Iwata on China: I'd tap that
by Candace Savino 
{ Oct 26th 2007 at 9:00PM }
Okay, so maybe that was a bit of a paraphrase, but Nintendo President Satoru Iwata revealed the company's plans to sell Wii consoles in China next year. Although Wii hardware is currently available in China, all systems are imported unofficially or distributed through third parties. Nintendo thus wants to start official distribution soon.
According to Iwata, Nintendo's first priority is to meet the demand of existing markets, but he recognizes the potential in tapping the Chinese market. That makes a bit of sense, seeing how China has a population of OVER A BILLION.
We do wonder, however, if Nintendo will be able to compete with the already existing option for cheap, pirated Wii consoles in China. Unless Nintendo can introduce cheaper systems into the market, or get rid of the existing piracy, folks might be swayed to buy the mod-chipped consoles that play both U.S. and Japanese games. Even with piracy, though, we're sure that Nintendo will move plenty of systems in China and make even more money.
According to Iwata, Nintendo's first priority is to meet the demand of existing markets, but he recognizes the potential in tapping the Chinese market. That makes a bit of sense, seeing how China has a population of OVER A BILLION.
We do wonder, however, if Nintendo will be able to compete with the already existing option for cheap, pirated Wii consoles in China. Unless Nintendo can introduce cheaper systems into the market, or get rid of the existing piracy, folks might be swayed to buy the mod-chipped consoles that play both U.S. and Japanese games. Even with piracy, though, we're sure that Nintendo will move plenty of systems in China and make even more money.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
SushiPillow @ Oct 27th 2007 9:15AM
What about Israel? :(
Magnus @ Oct 27th 2007 1:36PM
This sounds like the PS2 release in Argentina, where it was very successful because of piracy, so Sony started to sell the console since 2006. I really hope Nintendo makes an official launch here, as thanks to the unofficial releases in big stores, people buy the Wii for about 1000 dollars...
(01) @ Oct 28th 2007 2:42PM
Are you serious? Why would I buy one when I'm rocking a Vii AND a Wu? Seriously people, if you're going to compete at least release something that's better than the competition :-)
Jamar0303 @ Oct 29th 2007 8:47PM
Heh- love to see them try to compete officially. They released the DS in China with a library of only 10 games. Naturally, fan-translations of the others were made and spread around, and sales of flashcarts grew.
They better not make the same mistake with the Wii. I have a Wii with pirated games because the vendors have a generous no-questions-asked return policy, and they have discs with emulators and old games bundled in so that I don't have to do all that work. Also, there's a 60-fold price difference between genuine and pirated games- which are people going to choose (not to mention a lot less friendly return policy on the genuine games)?
SushiPillow @ Oct 31st 2007 1:55PM
I buy Wii games online and my dad brings them when he goes on business trips to the U.S. It's tiring waiting months for games because of the stupid taxes here that make imported games have a 100% markup. I'm starting to seriously consider pirating.