security or some censorship policy.
 
C

Cheesemeister

Member
这是他妈的愚蠢的。这是另一种的Xbox180。
 
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