Microsoft Co and BesTV New Media Co, a subsidiary of Shanghai Media Group, have joined together to for a video game venture to capitalize on proposed free-trade rules that would end the 13-year ban on imported consoles in China.
The $79 million gaming venture was announced by BesTV New Media Co on September 23rd to Shanghai's stock exchange. BesTV will invest $40.29 million for a 51 percent stake in the venture while Microsoft will invest the remaining $38.71 million. After the announcement, BesTV surged past the 10 percent limit to 51.11 yuan in trading. With the ban in place, consoles such as Microsoft's Xbox systems, Nintendo's Wii consoles, and the PlayStation systems were banned in China in 2000. The ban was put in place to protect Chinese youth from the perceived corrupting influence of video games. The youths instead turned to online gaming like "League of Legends" to get their fill of video games. The ban will end when Shanghai's free-trade zone opens on September 29th, allowing systems to be liberalized.
Though the venture was quoted at $79 million, the investment from both BesTV and Microsoft will most likely reach $237 million. Joanna Li, a Beijing-based spokeswoman for Microsoft said, "This is the first step of many to come for Microsoft and BesTV and we look forward to exploring new opportunities for bringing entertainment offerings to China." Some of these offerings will include new games and gaming-related products in addition to entertainment-related software and technical assistance services for the consoles.
Source: Tech-mee.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment