Sony PlayStation2 To Be Sold In China
Following on the steps of Nintendo
, Sony has announced its plans to start selling its flagship
product, the Sony PlayStation2 gaming console in China,
beginning in December. Sony plans a limited release of
the PlayStation2 in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangzhou
and Chengdu, and will price it at the equivalent of US$328.
Since its launch in March 2000, Sony has sold more than
62 million PlayStation2 gaming consoles worldwide. It
has become the single product responsible for most of
Sony's profits. Outside China, the PlayStation2, while
popular, is considered to be older technology. In the
US, it is now widely available for US$180. Among the other
leading game platforms, Nintendo has sold 10.5 million
GameCubes and Microsoft has sold 9.4 million Xbox machines
worldwide.
Sony's move to sell the PlayStation2 in China is based
on the need to improve earnings for the parent company,
and to establish a presence in China. Nintendo, Sony and
Microsoft have all been reluctant to enter the market
because of widespread piracy of games, and hacking into
their consoles. Mainly for this reason, all three companies
have delayed introduction, hoping that efforts to stamp
out privacy would give them a better opportunity to go
in. Sony admitted that it would have to face the fact
that the Sony PlayStation2 will face piracy in China,
but it is something the company will have to deal with.
In the technical community, it is widely known that China
is home to some of the most technically sophisticated
hackers in the world, most of whom work together in small,
amorphous, loosely-knit bands. When political tensions
rise between China and Taiwan, many hack into Taiwan sites
and deface their sites, while a smaller number of Taiwan
hackers hack into China sites.
While the three major companies delayed entering the
China market, PC gaming took off, and became a major revenue
generator for the leading Chinese Internet portals
and online gaming companies. Sony PlayStation2 will have
to compete with these game services as it enters the market,
and will most likely compete on the basis of superior
graphics capabilities. It will be interesting to watch
if Chinese game players will abandon their present hosted
online game solutions for consoles, as Chinese online
gamers have a reputation for being notoriously price-sensitive,
and usually abandon a service in large numbers when fees
are raised.
In the past year, both Sony and Microsoft have begun
to offer online gaming using broadband as an additional
add-on service in the US and Europe. Sony has not yet
announced plans to offer online gaming capabilities in
China.
Another major problem game console makers have faced
is the installation of "mod" chips which are
soldered into the consoles to give them added capabilities
they were not originally designed with. Outside China,
all companies have fought "mod" firms vigorously
using legal means.
Sony's entry puts extra pressure on Microsoft to enter
China with its Xbox console. Since its introduction, Microsoft
has had to fight efforts by hackers to modify or hack
the XBox. Unlike the Nintendo GameCube and Sony PlayStation2,
the Xbox is actually a graphics-performance enhanced personal
computer which uses a PC architecture, and is priced at
US$180 in the US market. Many hackers have been drawn
to it, seeking to install Linux, an open-source free operating
system which competes directly with Microsoft's software
products, and turning the Xbox into a personal computer
running Linux, its rival operating system. Most of these
hacks have involved the use of "mod" chips,
but an Australian group claims to have developed a software
solution which involves no changes to the hardware. In
all instances, Microsoft has vigorously used legal action
to prevent unauthorized modifications to the Xbox.
If Microsoft enters China with the Xbox, hackers would
be attracted to the Xbox platform like bees to honey.
This in turn would lead to legal actions and litigation
in China, opening up a new front for the relatively young
and untested area of Chinese commercial law and commercial
litigation courts. So far, foreign companies have had
mixed success fighting intellectual property violations
in Chinese courts, winning
some cases while losing others. To further complicate
the situation, it is likely that many of the violators
and potential defendants in China would be individual
hackers, as opposed to corporations.
On the other hand, if Microsoft does not enter the market,
it would mean ceding the China market to Sony, Nintendo
and the current online game service providers.
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