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[Gskyace]

According to A9VG's review, both PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita will be region-free in China. The price of PS4 is 2899RMB(467USD) and PS Vita is 1299RMB(209USD), which are to be released on January 11th in 2015.

Meanwhile, Xbox One is still region-locked in China. 4299RMB(690USD) with Kinect and 3699(594USD) without Kinect. Both of them are on sale for 3799RMB(610USD) and 3199RMB(514USD). To be mentioned, Xbox One was officially released on September 28th in 2014.

Source: A9VG review

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

Fuck the PS4, I want that Vita.

Edit: Oh its only a case. Nevermind.

 

[Rymuth]

Huh...that faceplate dragon's leaving a trail of Squares, Triangles, Circles and X's

Spoiler

(No, not Cross, you. Sit down!)

Kinda neat.

 

[linid0t]

Those are some pretty awesome designs...

 

[Occam]

Well done, Sony!

#EndRegionLocking

For the players.

 

[Gordon Shumway]

Digging that dragon..cool shit.

 

[wapplew]

Xbox get region lock as exclusive!
China is in MS bag!

 

[RyoonZ]

That's a good news, means I can play some game not released in English.

 

[Bananajama]

I'd love to know the reasons why one is region locked and the other not.

But dat faceplate - love it

 

[gogogow]

That price lol, if they want one, they'll go to HK. They'll get a PS4 with a couple of games for that price.

 

[RyoonZ]

I'd love to know the reasons why one is region locked and the other not.

But dat faceplate - love it

Because China hates Japan duh oh wait...

 

[hesido]

Well, the consoles in China may not be region locked but consoles outside of China (our consoles) might be region locked to not accept software from China? That is, if they are planning on a separate pricing scheme (i.e. lower prices) for that market.

I'd love to know the reasons why one is region locked and the other not.

They may be selling games for cheaper there, and may not want other regions to start importing software. But a one way region lock (Chinese PS4's being region free but software released in China not working in other regions, could do that job)

 

[ThoughtsOfSpeaking]

I'd love to know the reasons why one is region locked and the other not.

But dat faceplate - love it

Id just imagine that sony simply has better relations with the chinese government than Microsoft. There doesn't seem to be any limit to how many consoles can be sold either (not that it matters).

Either way its a good start. Sony really needs to put some money into securing some more F2P games for that market.

 

[Deleted member 20920]

I wonder how China will respond to these consoles. I can see piracy being an issue in the long run.

No piracy on these consoles yet so that would not be a problem for a while.

 

[Occam]

I'd love to know the reasons why one is region locked and the other not.

Short explanation: Because fuck you, give me money.

Long explanation: Microsoft is worried about consumers importing cheap games from China. Mind you that Chinese Xbone games aren't just region locked, they also come with a single-use online activation code, meaning they can't be traded in or given away, which is basically a slightly altered version of Microsoft's original property removal system (lacking the daily online big brothering).

 

[memnoch87]

I was sure it was going to be region locked. This is a very weird move for the Ministry of Culture to make. Its also completely opposed to recent developments in China regarding foreign media.

Something about this feels off. Do we have other sources?

 

[DieH@rd]

I wonder how China will respond to these consoles. I can see piracy being an issue in the long run.

PS3 endured 4 years before first attempts of piracy paid off [and this was mostly because Sony forgot to arm all built-in defense measures, such a stupid move].

I really don't believe that PS4 will be broken anytime soon, or maybe ever.

 

[system11]

Didn't realise the XB1 was locked in China! Boo to Microsoft for even entertaining the function in this day and age. Region locking needs to die permanently.

 

[JimPanzer]

aren't PS4 and Vita not region locked anyway? Or is is something special for the chinese market to not have region lock?

 

[DieH@rd]

aren't PS4 and Vita not region locked anyway? Or is is something special for the chinese market to not have region lock?

PS4 and Vita are not region locked anywhere. Software is also unlocked, except in very specific circumstances when publisher expressly demands locking [happened few times with PS3 games in Japan]. Apps and multimedia streaming services are mostly locked.

 

[Takao]

aren't PS4 and Vita not region locked anyway? Or is is something special for the chinese market to not have region lock?

Outside of China, Xbox One is region free too. The thought process was that the Chinese government required region locks so they could censor content, but that may not be the case ...

 

[Henrar]

aren't PS4 and Vita not region locked anyway? Or is is something special for the chinese market to not have region lock?

PS4 and Vita aren't region locked, just as PS3 wasn't. The reasons of lock are simple:
a) censorship in China
b) companies want to block people importing cheap games from China

 

[Vuze]

That PS4 faceplate is hot. Good on Sony for not region-locking the consoles.

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

Hmm, I thought the original excuse was that the Chinese government demanded region locking for the release.

 

[Xenoflare]

PS4 and Vita aren't region locked, just as PS3 wasn't. The reasons of lock are simple:
a) censorship in China
b) companies want to block people importing cheap games from China

The bigger problem is that if the games themselves are censored or not even published in China. I don't know if games like CoD can make it.

 

[epmode]

Chinese Xbone games aren't just region locked, they also come with a single-use online activation code, meaning they can't be traded in or given away

Wait, really? Crazy.

 

[BKK]

That price lol, if they want one, they'll go to HK. They'll get a PS4 with a couple of games for that price.

I think that's a typo, Press Release said 2,899RMB ($466).

Edit: Yeah, typo, article says 2,899 RMB too.

 

[X05]

I'm surprised at the price, aren't the consoles manufactured in China?

 

[BlackBuzzard]

Short explanation: Because fuck you, give me money.

Long explanation: Microsoft is worried about consumers importing cheap consoles and games from China. Mind you that Chinese Xbone games aren't just region locked, they also come with a single-use online activation code, meaning they can't be traded in or given away, which is basically a slightly altered version of Microsoft's original property removal system (lacking the daily online big brothering).

What!?

That is as dumb as publishers region locking games(looking at you Atlus with P4A in Europe)

 

[shacklesmcgee]

Well there goes any hope the X1 had in China, might have to grab the ol' chalkboard.

 

[Chobel]

What's the pricing of PS4 games? Same as XBO?

 

[chadskin]

Hmm, I thought the original excuse was that the Chinese government demanded region locking for the release.

Maybe Sony threatened to make The Interview 2 about the assassination of Xi Jinping.

 

[Usobuko]

I can forsee the a9vg thread exploding because the last time when PS4 and PS Vita price was revealed, most of the people were asking just one question, whether it's region locked.

 

[RexNovis]

And people were touting China as some sort of massive market for XB1. Yea that ain't happening when it's a region locked product competing against one that isn't region locked. Why the hell would MS voluntarily handicap their product?!

 

[TomShoe]

And people were touting China as some sort of massive market for XB1. Yea that ain't happening when it's a region locked product competing against one that isn't region locked. Why the hell would MS voluntarily handicap their product?!

Cross it off the chalkboard.

 

[SerTapTap]

Wow good for Sony. Awesome design too

 

[Sho_Nuff82]

And people were touting China as some sort of massive market for XB1. Yea that ain't happening when it's a region locked product competing against one that isn't region locked. Why the hell would MS voluntarily handicap their product?!

I think, given the events of the last 18 months, this has to be a rhetorical question.

Xbox doesn't know what it's doing outside of English speaking countries, which is strange because Windows portable is actually doing really well in China.

 

[Xenoflare]

I can forsee the a9vg thread exploding because the last time when PS4 and PS Vita price was revealed, most of the people were asking just one question, whether it's region locked.

Now the question is about the game pricing on there, but I understand them.

It's probably going to be the same as the XB1 prices.

 

[Guymelef]

And people were touting China as some sort of massive market for XB1. Yea that ain't happening when it's a region locked product competing against one that isn't region locked. Why the hell would MS voluntarily handicap their product?!

Maybe something with their business partners there?.

 

[sackninja]

I think that's a typo, Press Release said 2,899RMB ($466).

Edit: Yeah, typo, article says 2,899 RMB too.

Thought I remembered PS 4 being cheaper than xbone there. That price makes more sense.

 

[Xenoflare]

I think, given the events of the last 18 months, this has to be a rhetorical question.

Xbox doesn't know what it's doing outside of English speaking countries, which is strange because Windows portable is actually doing really well in China.

WP is doing well in China is because the low tier phones are fast and cheap, this is also the reason why WP is successful in some developing countries for the same reason, the Lumia 520 is a darkhorse.

 

[sixteen-bit]

Region locking is shit

 

[Percy]

Only region locking a console in certain regions somehow strikes me as dumber than just region locking the console completely.

 

[wapplew]

And people were touting China as some sort of massive market for XB1. Yea that ain't happening when it's a region locked product competing against one that isn't region locked. Why the hell would MS voluntarily handicap their product?!

Maybe they think low price software have better chance than unlock higher price software.
Anyway, time to make China psn for Chinese f2p games!

 

[cpooi]

A possible reason is that Xbone games support a variety of languages (with only one version bought) generally, but the Chinese version of PS3/4/Vita games have usually only Chinese/Korean language support (you have to buy the English version for English language, etc.)

Also, the way that DLC is region locked on Playstation, which doesn't occur on Xbox.

 

[Takao]

Maybe something with their business partners there?.

Xbox and PlayStation in China are actually being handled by different divisions of the same company.

 

[Mokubba]

Thought it was meant to be $130 cheaper than the bone from the last topic we had.

 

[Kayant]

Unexpected considering XB1. So it's not because of the governement then?

Also comes with 2 year warranty if google translate is right.

 

[RexNovis]

Maybe something with their business partners there?.

Funnily enough they are both being managed and sold by the same Chinese company (lol) so that couldn't be it either. It's a bizarre decision to make voluntarily and one that they have to know is going to destroy any chance that had to compete.

I suppose they might have assumed Sony would follow suit kinda like the DRM stuff but that would be an incredibly risky decision in what they m themselves described as a "breakout market" based entirely on an assumption. Just makes zero sense.

 

[wapplew]

Let's see how many Chinese Xbox fans writing report letter to the government at this moment.