A year has passed. How should we evaluate the Chinese version of XBOX ONE/PS4?

Being able to buy XBOX and PlayStation game consoles through regular channels in the country was simply unimaginable a few years ago.

The year 2015, which is about to pass, can definitely be regarded as a turning point for the recovery of the game console industry in China. The Microsoft XBOX ONE, which landed in China last year, finally faced its true rival, the Sony PS4, in March, and the battle for the next-generation consoles in China officially kicked off.

However, a year has passed, is reality really as good as originally expected?

Microsoft burst into tears after 500,000 units sold

Not long ago, Oriental Pearl, the Chinese partner of XBOX ONE and PS4, said that the number of console users in China has reached 500,000, which sounds like a pretty good result. What's interesting is that the sales volume of PS4 consoles exceeded 410,000. At this point, one can imagine how Microsoft feels.

In fact, such a result is not surprising, because it has long been an indisputable fact that PS4 sells better than XBOX ONE in almost all regions of the world where game consoles are sold.

Judging from the product itself, the PS4 combines more powerful performance with Sony's usual high-level design, and the exclusive games are more attractive. In addition, the Chinese version of the XBOX ONE is also plagued by Chinese "characteristics" such as the game interface not supporting Traditional Chinese and difficulty in running across servers, causing the sales gap between the two consoles to further widen in China.

The two consoles are not sure about the journey of the Chinese market.

By utilizing the system's "backup and restore" function, the Chinese version of the PS4 can indeed be "washed" into the Hong Kong version. However, this can only be regarded as increasing the number of users for the PS4 Hong Kong service by using the Chinese version of the console. Therefore, in terms of the true Chinese version, the efforts of Sony and Microsoft over the past year are actually the same.

The doubts faced by the Chinese version of XBOX ONE are certainly more serious. Not to mention the uncompetitive price, we are all under the same sky as the Chinese nation, so why don’t you support Traditional Chinese?

Just when many users were pinning their last hopes on the Win10 system update, on November 12, the Chinese XBOX ONE finally caught up with the pace of foreign system upgrades. However, not only did it fail to welcome the much-anticipated Traditional Chinese font library, but it also lost the "Game Center" for non-Chinese games, causing the Chinese console to be unable to view details a second time after unlocking the achievements of the international version of the game, and the "machine smashing" storm on the Internet intensified.

So, the performance of the Chinese version of the PS4 is much better? Judging from the games Sony currently provides to Chinese players, it may not be optimistic either.

The racing masterpiece "Driveclub" is indeed a real "photo-level" work, but apart from that, looking at other types of games for the Chinese PS4, "Knack", "Journey", and "Tearaway: Unwrapped" are just lightweight games priced at more than 100 yuan in Hong Kong. The well-respected "Toukiden: Kiwami" and "Gravity Rush Remastered" are just derivative products of the PSV handheld platform. On the contrary, "Forza Motorsport 5", "Halo: The Master Chief Collection", and "NBA 2K15" that can be played on the Chinese XBOX ONE are more worthy of the title of masterpieces.

One is that it is not friendly enough to the unlocked overseas version of the game discs, and the other is that it does not seem to care about the introduction of major games at all. We are certainly not satisfied with such a domestic game console.

The Chinese consoles are weak, but domestic console players do not need to be educated

In early December, an XBOX ONE fan meeting for domestic fans and media was held in Beijing. In addition to inviting some developers who have nothing to do with the content of the Chinese console, the view of Xie Enwei, head of XBOX China, that "Chinese players need to be educated" also caused a stir, with a tone of "city people looking down on country people".

The reason for "Chinese players need to be educated" is nothing more than the PC platform. Chinese people like to play games for free and with a strong tendency to crack, which is incompatible with the concept of deep legalization of game consoles. In addition, the development gap of game consoles in China for more than ten years makes Microsoft's head feel that Chinese players may not even understand what XBOX is.

But the reality that cannot be ignored is that even in China, especially for those born in the 1980s and 1990s with strong purchasing power, XBOX or PlaySation is really not a new thing. The "XYAB" and "triangle block" on the handles are always familiar to domestic core players. Because of the existence of online purchasing agents, many players got the next-generation equipment before the domestic consoles were released. Even the current generation of PS3/XBOX360 consoles are not rare and precious. It is also because of such special sales channels that 3A masterpieces such as "Call of Duty", "Assassin's Creed" and "Tomb Raider", which the domestic console distributors cannot provide to Chinese players, will not disappear from the screens of domestic players, and the players pay the price of the games.

Moreover, judging from the data of a discussion community called Baidu Tieba alone, the PS4 forum has over 420,000 followers, and the XBOX ONE forum has nearly 130,000. The total number of users even exceeds the annual sales of consoles in China, not including the population covered by other gaming forums. As for the XBOX ONE and PS4 consoles, which have never been cracked or pirated, can you say that tens or hundreds of millions of Chinese people can't figure out the situation?

In the final analysis, compared with the mature game console market overseas, the problem with domestic game consoles still lies in "console" and "games". Microsoft, which has already used a large number of "mobile games" to fool domestic players, is obviously inappropriate to throw out such a statement at this time. After all, this "pot" is obviously not something that players should bear.

Audit issues have become a huge mountain. How long can the "cheating" methods last?

Sony, which believes in "everything for players", did not impose any restrictions on game discs that can be run on the optical drive when the PS4 in China was first launched. Seeing its old rival use its "trump card", Microsoft immediately unlocked the optical drive of the XBOX ONE in China. Frankly speaking, this move played a decisive role in the annual sales of the console in China, which ultimately reached "tens of thousands" rather than "hundreds" or "thousands".

Unlocking the optical drive of domestic consoles is by no means 100% compliant with the regulations of relevant departments. This "cheating" method can please both players and console manufacturers, but there is still a big gap between the actual effect of player use and the official introduction of major game titles.

The role of game discs on next-generation consoles is increasingly becoming a tool for identity authentication. Although domestic consoles can provide data updates for international versions of games, non-domestic game discs running on domestic consoles can only present the game itself to players. It is impossible to enjoy DLC and other subsequent content downloaded through the device store.

Is DLC important? Just look at the upcoming DLC ​​Baba Yaga: Temple Witcher for the limited-time exclusive Tomb Raider Rise of the XBOX ONE and the DLC The Old Hunter for the PS4 exclusive Bloodborne, and you'll know that it's no exaggeration to call the DLC of a large game an independent new game, and today's game developers' enthusiasm for DLC is hard to diminish.

Therefore, in a country where the Wi-Fi module was castrated when the Apple iPhone was first introduced, the possibility of a console game masterpiece that slightly stimulates the senses passing censorship is bound to be very small. Simply unlocking the optical drive of the domestic console will only lead to louder and louder complaints from players over time.

Will the situation get better if we wait?

Although there are still not many people who will recommend the Chinese version of the XBOX ONE or PS4 console to you, things are still trying to move in a good direction.

Microsoft, which has been busy with game review, has officially stated that it will never bring only one game in the series to Chinese players, hinting that "Forza Motorsport 6" and "Halo 5" will have Chinese XBOX ONE versions. Sony has made a good start with "Gravity Rush Remastered", and for the first time achieved synchronization between the Chinese version of the PS4 game and the international version.

Unfortunately, waiting has become a big problem again. For XBOX ONE, what we are waiting for is a blockbuster game that has been on the market overseas for several months. Even so, there is still no definite news about its launch in China. As for PS4, we finally have a game that will be released simultaneously. So when will we be ready to release a 3A blockbuster simultaneously?

Of course, experienced players may not have these worries. The channels for purchasing overseas versions of consoles in China are so convenient. Compared with the potential possibility of the domestic consoles "collecting dust", there is no reason to worry about the two-year warranty.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.