China to allow game console sales across whole country, report says

Chinese authorities have decided to allow the sale of video game consoles across their whole country, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. If this enables players to fully adopt the machines in the world’s largest game market, then it could be a significant boost for the entire game industry.

After a 14-year ban, China had previously begun allowing the sale of consoles such as Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 last year. But sales were restricted to Shanghai’s economic development zone.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.