Sony Sees Gaming Opportunities, Rough Times In China

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Sony Sees Gaming Opportunities, Rough Times In China

Posted by simoniker on Wednesday February 4, 2004 @12:14AM from the zing-and-zang dept.

Thanks to Frictionless Insight for pointing to a China Daily article discussing Sony Online's moves to introduce its MMO titles into China, as it has "found a Chinese partner to help it run its shooting game PlanetSide", and is "also trying to find partners for the forthcoming EverQuest II." While a Chinese gaming entrepreneur suggested "Western game companies are much superior to their South Korean counterparts in terms of graphic quality and game designs", a Shanghai-based analyst retorted that "...most Chinese game players like fashionable heroes and heroines in games more than picture quality and game plots, the strong point of South Korean and Japanese game developers." Elsewhere, GameScience has a translated article noting Sony's struggles in launching the PlayStation 2 in China, as it's argued, with regards to both imported hardware and pirated software: "There is simply no way for the official goods to compete with the [widely available] pirate versions."

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Finally. by noselasd · 2004-02-04 00:21 · Score: 1

What ? They actually realizes gameplay/plot is worth more than fancy graphics ? .. I see flying pigs.
1. Re:Finally. by gabec · 2004-02-04 03:54 · Score: 1
  
  uh, ok the quote even in the blurb says nothing of the sort. it says, paraphrased since it apparently was confusing the first time: "US companies' games have better graphics and gameplay, SK companies' games have more fashion-sense."
  I thought the quote to be rather insulting to the Korean/Japanese gaming community, but ... whatever. I'm not Korean/Japanese, so I suppose they were right to assume that I (conversely) would find fashion in my video games less important than plot and graphics (respectively, in my case, though graphics do provide the initial "ooo.." factor that gets you started on playing the game).
2. Re:Finally. by Quikah · 2004-02-04 07:52 · Score: 1
  
  No, they like fashionable characters more than graphics and plot. So they care more about wether the characters have color coordinated outfits than the actual plot of the game.
  
  --
  Q.
RTFA by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-04 00:30 · Score: 1, Insightful

* Import Playstations are cheaper than the official ones.
* Pirate software is cheaper than the official ones.

Coupled with the fact that there are only two (2!) Chinese region games - and the official Playstation consoles have crippling region locks that won't play import / pirate games - nobody in their right mind will buy one. It is a chicken & egg situation.

"Region locks are great!" Yes, keep telling yourselves that, Sony.
Slugside. by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-04 00:43 · Score: 0

I played Planetside for six months when it was first released. Somewhere after release (with many many patches) they started to destroy the game's performance. Just before Christmas it was beginning to have problems running on my Pentium-4 3GHz machine with a gig of memory and a Radeon 9800 - me (and everybody else playing) started getting awful stutters / frame hitches while playing.

(1) This game needs a Pentium-4 3GHz+ machine to play properly - and still has problems running smoothly due to very bad scene visibility determination.
(2) The game still has bugs. The fucking spitfire turrets still shoot friendly troops when an enemy aircraft flies overhead.
(3) $12 a month was too expensive for the North American audience.

How exactly is this game economically feasable for China?
well... by Worminater · 2004-02-04 02:08 · Score: 2, Interesting

One of my better IRL friends is chinese, and regardless of what gets released there, if he wanted it, he would have had no problem getting it for half the price from a non-official channel. Thats the main reason I laughed when Nintendo put out its n64/snes system a few months ago, my friend had already had both systems during their prime.

maybe my friend is better off than most, but it seems like if you want, you can get, regardless of channels, and generally for alot less money...
1. Re:well... by Acidic_Diarrhea · 2004-02-04 07:05 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe some Chinese people would prefer to actually support the companies that make the products they enjoy - who knows. Obviously your friend has no problem screwing over Nintendo, etc. but I don't believe all citizens of China feel that theft is perfectly acceptable.
  
  --
  I hate liberals. If you are a liberal, do not reply.
2. Re:well... by TSage · 2004-02-04 07:16 · Score: 1
  
  You are, in fact, quite right. The Economist had an article entitled "Psst. Wanna real Rolex?" on Jan. 22, 2004. Unfortunately, it's only in the print version unless you subscribe or pay to view it online.
  
  The gist of it was that Swiss watch makers actually exported $150m worth of watches. The people actually do want to get the real thing.
  
  I think the reason that doesn't usually happen is a result of a couple of things. First, China's people are still very poor, even with the burgeoning middle class there, so they just can't afford it. Second, I wonder if it's also because they don't have the same consumer culture as we do. We are bombarded with advertisements and other social clues to make it socially unacceptable to have a knock-off. This last one may not be true, as I've not been to China, nor am I any great scholar on it.
  
  TSage
3. Re:well... by paulcammish · 2004-02-04 07:38 · Score: 1
  
  ...he would have had no problem getting it for half the price from a non-official channel.
  Erm, does that include cheap money?
  PlanetSide, Ultima Online et al are Massively Multiplayer, and require a subscription. So unless bootlegging extends to currency, theres not much point pirating them, not to mention they need a CD key to set up an account and get your free month... In the event they have finally perfected that Matter Compiler, can you ask your friend to send one over, and ill compile him some money for the shipping.
4. Re:well... by Lehk228 · 2004-02-05 11:52 · Score: 1
  
  never heard of a pirate server?, i know of quite a few Everquest servers that aren't on the official list, I don't use them cause they can really fuck up your official install, but if I do stop buying months I won't be deleting my software;)
  
  --
  Snowden and Manning are heroes.
5. Re:well... by Lehk228 · 2004-02-05 11:56 · Score: 1
  
  social clues to make it socially unacceptable to have a knock-off.
  
  but you are 31337 if you have warez, but seriously, I find it more common for people to brag about saving money off the "big name" rather than look down on cheaper knock-off products
  
  --
  Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Graphics not important? by TwistedGreen · 2004-02-04 02:17 · Score: 1

"...most Chinese game players like fashionable heroes and heroines in games more than picture quality and game plots..."

Well that's an obvious load of shit. Anyone who isn't blind will have an appreciation for graphics quality. Just because they don't have the skill to deliver better graphics quality doesn't mean they wouldn't like it.

And note that he included game plots with graphics quality. I guess a character's wardrobe is more important that their story?
1. Re:Graphics not important? by Dinglenuts · 2004-02-04 03:28 · Score: 1
  
  "...most Chinese game players like fashionable heroes and heroines in games more than picture quality and game plots, the strong point of South Korean and Japanese game developers."
  
  Ohhhh....so that's why so many asian games are total crap and not at all fun to play. Jiminy Chrismas, why don't you just say you like buying music Cd's for the cover art, or a car based on the factory installed radio.
  
  God my head hurts so much right now from reading that. I need an aspirin.
  
  --
  
  Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.
2. Re:Graphics not important? by MMaestro · 2004-02-04 05:21 · Score: 1
  
  Well unless you're a Chinese game player, you're obviously a load of shit.
  Just because graphics aren't the selling point doesn't mean they don't like good graphics. Unlike their U.S. counterparts, they don't make hundreds of dollars a week to spend on games and hardware (8 dollars an hour * 40 hours a week = $320 before expenses). Cheap, but effective graphics are the trade-off for a good online experience. Unlike games like Everquest 2 which seems to be aiming for the 'will cripple your top-end computer' feature.
3. Re:Graphics not important? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-04 06:00 · Score: 0
  
  Unlike games like Everquest 2 which seems to be aiming for the 'will cripple your top-end computer' feature.
  
  And the game still looks like shit.
4. Re:Graphics not important? by TwistedGreen · 2004-02-04 06:20 · Score: 1
  
  Well, I do like to buy books based on their covers. I especially like the shiny books. If it's shiny, it's got my buck.
  
  (You can't tell if I'm being sarcastic or not, can you... :)
  
  Glad to be of service!
Mod me troll? by Anonymous Coward · 2004-02-04 04:12 · Score: 0

How imaginative.
Communism and games ... by lake2112 · 2004-02-04 06:42 · Score: 1

Of course PS2 won't do well because the communists superiors to do not want to cause unrest. Examples: Final Fantasy games - One person always against a huge tyrannical group. Causing uprises and confusion against the larger entity. Civilization - You can develop Capitalism for your civilization Super Mario Bros - Collect money and get more lives!