PS4 to Launch in China and Cost Considerably Less Than Xbox One

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In almost every territory, PlayStation 4 sales have been dominating Xbox One. One reason for this has been price; the Xbox One launched at $100 more, thanks to the included Kinect. Once Microsoft disconnected the mostly unwanted add-on which in turn brought down the price to that of the PS4’s ($399), things began to shift for Microsoft. Since that time, Microsoft has done another price drop, making the Xbox One $349 – though this appears to be for the holiday season only. Now, Sony is looking to take on Microsoft in the one territory they are ahead in, China.

So why is Xbox One ahead in China and how is Sony looking to combat them? All that after the jump.

There is one simple reason why Microsoft is ahead in China and that’s because the PS4 has yet to be launched there. China is known to be quite a difficult territory for foreign firms to launch devices and because of that, has never really been part of the video game market. Once launched in China, it’s expected that PS4 will retail for for 2,999 RMB, or about $487. On the other hand, the Xbox One is currently offered at 3,699 RMB ($600) for the base model and 4,299 RMB ($699) for the Kinect bundle.

The price difference alone makes a huge difference in a country which while going through a financial boom, still has many earning considerable less than those from Western nations. In addition to a lower price point, the PS4 is expected to launch with 50 games, dwarfing the offering from Microsoft. It’s worth noting that the Xbox One was set to debut with 50 games in China as well, but due to localization issues and other hurdles, they’ve yet to be able to offer less than half of them. It’s hard to tell if Sony has been able to overcome this issue with their delayed release in China or if they will ultimately run into the same problems.

Discuss:

Do you think China will be an important territory for Sony?

[Via WPDang]