Sony lines up new games for Chinese gamers
Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony’s Worldwide Studios for SCE introduces Project Morpheus HMD, the company’s latest virtual reality (VR) gear, during a press event held on July 29, 2015 in Shanghai.
A series of new games for Sony’s PlayStation 4, PS Vita and virtual reality device Project Morpheus debuted Wednesday at ChinaJoy 2015 in Shanghai.
More than 70 new games will be launched in the Chinese market for PS 4 video game consoles in the coming month, Sony announced.
ChinaJoy, or China Digital Entertainment Expo & Conference, is the largest gaming and digital entertainment exhibition held in the Chinese mainland.
Sony debuted its game console PlayStation 4 in 2013, and started selling the Chinese version on March 20 this year.
Priced at 2,899 yuan ($468) for the basic package and 3,299 yuan for a console plus a camera, the PlayStation Eye, the products are available at Sony Store, Tmall.com and JD.com.
It is the second foreign console allowed to enter the Chinese market after Microsoft launched its Xbox One in late September.
A new rule that allows both foreign and domestic gaming console makers to manufacture and sell their devices anywhere in the country was announced last week, according to a statement from the Ministry of Culture.
Due to government officials’ concern over objectionable content, China in 2000 banned gaming consoles via a moratorium. As a result, Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony, three of the world’s largest video game console makers, were shut out of China’s lucrative video game industry.
In 2014, the country limited foreign console makers to operations within the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in 2014.
Industrial insiders believe that such series of progressive policies could shake up the domestic gaming sector.
According to the working committee of China’s audiovisual, digital publishing and game publishing association, in 2014, the sales volume of China’s gaming market reached 114.48 billion yuan, up 37.7 percent year-on-year.
In the first half of 2015, the number reached 60.51 billion yuan, up 21.9 percent year-on-year. Since last year, overseas sales volume reached 1.76 billion yuan, reflecting a rapid growth of 121.4 percent.
A model poses with Project Morpheus HMD, Sony’s latest virtual reality (VR) gear, during a press event held on July 29, 2015 in Shanghai.
Project Morpheus head-mounted display (HMD)
Shuhei Yoshida, president of Sony’s Worldwide Studios, brought Project Morpheus HMD, the company’s latest virtual reality (VR) gear, to the press event to demonstrate their Chinese strategies.
VR, also known as computer-simulated life, first appeared in science fiction in the1950’s, and was developed for medical use, pilot simulation and military training in the 1990’s.
The entire industry began to draw the public’s attention as a developer kit named Oculus Rift, which was the first truly immersive VR headset for video games. It was initially mooted on the US crowd-funding platform Kickstarter by 9,522 backers who pledged more than $2 million.
Sony unveiled their bold VR gamble to the world at the Game Developers Conference in March 2014.
During the Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, held in Los Angeles this year, more than 20 demos designed for Project Morpheus were unveiled to the public.
“Summer Lesson”, “The Deep”, “The Playroom VR” and “Hatsune Miku Expo” will be demonstrated at the ChinaJoy PlayStation booth and visitors will have the chance to experience the Project Morpheus on the spot.
“Many people think that Project Morpheus is an accessory to PS4; the truth is that Project Morpheus is a new system, and both happen to work well together,” Yoshida said during a group interview after the press event.
“Project Morpheus is still at version one, Sony is trying its best to bring the product to the fans, we are testing internationally, to make sure the product is improving,” he said.
Sony announced at Game Developers Conference 2015 that Morpheus’ consumer VR headset is due to ship in Q1 2016.
Yoshida said that the global launch time will the same, but he didn’t give a specific date and he also mentioned that the device’s price has not been confirmed.
According to Yoshida, PC games can be migrated to Project Morpheus. He noted one example, saying that after refined and optimized the code, a user migrated Oculus games to Project Morpheus within just two days.
Sony London Studios’ Director Dave Ranyard, whose team is working heavily with the PS VR headset Project Morpheus, believes that VR HMDs could become the ‘technological icon of the age’, similar to Sony’s Walkman in the 1980’s and smartphones in today.