Sony to Nintendo Mull China’s Console Market as Ban Lifted

January 8, 2014 Leave a comment

Sony to Nintendo Mull China’s Console Market as Ban Lifted

China lifted a 13-year ban on gaming consoles and will draft rules allowing the machines to be made in the new Shanghai free-trade zone, potentially opening the door for Sony Corp. to Nintendo Co. (7974) to enter the market.China’s ruling State Council temporarily suspended the ban while new rules are drafted, the council said in a statement posted to its website yesterday.

“China mainland is an attractive market,” said Satoshi Nakajima, a Tokyo-based spokesman for Sony’s game unit, which sold 2.1 million of its PlayStation 4 units as of early December since it went on sale Nov. 15. “We will seek to expand when there is an opportunity.”

Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo is studying what it can do in the Shanghai free-trade zone, according to Yasuhiro Minagawa, a company spokesman. He declined to elaborate.

Consoles such as Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)’s Xbox 360, Nintendo’s Wii U and Sony’s PS were banned under a 2000 rule to protect youths from the perceived corrupting influence of video games. China had announced last year that the ban would be lifted within the Shanghai free-trade zone, which opened in September.

Microsoft and BesTV New Media Co., a subsidiary of Shanghai Media Group, in September said they formed a $79 million gaming venture to take advantage of the new rules.

BesTV shares today rose 8.4 percent to close at 40.28 yuan, the biggest gain since Sept. 30.

To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Edmond Lococo in Beijing at elococo@bloomberg.net

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Kee Koon Boon (“KB”) is the co-founder and director of HERO Investment Management which provides specialized fund management and investment advisory services to the ARCHEA Asia HERO Innovators Fund (www.heroinnovator.com), the only Asian SMID-cap tech-focused fund in the industry. KB is an internationally featured investor rooted in the principles of value investing for over a decade as a fund manager and analyst in the Asian capital markets who started his career at a boutique hedge fund in Singapore where he was with the firm since 2002 and was also part of the core investment committee in significantly outperforming the index in the 10-year-plus-old flagship Asian fund. He was also the portfolio manager for Asia-Pacific equities at Korea’s largest mutual fund company. Prior to setting up the H.E.R.O. Innovators Fund, KB was the Chief Investment Officer & CEO of a Singapore Registered Fund Management Company (RFMC) where he is responsible for listed Asian equity investments. KB had taught accounting at the Singapore Management University (SMU) as a faculty member and also pioneered the 15-week course on Accounting Fraud in Asia as an official module at SMU. KB remains grateful and honored to be invited by Singapore’s financial regulator Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to present to their top management team about implementing a world’s first fact-based forward-looking fraud detection framework to bring about benefits for the capital markets in Singapore and for the public and investment community. KB also served the community in sharing his insights in writing articles about value investing and corporate governance in the media that include Business Times, Straits Times, Jakarta Post, Manual of Ideas, Investopedia, TedXWallStreet. He had also presented in top investment, banking and finance conferences in America, Italy, Sydney, Cape Town, HK, China. He has trained CEOs, entrepreneurs, CFOs, management executives in business strategy & business model innovation in Singapore, HK and China.

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