China’s gaming community will have to wait longer for the Sony PlayStation 4. The Japanese tech maker announced plans to delay the sale of the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita. The company claimed the delay was for “various reasons” but failed to pinpoint the issue.
Strict regulations contributed to PlayStation 4 delay
According to one company source, the delay is the result of prolonged negotiations with Chinese government officials. Beijing recently removed a ban on gaming consoles from other countries. The ban lasted for a total of 14 years, so Beijing’s ban removal was truly an extraordinary move. Microsoft already unveiled the Xbox One there in September.
Although China is the third largest market for gaming and video game consoles, it is one of the hardest markets for console makers to break into. This can be attributed to the strict censorship regulations within the country. It also does not help that Sony and Microsoft must compete with all the mobile and PC games currently saturating the market.
In December, Sony announced it would bring the new game console to China this month. As of this writing, Sony had not clarified exactly when it will start selling the PS4 in that market.
Holiday sales for game consoles are strong
Despite the recent market entry delay, Sony is faring well in terms of sales. As of Jan. 4, Sony had sold more than 18.5 million PlayStation 4 consoles to customers around the world. This number also includes 4.1 million consoles sold during the holiday shopping season, which spanned from late November to early January. During Monday evening’s press conference at CES, Sony’s Kaz Hirai admitted he was pleased with the numbers. He added that adoption rates for the PS4 have so far exceeded those for any other PlayStation product.
Sony is the first console maker to share the results of holiday sale numbers for 2014. Microsoft and Nintendo have yet to share sales results for their game consoles.
