PlayStation in China: Price Cuts, PS5 Pro Launch and Pricing. What to Expect...
Sony continues its heavy marketing push in China.
PS5 price cuts in China for the upcoming "11/11 festival" are currently underway. “Double 11”, or “Single’s Day” as it is colloquially referred to in China, is the biggest sales day in the country. Sort of like Black Friday, but on a much bigger scale.
Approx US$390 for the PS5 Slim digital-only (US price: $440), with different bundles and even PSVR2 getting discounts. People will even be able to buy in 12 months with no interest fees!
A reminder that these Chinese officially licensed SKUs are still competing with imported consoles that are widely available in Mainland China (mostly coming from Hong Kong and Japan).
While imported models are slightly more expensive (a variation of $20 to $50 depending on the region they come from), they are as easily available to Chinese consumers as the national models. Countless* online sellers on China’s most popular e-commerce platforms sell both the Chinese SKUs and imported ones side by side. The notion that imported models are unconditionally region-free still represents enough of a pull to make them extremely competitive against licensed ones.
Of notice, Infinity Nikki is being heavily promoted as well. The game from Chinese studio Papergames is set to release on PS5 sometime later this year or earlier 2025.
While the IP is already huge in some regions of Asia, it is still fairly unknown in most of the world. This new game will be the first in the series to have a fully-fledged high-production-value console version released.
I'll say, I don't think people realize how big this game will be. Sure, the IP is gigantic already in some markets, but its reach is still very much geo-specific. I think Infinity has a very good chance of becoming an unexpected global hit once it releases.
Push Square also reported on this following a tweet of mine by the way. I’m very grateful for them noticing my content. Check their page and follow them if you can.
PS5 Pro in China
The PS5 Pro costs approx US$1000 in China, for now.
The new model is not yet officially available/announced in the country, therefore all currently available models will be imported from Hong Kong and Japan (mostly) into Mainland China, for the foreseeable future. Availability will not be an issue.
As it almost always happens in China, whenever some piece of gaming (hardware, games, services...) is not officially available, it is still widely and easily accessible through online sellers on the country's biggest e-commerce platforms. Same for the PS5 Pro.
It is expected that a licensed Chinese PS5 Pro model will be made available eventually (as the PS5/Slim and their SKUS are). While the Chinese model isn't available however, the market totally belongs to the many sellers who have well-established import distribution channels.
Yes, there are some variations in pricing depending on different sellers/stores. Generally, prices are somewhere between $950 and $1000.
Will demand for the Pro model be high in China? No different from most other markets, I presume. When all is said and done by the end of this console generation (2028/29?), I expect roughly between 15% to 40% of the PS5 install-base in China to be composed of Pro models (including licensed and importe models combined).
*I never counted them, but I’m sure there’s actually a finite amount.
PS: I realize I’ve written disproportionally in “favor” of PlayStation/Sony on this platform, quantitatively speaking. It is not a matter of personal favoritism. It is simply circumstantial.
In fact, the Nintendo Switch continues to be the console with the largest presence in China (by my estimations), with Sony’s consoles in second, and then Microsoft’s Xbox Series. While Nintendo’s presence is strong in the territory, Sony is far more active in marketing its gaming brand in the territory, as well as pushing for more partnerships and development of PlayStation games by Chinese studios. Naturally, more topics of interest rise up for me to write about PlayStation in this content.
If anyone is curious, I own all consoles, and use my Series X the most, as it is my main console for multiplatform titles and Game Pass.
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