CHINA’S Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group Co. and Sony Corp. will set up two joint ventures to make and market Sony’s PlayStation games console in China, as the Japanese firm seeks its first foothold in a promising but challenging market.

    Shanghai Oriental Pearl said yesterday that Sony will have a 49 percent stake in one venture and 70 percent in the other. The ventures, which will be set up by a subsidiary of Shanghai Oriental Pearl and by Sony’s China arm, will be located in the Shanghai free trade zone.

    One joint venture will be responsible for the console’s hardware, while the other will be focused on software.

    Last September, China scrapped a ban on the sale of videogame consoles in the country that has been in place for more than a decade and said that foreign companies can sell consoles and games if they operate within the free trade zone in Shanghai.

    Microsoft Corp. in the same month invested US$237 million in a joint venture with BesTV New Media to develop games within the zone.

    But China is likely to be a difficult market for games consoles. The Chinese gaming market is very different to traditional console markets like Japan, Europe and the United States as Chinese gamers predominantly play PC and mobile games.

    Chinese games developers and publishers have also adopted a “free to play” model where games are free and they make money by selling in-game upgrades like extra lives and special weapons. Games consoles traditionally make their money from the sale of the console and games themselves. (SD-Agencies)