Nintendo Switch is going to be made available in China, thanks to its newly acquired partner, Tencent.
The authorities in Guangdong Province gave Tencent the green light to sell Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe test versions, according to a report from Reuters. There has been no confirmed date as to when the distribution will begin, but other games aside from Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe are also on the way to China to undergo the approval process. Nintendo told Kotaku in an email that the company “will explain this matter further when we are at the stage where we can talk about it.”
China is known for their strict market guidelines. Before a game or console can enter this country, it needs to go through a very thorough process wherein it is checked by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and approved by the State Administration of Press and Publication. In fact, consoles were banned from entering China until the year 2014.
Nintendo just might make a breakthrough, since they have many family friendly games like the Mario franchise. Many of PlayStation and Xbox's major releases don't pass China’s regulations.
However, the Chinese fans of the Switch can’t celebrate just yet. Daniel Ahmad, an analyst at Niko Partner, spoke in an interview with GameDaily and said, “Nintendo is currently going through the approval process and whilst the news today is a positive sign, the company still needs to receive approval from China’s Certification Commission…. Nintendo and Tencent will also need to submit each game for approval in China and ensure the games comply with content regulations. This too is a lengthy process and means that it will take some time before Nintendo can build up a large library of official games in China.”
We’ll find out if Nintendo Switch will succeed in catching the attention of the people in China who are used to playing games via PC and mobile phones. Will they be able to soar or will they follow in the footsteps of PlayStation and Xbox?
