I’ll be honest, to really get a handle on what was going on with the game console “ban” in China I had to sit down with everything in front of me and take a few moments to actually figure out what was what. There is a lot of information floating around right now about the bill that was signed into legislation in 2000 and now more pertaining to them apparently considering rolling back that law. It appears that everything isn’t that cut and dry, that it is actually really a strange law that has some interesting loopholes and might not be going anywhere.
Strange, right?
According to a report from Engadget, the law was originally put into place to ban game arcades in China, the primary focus to keep kids out of trouble. It should be noted that importing game consoles is strictly limited, but not prohibited, which is some really interesting wording to take into account. It is entirely possible to acquire a game console in China, it just isn’t easy. In fact, Sony was able to launch the PS2 in a few cities back in 2004, proving that clever wording can skirt around the law.
So the “news” is that those reports floating around about the ban possibly being lifted was just a rumor and that they actually aren’t considering lifting said ban, although it isn’t a ban. Confused yet?
