Microsoft Will Start Selling Xbox One in China in September
Microsoft will begin selling the Xbox One videogame console in China in September, sources familiar with the plans told Re/code. An announcement is expected as early as Tuesday evening.
Last year, Microsoft struck a manufacturing partnership with BesTV. Such partnerships with non-Chinese companies were allowed under a newly created “Shanghai Free Trade Zone” aimed at encouraging new foreign investments.
China had banned gaming consoles since 2000, out of fear that interactive entertainment would cause physical or developmental harm to children, leading to a thriving PC gaming market. The country said earlier this year that it would temporarily lift the ban on the sale of foreign consoles, a move that opens the world’s most populous country to firms including Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo. The decision permits foreign companies to make game consoles in Shanghai’s free trade zone and sell the devices throughout the country.
