Sony has gained approval to launch the PlayStation 3 in China, a country where games consoles are technically illegal.

Authorities granted the PS3 a "China Compulsory Certificate" in July, Techinasia reports, although the machine has yet to formally materialise. Sony first launched the PlayStation 3 in Japan nearly six years ago.

China implemented its console ban in 2000 to protect the nation's youth - and in doing so created a grey-market for games consoles and arguably encouraged piracy.

Consoles can be sold if labelled as home entertainment devices, which, with its Blu-ray player and various online services, the PlayStation 3 is anyway.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-11-02-playstation-3-may-finally-launch-in-china

more at the article

good stuff :) with the next gen coming soon too

This can be huge

That's a big market, 1.3 billion to be exact. Could have potential.

What if this was Sony's plan all along.

oh, so is that the reason why the Wii China boom didn't happen ?

It would be nice to see Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all go into China. It could really help the game industry.

Um isn't there a big anti Japanese sentiment going on in China at the moment

True, but Train wreck is correct in that it's been intensified greatly in recent months due to Japan trying to purchase those islands.  http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/japan-china-one-error-away-from-conflict/story-e6frg6so-1226509455302

EDIT: Waitasec, I had no idea Japan actually purchased the islands already. I thought it was still tentative.

kowenicki said: JayWood2010 said: It would be nice to see Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all go into China. It could really help the game industry. They already are. Don't believe the hype. last year:     Game players in the gaming industry Wii rocked by corp's Xbox factor       Sales of Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 have been overtaking Nintendo Co's popular Wii in Beijing's games console market, mainly boosted by its motion-sensing Kinect controller. Kinect, launched on Nov 4 as an add-on for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, has seen its sales on the rise after it hit the gray market in China two weeks after its official launch. [Full Story] Nintendo's secrets

Then what is the point of this thread?  Sony isn't going to dominate anything if the other consoles are already there?  it's cool they are expanding but It's just an expansion.  This site and sony fans *sigh*  Here I thought they were the only ones.  

JayWood2010 said: kowenicki said: JayWood2010 said: It would be nice to see Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony all go into China. It could really help the game industry. They already are. Don't believe the hype. last year:     Game players in the gaming industry Wii rocked by corp's Xbox factor       Sales of Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 have been overtaking Nintendo Co's popular Wii in Beijing's games console market, mainly boosted by its motion-sensing Kinect controller. Kinect, launched on Nov 4 as an add-on for Microsoft's Xbox 360 console, has seen its sales on the rise after it hit the gray market in China two weeks after its official launch. [Full Story] Nintendo's secrets     Then what is the point of this thread?  Sony isn't going to dominate anything if the other consoles are already there?  it's cool they are expanding but It's just an expansion.  This site and sony fans *sigh*  Here I thought they were the only ones.

facepalm...yes...it's 'this' site''and these' sony fans...want me to play the generalization game? these 'ms' fans who like to spin everything negatively on 'this' site tend to overgeneralize...

that was easy enough

I found the news on NeoGaf

here's why this is important..other companies had to do a joint venture to sell the consoles in China afaik. Now Sony can operate on their own selling the console. The branding had to be changed somewhat as well. Hence why it's mainly the grey market that has consoles.

here's another outlet with more details

http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/eight-years-after-botched-ps2-launch-is-sony-bringing-playstation-3-to-china/

The significance of this news should be pretty easy to understand. It's not about short term growth ...but for the long term strategy sony has achieved something important.