China has a ban on selling video games?????

[90snostalga]

I had no idea that game systems and games cannot be sold in china.  According to this article, they have finally lifted the ban:


http://finance.yahoo.com/news/china-suspends-ban-sale-foreign-064118149.html

Anyone else know that they had a ban or am i the only one?

[matt]

Yeah this was one of the reasons piracy and bootlegging is such a big deal in China. There are still loads of games but nothing is official.

[Oheao]

Yeah, and it sucks. I would really love practising my Chinese with some console games. However, even without the ban, censorship would probably be really high.

[MJMaranan]

I thought the suspension was lifted prior(?) to the release of PS4.  Or was that some kind of proposition at the time?  At the time, I thought the ban was created to make the people of China increase the support and purchase of their domestic products.  If I remember correctly, I think there was even a Chinese counterpart to the Wii.  From the article, it's stating a different point that I thought I knew.

Thanks for sharing this article, 90snostalga!

[karyann]

Seems like there's already some benefit to the ban lifting, or at least on Nintendo's side; their stock has increased a lot!

http://www.nintendonews.com/2014/01/china-lifts-13-year-gaming-ban-nintendo-stock-reaches-two-year-high/