Lawlight said:
Those countries may not be "big and vital market" but add all those smaller countries together and you get the console race winner. PS2 sold more than 25M in Asia (not including Japan) - where do you think those sales came from? |
The average salary in China is still somewhere between a fifth and a tenth of what it is in developed countries so they are not going to magically hit some threshold in the next couple of years where PS3s will suddenly become 'affordable'.
However, due to high levels of inequality, it is already quite affordable to a small percentage (still large no.) of the population, and that number is growing every year but we're not going to hit some tipping-point in the short term which will result in PS3 sales taking off. The system has been available there since days after the US launch for anyone who had the money to buy.
Furthermore trends in China aren't years behind other countries, they are months behind. It's just the percentage of people that are able to partake in all the latest trends is smaller. Strangely enough by next year PS3 will be old news, even in China, and very few people will be interested in getting one, popular attention will move onto the PS4 etc. just the same as everywhere else, even if for many it's not realistically affordable. China is very polarising in this regard, people either have the latest and greatest imported goods, or the ultra cheap Chinese knock-offs, a year from now PS3 won't be in either category.