Although it may not be as big and bold of a statement as Microsoft’s announcement that Xbox One is launching in mainland China, Sony has announced that they’re launching Playstation in the country as well.
Previously, after China lifted the ten year ban on foreign game consoles, Sony mentioned that they were “exploring the possibilities,” however the latest development is from a partnership with the Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group to launch PlayStation in the country:
Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development Co., Ltd. and Sony (China) Co., Ltd., a wholly owned Chinese subsidiary of Sony Corporation, signed a joint venture agreement in the Chinese (Shanghai) free trade zone and jointly funded a joint venture responsible for the production, marketing, Sony Computer Entertainment’s PlayStation hardware, software and related services business in China.
Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development Co., Ltd. and Sony (China) Co., Ltd. have agreed to jointly set up two companies to be responsible for hardware and software products and services.
The two companies that were formed for this very specific investment were Shanghai Oriental Pearl Solatube Culture Development Co., Ltd., a 51% percent investment from Shanghai Oriental Pearl (about 5.1 million RMB) and a 49% percent investment from Sony China (about 4.9 million RMB). Sony is also investing 70% percent capital into the second company (about 3,066 million RMB), which is being named Sony Computer Entertainment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., while Shanghai Oriental Pearl is chipping in the remaining 30% percent.
In total, the investments from Sony Corp. into everything totals to roughly 1318.9 million RMB, which equates about $211.5 million dollars. The entire operation is going to enlist the talents of local game developers within China so that they can get an edge with exclusive content on Playstation platforms within the country, and to help promote growth within the Chinese video game industry.
Lastly, the confirmation had no mention of what platforms Sony would be launching in mainland China, but we can only assume they’ll be bringing their entire family of consoles to the region.
We’ll keep you guys posted.
