Xbox One and the Middle Kingdom

by Piyoz on May 3rd, 2014

For the first time in my life, my hobby of video games and my intense studies in the modern culture of the People’s Republic of China have intersected. As of the end of this summer, the Chinese Communist Party (the country’s single political force) and president Xi Jinping began to implement the end of a nation-wide ban on video game consoles. Yes, since the year 2000, the sale of video game machines within Chinese borders was forbidden.

That doesn’t mean there weren’t consoles in China anyway. During my time in Beijing, I played my friends’ PlayStation 3 profusely. I walked through toy markets and tech hubs where piles of counterfeit and illegal Xboxes, PlayStation, and Wii consoles lined shelves. And they were cheap, too. It’s pretty clear that Chinese consumers wants these consoles, and are willing to part with their low wages to obtain them. The Chinese Communist Party and foreign game companies have realized this. And now it begins.

The marketing of video game entertainment to one eighth of the human race.

At the front of the charge is Microsoft. Their ultimate weapon? The Xbox One. Their new console and media center is gaining ground in North America and Europe. Microsoft must have seen this consumer base of hundreds of millions and decided to dive in. After all, black market Xbox 360’s with Kinect sell like hotcakes in Chinese electronics markets. Why not market legit Xbox Ones? The audience clearly exists.

Here are a few tips for Microsoft. And for any other company that wants to sell games and tech in the Middle Kingdom. From a guy who’s been there and seen things. Here are a few pointers to keep in mind.

Censorship:

It’s no secret to anyone that the Chinese government keeps tabs on what its people say, write, listen to, and watch. The Ministry of Culture has a list of qualities that all movies, television, music, video games, and whatnot must possess in order to be allowed in China. The details are vague. You can’t depict sex or nudity, gambling, drug use, or anything of that sort. You cannot depict China and its way of life in a negative way. The depiction of spiritualism and mysticism is forbidden, too. Like I said, it’s all sort of vague.

And elastic. That mysticism part? That’s supposedly the reason for banning Dota 2 and Legend of Zelda. However, Harry Potter movies and Lord of the Rings are permitted. Those are all about magic! Magic spells and curses and all that jazz! Sure, it’s against the Party’s rules, but the Party figures they could make some good business by bending these rules, so they did.

This doesn’t, however, apply to politics. Battlefield 4 is on the no-fly list in China because of its villainous depiction of Communist China in one of its campaigns. Fair enough, I suppose. Then why is Red Alert 2 given the green light? That game makes a mockery of Communist China! Again, this rule is bent because all builds of Red Alert 2 in China are given a custom faction called the People’s Liberation Army. (Google it. I don’t feel like giving a history lesson.) But I’ve played it myself. It’s broken as hell. Basically, this game is allowed because it’s modded to be uber-patriotic.

In short, if Microsoft wants to sell the Xbox One in mainland China, they’re going to have to make sure that nothing they want to market there will offend the Communist Party’s censors. Or else they’re all out of luck.

Social Media:

One of the features of the Xbox One is its capability as an all-around media box. Besides video games, you can chat with Skype, use social media outlets, and stream movies and television right to your screen. Pretty convenient if you live in the US or Europe. Not so much if you live in China.

A lot of those media outlets (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter) are banned in China. In order to keep the appeal of a media machine, Microsoft will have to adapt their software to use services available in China. Like Renren, AiQiYi, Weibo, QQ, and Youku, among others. China made their own versions of Facebook, YouTube, and MySpace to fit their own Orwellian needs. If Microsoft can accommodate that, then they really have it in with Chinese media companies. And believe me, those media companies have money.

Language:

I don’t mean the interface. I am questioning whether or not the Xbox One will use voice recognition on the Kinect for Chinese users. Here’s my worry.

Word on the street is that at present Xbox Ones have trouble detecting different accents of English. I hear that Irish accents don’t always comply. And, for example, what do they do in France? Are French Xbox Ones designed to only detect European French accents? What about people from Quebec? And French Africa? And Haiti? This problem would be a hundred times worse in China.

The consoles in question would be manufactured in the Shanghai free trade zone. The accent in Shanghai is noticeably different from that of Beijing, from Wuhan, from Taiwan, and from Hong Kong and Macau. There’s such a wide gap in language there. I’m not sure how Microsoft could make voice recognition software for such a linguistically diverse country. Maybe they’ll eighty-six the idea entirely. I honestly don’t know.

Hip Youth Market:

For Microsoft to successfully sell the Xbox One in China, they really only need to take note of one thing. I mean, censorship, language, manufacturing, and everything else is important. But from a marketing aspect, there’s really only one thing that Microsoft needs to do. And they’re already doing it.

You know what’s big in China? Action movies. Whether it’s Marvel or DC, Star Trek or Transformers, big-budget Western action movies clean house. Pretty CGI and special effects aside, it’s not only the spectacle that sells it. It’s the fact that it’s foreign and new.

Know what else is popular? McDonald’s. KFC. Pizza Hut. These restaurants are loaded every day of the week with young Chinese people who want something different from the same old pork dumplings and white rice. Burgers! Milk shakes! Pizza! What seems so mundane to us is revolutionary to them.

Action movies and fast food have one thing in common: they’re new. They’re edgey. They’re Western. They’re hip and unique. They’re prettier, cleaner, and more exciting than the same old, grungy, gray Chinese stuff that’s been around for decades. Chinese youth belong to a generation of one-child families in an economy with a growing middle class. Every young person is looking for new trending fashion, goods, and media to consume that shove out the old China of yore and embrace a new, globalized culture.

The Xbox One is, in my opinion, right on the brink of scratching this itch. At this point, things like media integration and game selection are secondary. The Xbox One will sell like hotcakes by virtue of being Western. It really has little to do with video games.

This is a country where people will move into smaller apartments to afford better smartphones to show off to their friends. Really, they do that. People want this tech, this food, and these clothes as status symbols. They want to show how trendy and modern they are. The Avengers, Burger King, and Converse shoes exploded because they hit these right notes. I see no reason why Microsoft can’t do the same with the Xbox One. No other game console has been able to do this because of the ban. Now the Communist Party has opened the doors. That’s not to say that Nintendo and Sony won’t get a share of the pie, too. I just don’t foresee them taking too big a bite in Microsoft’s cake.

The only problem I could foresee is the issue of piracy. Yeah, Chinese gamers aren’t used to actually paying for software. Piracy is more or less the norm for acquiring video games. Will this affect this new market? It’s tough to say right now. Assuming the price isn’t too high and Chinese social media can be used, I don’t see much stopping the success of the Xbox One in China.

There you are, Microsoft. Now don’t screw this up like you did in Japan.

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