Showing posts with label console. Show all posts
Showing posts with label console. Show all posts
Monday, 30 September 2013
Friday, 27 September 2013
China ends video game console ban with new Shanghai trade zone
China's 13-year ban on video game consoles is ending with the creation of a new free trade zone in Shanghai that will allow foreign-funded companies to sell game systems nationwide.
Rumors that the government would finally lift the ban were finally confirmed on Friday when China's State Council published regulations for the experimental zone in the country's largest city.
Under the rules, foreign-funded companies in the trade zone can sell game consoles domestically upon receiving approval from China's Ministry of Culture.
Console makers including Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft did not immediately respond to requests for comment. But the lifting of the ban paves the way for the companies to sell their game systems in one of the world's largest markets.
Microsoft may already be preparing to sell its Xbox system to Chinese gamers. Earlier this week, the company said it had formed a joint venture with a local Internet TV company in the Shanghai free trade zone.
Although Microsoft declined to reveal more details, a Shanghai stock exchange filing said the joint venture would focus on developing game-related hardware and software.
China first instituted its prohibition on game consoles in 2000 as a way to protect children. Despite the ban, however, merchants have long brought in video game systems from Japan and Hong Kong and sold them to customers in China.
The country represents a major opportunity for game console companies, said Xue Yongfeng, an analyst with Beijing-based research firm Analysys International. Console makers, however, will need to adapt their business models to the habits of Chinese gamers, many of whom are used to playing games for free, he added.
While China may have previously banned consoles from the country, online and mobile games in the country have been permitted and are raking in billions of U.S. dollars in revenue every quarter. Many of these games earn revenue by using a "freemium" model, in which the product is free to play, but includes virtual goods or content upgrades that can be purchased.
"If the companies just try to sell their game consoles without changes, I think it will be difficult," Xue said. "The price of these console games is quite high. Chinese gamers will be willing to pay for the console hardware, but they don't have a habit of buying expensive games."
To adapt, companies such as Microsoft may decide to enter China's gaming market with a console designed to play free games online, he added. Tethering the system to online services could also help Microsoft ward off piracy. Currently, many of the Xbox 360s sold in China's gray market are reconfigured by local merchants to play pirated games.
The Shanghai free trade zone opens on Oct. 1, and its regulations will be phased in over the next two to three years.
Tuesday, 24 September 2013
Nintendo's Hiroshi Yamauchi, father of console gaming, dead at 85
Nintendo fans, switch off your games and observe a moment of silence for Hiroshi Yamauchi, who died Thursday of pneumonia at a hospital in central Japan.
Yamauchi, who was 85, served as president of Nintendo from 1949 to 2002. He continued to serve as an adviser after his departure from the company, and was one of the richest men in Japan.
Under Yamauchi’s stewardship, Nintendo hired Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto and launched the Famicom, the video game console that jumpstarted the North American game market when it arrived in the U.S. as the Nintendo Entertainment System.
Video games wouldn’t exist as we know them today without the NES, and the NES wouldn’t exist without Yamauchi.
Yamauchi transformed Nintendo into a gaming company, hired Miyamoto, and launched the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America, essentially resurrecting the video game console market. The grandson of Nintendo founder Fusajiro Yamauchi, Hiroshi Yamauchi took the pivotal step of transforming Nintendo from a small-scale card manufacturer to a toy company, narrowly avoiding bankruptcy in the process. He led Nintendo into the growing American arcade market with Donkey Kong in 1981, then made Nintendo a U.S. household name by releasing the NES in 1985.
The NES was a smash hit that single-handedly revitalized the games business after the video game market crashed—hard—in 1983. Today the video game business is booming, and Yamauchi is credited for making a number of key decisions that helped the game industry—and Nintendo—prosper.
Yamauchi fostered creative talent at Nintendo, most notably Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto. Yamauchi fostered creative talents like Miyamoto because he believed video game developers could and should be artists, not just engineers. While Yamauchi was known for running Nintendo with a bit of an iron fist—every game published on the NES had to be approved by him first, for example—he had a proven knack for identifying successful ideas.
Under his leadership, Nintendo created some of the most beloved and long-running game franchises in the world, including Mario, Metroid, and the Legend of Zelda.
“[Yamauchi] was kind of a forerunner of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs—including the fact that he dropped out of prestigious university in Tokyo to pursue business interests,” says Lewis Ward, manager of gaming research at IDC.
“He was directly instrumental in getting Nintendo’s home console and handheld product lines on the map at a time when it was far from clear they would be popular and that their games could be profitable. His guidance will be missed, but not forgotten.”
Nintendo, led by Satoru Iwata, continues to be a dominant player in the video game industry. Yamauchi stepped down as company president in 2002 and was succeeded by Satoru Iwata, who currently leads Nintendo as the company struggles with floundering Wii U sales and an evolving mobile game market.
In the interests of full disclosure, you should know that IDC is a sibling company to TechHive, both of which are subsidiaries of International Data Group (IDG).
Alex writes reviews, How-To Guides and features to help you work smarter and game harder.
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