It's unclear whether the company will offer an exclusive deal

Jul 28, 2014 07:49 GMT  ·  By

The team at Microsoft in charge of the Xbox One announces that it is planning to launch the next-gen device in China using an entirely new business model via a partnership with China Telecom, one of the biggest broadband companies in the country.

Basically, all those who have a Smart Home Initiative account with the company will be able to purchase the Xbox One as part of the service, although it’s unclear whether they will get a reduced price or whether there’s any sort of special offer associated with the partnership.

China Telecom says that it has more than 30 million customers in the country, which opens up the Xbox One to a huge potential audience, although it’s not known how many of them are actually interested in gaming.

The next-gen device from Microsoft will also be offered via traditional retail thanks to a partnership with BesTV, a company based on Shanghai.

More information about the way the Xbox One will be launched on the Chinese market will be offered at the upcoming ChinaJoy conference, and speculation suggests that the company might be getting ready to unveil some exclusive content for the market.

The partnership with China Telecom might allow the home console to be offered for a lower price as long as customers agree to a long-term broadband subscription, which might make them a solid audience for exclusive game launches and other entertainment releases.

Microsoft attempted to introduce a subscription system for its older 360 a few years ago, but the system was not attractive on Western markets.

It might be better suited to emerging markets in Asia, where at the moment a lot of gaming hardware and software is only offered via a secondary, gray market.

The Xbox One will be launched in September in a number of other secondary markets, including Japan, and Microsoft has already announced a number of price cuts for its video games in order to make the platform more attractive.

At the moment, it is lagging behind in sales when compared to main rival PlayStation 4 from Sony, despite the fact that Microsoft reduced its price to 399 dollars / Euro in early June and eliminated the Kinect motion tracking system from the core retail package.

The Wii U has also been showing signs of a rebound recently and could become a true competitor after the launch of Super Smash Bros. later in the year.