PlayStation China Continues to Promote What it Can't Sell, While Selling
PlayStation 5 Pro still not available in China. However...
During the Chinese New Year holidays, PlayStation China (as in, the local, licensed branch that sells the Chinese PlayStation models) continued its heavy and smart marketing push in the country.
This small article is inspired by this quick thread I did on Twitter.
While PlayStation has seen an explosive growth in sales and brand awareness in China in the last year or so (in particular since the release of Black Myth Wukong), the Japanese console maker is still actively competing against its own product in the Chinese market.
That is to say, imported consoles (mostly from Japan and Hong Kong) continue to largely supply Chinese consumers who prefer buying the region-free international models, instead of the more restrictive Chinese SKUs.
Sony and PlayStation representatives understand this (I suppose), and that might partially explain why the PS5 Pro isn’t even officially available in Mainland China, even though it released almost 4 months ago elsewhere.
PlayStation 5 Pro Yet to be Released in China
As of this writing, the latest and more powerful version of the PS5 - the PS5 Pro - is not yet officially available in China. However, as it happens with most things gaming in China, the console is widely and easily available through e-commerce platforms, with countless stores selling imported models.
The absence of the Pro model is most likely explained by the usual delays associated with regulations clearances required for the legal distribution of consoles in China. However, Sony might very well be wondering if it is actually worth it going through that hassle when its Pro model is already, effectively, being bought by Chinese consumers.
PlayStation China Promoting Unlicensed Games
In fact, during this (Chinese) New Year marketing efforts, we can see the brand actively displaying games that do not have a required publishing license for legal distribution in China.
PlayStation China employed popular pop singer 大张伟 (Da Zhangwei) as brand ambassador (pictured in this article and featured in the videos) to promote the PS5 and its games. In the promotional videos, we can see clips of God of War Ragnarok, among other games that are only available in China through imports. Meaning, “PlayStation China” is not actually selling those games, neither it is directly profiting from those sales, but Sony corp certainly is. Sales of imported games (and consoles) are accounted in their markets or origin (primarily Japan and HK).
If we look at the library of licensed PS5 games for China, we quickly realize the catalog is extremely meager. Less than 1% of all internationally available PS5 games have a publishing license in China. This is also visible on the official Taobao (biggest e-commerce platform in China) store for PlayStation. And yet, marketing materials do showcase other games, because the local operators know perfectly well that people are buying the console to play many more titles that those officially available….