It was just the other day that Microsoft announced that they would be officially bringing the Xbox One console to China this September. The console will be launched in the country and will see Microsoft’s partnership with local company, BesTV. This is great news on the surface since this means that the console can be bought legally, as opposed to grey market imports.
Unfortunately not everyone seems to think that is a great move and in a recent Facebook post by American McGee, the developer behind titles such as Alice and Akaneiro: Demon Hunter, he has outlined several reasons as to why he thinks that the launch of the Xbox One in China is going to fail, and how that move will cost Microsoft dearly.
For starters McGee claims that the console can already be bought via grey market imports, so there is no difference in offering it officially. He also states that other companies such as XiaoMi already have control of the set-top box market, and that Microsoft’s partnership with BesTV isn’t going to mean much, especially when there are cheaper Android alternatives out there.
McGee goes on to claim that piracy is another reason why the Xbox One will fail in China, meaning that despite Microsoft’s best attempts to win customers over with content, there will always be pirates around who will be able to offer it at a fraction of the price, or in some cases free. He cites other factors such cultural differences and censorship issues that could impact the console overall.
After all why would gamers want to pay more to buy a game officially, when it could be censored and where gamers could buy a pirated and uncensored version for half the price, if not less? Those are some pretty compelling reasons but what do you guys think? Will the Xbox One succeed in China or will it fail, like McGee suggested?