China Reviewing Game Consoles Ban

jones_supa writes "The Chinese government is discussing whether to lift its 12-year ban on game consoles which was established due to fear of harming the physical and mental development of the young. Even during this period consoles have been sold illegally and things like Kinect can be sold for other purposes such as medical treatment and education. Major game console vendors across the world made several attempts but failed to find a way to enter the Chinese mainland market officially, even though they have solid manufacturing bases there. 'We are reviewing the policy and have conducted some surveys and held discussions with other ministries on the possibility of opening up the game console market,' a source from the Ministry of Culture, who asked not to be named, said."

Please don't

[crazyjj]

You're one of the few enemies we can still put into our video games without any real backlash. If you start exerting the kind of leverage over our console makers and developers that you exert over our movie studios [yahoo.com], then all we're going to be left with are North Korea, Iran, and a few of them stan countries. And even the stan countries are starting to bitch [foxnews.com].

They are readily available, if you really want one

[moondawg14]

I currently live in Beijing. I can have a new console in my living room in less than a half an hour. They're for sale in every major market here. And not really marked up much more than the US price. It was a piece of cake to get a 220V power supply for the Wii when we moved. I think I got it for 40 kuai (about $6) Sure, they'd sell a ton more of them if I could go to Gomez or Sunning..... but the "ban" is surely not keeping them out. Like most regulations here... not enforced at all... or selectively at best.