The president of Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) Shanghai Tatsuo Eguchi and Vice Chairman Soeda Takehito have announced that Sony China will be officially launcing the PlayStation 5 in Mainland China during the Second Quarter of 2021, confirmed in a special Chinese New Year greetings video that was shared on Twitter.
The imminent arrival of the PS5 in China has hardly been a secret, as Sony successfully obtained certification to sell its new console there (both the standard disc-based and digital editions) in December. Software certified for release in China has to be approved on a case-by-case basis however, which in part explains the significant delay of the console’s release in that country compared to other regions of the world. Late as it might seem, the official launch cannot come soon enough for the majority of Chinese console gamers, as the only option for securing a PS5 in China currently is to import one from countries such as the United States or Japan, which are often accompanied by markup costs of up to three or four times the console’s MSRP.
Video game analyst Daniel Ahmad, who originally shared the video, also chimed in with his thoughts, suggesting that the convenience of being able to buy a PS5 in China at a fair market price would likely come with a large but not completely unexpected caveat, namely a region lock for online services and features.
China is not the only country that has been waiting months after the rest of the world for the PS5 to reach its shores. Just last week, India finally saw the PS5 Disc Edition arrive (and completely sell right off retail shelves) on February 2nd, while the Digital Edition has yet to become available. Conversely, the PlayStation 5’s rival consoles, the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, have been available for sale in India since their worldwide launch but are not available in China yet, despite also having been certified for sale in the country as far back as December.