Sony it appears has some how found a way past China’s video game console ban and may just we be releasing it’s latest portable the Playstation Vita in the worlds most populous country. As we have reported before, video game consoles are banned in China and the only place to buy them is the /”grey market”.
According to Hong Kong based Apple Daily, the paper owned by Nextmedia (the company that makes everyone’s favourite Taiwanese news animations), Sony will partner up with China Unicom to sell the PS Vita as a portable entertainment system. China Unicom also happens to be the carrier partner of Apple in China. According to Apple Daily, Sony will have a press conference soon about their partnership with China Unicom.
Despite the ban on gaming consoles, which included handhelds, Nintendo bought some of their products over to China in the name of a joint venture with the domestic company iQue. The joint venture was allowed to release the systems in China because it was technically released by a Chinese company. Nintendo basically re-branded their products and released plug and play controllers under the iQue brand in the Chinese Mainland. Currently the Gameboy Advance, DS, Ds Lite and DSi are available in China under the iQue brand. How iQue and Nintendo got passed the ban is still very much a mystery.
Unfortunately for our readers who live in China, Apple Daily did not provide a solid source and only pointed at a weibo (Chinese microblog) that is floating around with pictures of a PS Vita linked to the Unicom network. If Apple Daily is to believed, that could mean that all maybe there will be a lift on the console ban in China.
Kotaku is following up with Sony and will update this post should the company comment.
Apple Daily’s (Chinese) [Apple Daily]
傳聞聯通或與新力中國合作發售PS Vita [China.com.cn]
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