Microsoft: Along With Xbox 360, Policy Restrictions Block Kinect In China

Author: by Staff

Like the Xbox 360 itself, Microsoft's upcoming Kinect motion control device for the console will not hit retail shelves in China when it launches this fall, the company's Chinese division said this week. According to a SinoCast Daily Business Beat report, Microsoft China COO Michel Van Der Be said the peripheral is the latest game hardware release to fall prey to China's Ministry of Culture edict issued in 2000, prohibiting the sale of video game equipment and accessories. Van Der Ber did not indicate whether Microsoft would appeal the ban, but said the company intends to cooperate with local laws. There are very few instances of legally-available game consoles to buy in China, although Nintendo has made some inroads. In late 2003, the Chinese joint venture iQue released the iQue Player, a console based on Nintendo 64 hardware. iQue has also distributed a number of Nintendo portables in the territory, and Nintendo has indicated its intent to sell the Wii there. Despite the ban, China hosts a significant "grey market" for game consoles, and according to a 2007 Gamasutra interview with Niko Partners analyst Niko Hanson, Xbox 360 was at the time this generation's leader among those channels.