Perfect World CEO still believes game consoles can succeed in China

SHANGHAI — Robert Xiao, chief executive of Perfect World, made bets last year on the launch of Microsoft’s Xbox One and Sony’s PlayStation 4 game consoles in China. Those consoles didn’t do as well as expected, but Xiao said in an interview with GamesBeat at the ChinaJoy game trade show in Shanghai last week that he is still optimistic about the long-term success for the machines.

Xiao’s opinion matters. While there are more than 100 online game companies operating in China, Beijing-based Perfect World is a big one. In 2014, Perfect World reported net income of $73.5 million on revenues of $619.4 million. The company has more than 5,000 employees, and its success is built online game worlds such as Perfect World and the recently launched Neverwinter title from Perfect World’s U.S. subsidiary, Cryptic Studios.