By Eric Pfanner
TOKYO--The sale of Sony Corp.'s PlayStation 4 videogame consoles
in China was delayed following "a request from the authorities to
make an adjustment to the business plan," the head of the company's
game division said Friday.
Andrew House, president of Sony Computer Entertainment, said in
an interview that the delay, announced Thursday, had nothing to do
with a recent cyberattack against the company's movie arm, or a
separate attack against the PlayStation Network that caused service
disruptions over Christmas.
"It's completely not associated with any of those issues or
indeed any kind of Japan-China relations," he said. Sony intended
to begin selling PS4 in China this month, and Mr. House declined to
provide a new start date.
The delay, he said, would not affect Sony's joint venture, with
Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group, to make PS4 consoles for the Chinese
market. Instead, he said, the setback involved the "go-to-market
strategy" for PS4, without specifying.
Beijing dropped a 14-year ban on console sales last year.
Chinese censors require game producers to tone down violence, sex,
drug use or other content that is deemed to be antisocial, creating
challenges for foreign game developers.
Sony's archrival, Microsoft Corp., also ran into a slight delay
when it began selling its Xbox One in China in September. Mr. House
said he was confident that the snag would be resolved shortly. The
delay, he added, will not affect the company's overall sales
expectations for PS4 this year.
PS4 has gotten off to a strong start, with sales of 18.5 million
units worldwide in little more than a year, including 4.1 million
during the holiday season, Sony said earlier this week. The strong
Christmas sales followed price cuts in the U.S. and some other
markets by Microsoft, which gave Xbox a boost as the season got
under way.
While holiday sales in the U.S. and Japan were in line with
expectations, Mr. House said, PS4 enjoyed "stellar" sales in
Europe, especially in Germany. Long a laggard in console games,
Germany has moved into second place in Europe, after Britain, in
PS4 sales, he said.
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