Sony has announced that it intends to officially launch the PlayStation 5 in China during the second quarter of this year. However, it won’t be a hardware launch without restrictions.
As Eurogamer reports, news of the official launch plans were shared by Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad via Twitter. Sony posted a video making the announcement starring SIE Shanghai president Tatsuo Eguchi and vice chairman Soeda Takehito. It formed part of a Chinese New Year greeting.
The console was actually approved for sale in China back in December, but in a country of 1.4 billion people and with demand remaining so high for the hardware everywhere else in the world, Sony needed some time to prepare. There’s also restrictions Sony needs to abide by in order to comply with local rules regarding content and communication.
Ahmad predicts that the Mainland China version of the PS5 will include an online services region lock from launch. Every PS5 game released in China must go through an approval process first, which could severaly limit the choice of what to play initially. It’s not impossible to get a PS5 in China right now, but imported models apparently cost up to four times the retail price.
Microsoft also received approval to sell the Xbox Series X and Series S in December, but has yet to announce plans for a launch in the region. It seems likely Microsoft will either want to beat Sony to market or not be too far behind the PS5’s launch this year.
