14 DAY TRIAL // The Chinese government might be ready to allow both Sony and Microsoft to sell the PlayStation 4 and the Xbox One on the local market, but it seems that the two companies and their publishing partners will have to work hard in order to launch actual video games for them.
The Ministry of Culture has published a list of the various restrictions linked to content and they seem a little draconian.
Gamesinasia says that titles that want to be offered on the Chinese market need not to contain the following elements:
Gambling-related content or game features. Anything that violates China’s constitution. Anything that threatens China’s national unity, sovereignty, or territorial integrity. Anything that harms the nation’s reputation, security, or interests. Anything that instigates racial/ethnic hatred, or harms ethnic traditions and cultures. Anything that violates China’s policy on religion by promoting cults or superstitions. Anything that promotes or incites obscenity, drug use, violence, or gambling. Anything that harms public ethics or China’s culture and traditions. Anything that insults, slanders, or violates the rights of others. Other content that violates the law.
Given the violent and wish fulfillment nature of the majority of modern titles, it’s unlikely that any of the titles currently offered on the Xbox One and the PlayStation 4 could be launched in China in their current form.
At the same time, the government says that all content needs to be submitted to the Shanghai culture department for an approval process that will take no longer than 20 days and that all patches and DLC need to follow the same guidelines.
Also, games need to have a simplified Chinese version, which means that publishers will need to do extra work to localize their titles and make sure that they do not contain forbidden content.
It’s unclear how strongly the guidelines mentioned above will be enforced.
Analysts estimate that China can be a very big market for both current and next-gen consoles and Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have expressed a desire to officially launch their devices, which have only been offered via a secondary market until now.
At the moment, the PlayStation 4 is the best-selling console of the next-gen era, with more than 7 million units delivered to players, while the Xbox One from Microsoft has shipped 5 million to stores.
The situation might change before the end of 2014 as more exclusive titles are launched and the companies tweak the pricing model.