China selling consoles boosts Sony and Nintendo

PlayStation boss Andrew House says that China allowing the sale of game consoles will be a huge boost to PS4.

Meanwhile, Nintendo’s stock has risen 11 per cent on the country allowing the sale of consoles from its free trade zone in Shanghai, reports the BBC.

China’s games market is a large one, driven mostly by online games played in cafes. It was worth 8bn in 2013. But PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo consoles have been banned from sale for over 14 years.

"One of the success stories, not just for ourselves but for the whole games business, has been our ability to open up new geographies for video games over the last five years," House told MCV when discussing whether PS4 can outperform PS3 last year.

"The PS2 success was achieved with Latin America being almost a non-existent market for consoles. We are seeing finally China opening up to consoles with the establishment of the free trade zone in Shanghai. So there are opportunities for new markets that we haven’t tapped into."