Wang Song, a 32-year-old video game developer in Beijing, has considered himself a hard-core gamer since elementary school. Flouting China’s 14-year ban on consoles (the games are too violent, the government said), he owns Sony’s PlayStation 4 as well as the older PS3 and Xbox 360. On Sept. 29 he lined up at a Beijing department store for the Chinese debut of the Xbox One, the first foreign console to make its way into the country legally in this century. Yes, there were lines.
That’s good news for Microsoft, which has badly needed a sales boost for its console since the Xbox One and PS4 began dueling last November. Sony trumpeted its 10 millionth PS4 sold in August; Microsoft has been quiet about Xbox One sales figures since they crossed the 5 million mark in March. (Struggling Nintendo has shipped close to 7 million Wii Us, having had an extra year on the market.) Little surprise that Microsoft would take the lead on moving into China, a largely untapped market for living room video games. “We know there are millions of gamers there and lots of pent-up demand,” says Phil Spencer, the company’s Xbox head.
