China permitting game consoles for first time since 2000

[Sarahconner]

http://www.avclub.com/article/china-to-allow-video-game-consoles-after-14year-ba-106777

I'm beguiled with pirates and 'pirate-culture' and wonder why they are still manufacturing 8-bit titles. 

Anyone located in China have an opinion?

[L___E___T]

There's still a market for cheap games, but there's also a healthy enough grey market for current gen games believe it or not.  Thing is though China is like Korea and crazy about online PC games, so I don't think it'll make a massive difference right away to be honest.  Manufacturers will go nuts though.

[Sarahconner]

My disbelief is the market for retro-games, but I'm grateful. 

Yeah, the comment thread on that article predicts diabetes & obesity to increase.  But that might be a short-sighted view of Chinese youth. 
Thanks for your input from HK.

[senseiman]

I had no idea they had actually banned consoles in China, that is just bizarre. 

[L___E___T]

It's all politics.  Consoles are both synonymous with capitalist consumerism and western themes, plus there's other stuff going on, but yes it never did make much sense in anything but a political way.  
Maybe they finally realised now that they're pretty much capitalist anyway.  The country doesn't want to leave money on the table after all, it's a bigger industry than movies in many countries already.

Oh I'm not from HK by the way, I just like the flag

[Flying_Phoenix]

Eh? But Nintendo sold games and consoles under the iQue brand, and that was in 2004, right?

Also, Nintendo sold Game Boy consoles and games in the mainland (not only Hong Kong). Hell, even Sega tried selling at least one model (the Mega Drive 2). That was a long time ago but most people still think China got nothing official back in 90s.