Xbox One gets $100 price drop in China to boost sales

Microsoft’s flagship game console, the Xbox One, will be getting a massive price drop in the Middle Kingdom this Thursday, according to Microsoft China. The Kinect-bundled console, which currently retails for RMB 4299 (US$692), will drop to RMB 3799 (US$611), and the version without Kinect will see an even bigger drop: from RMB 3699 (US$595) to RMB 2999 ($482).

Microsoft still hasn’t shared any sales figures for the console in China, but the price drop may belie flagging sales that Microsoft will be hoping to bolster by making the price more attractive. Based on ecommerce sites where sales numbers are public, it doesn’t seem like the console is doing very well. On Tmall, for example, it appears the console has sold fewer than 300 units in the past month. The numbers on Taobao don’t look much better, with most of the top Xbox One sellers offering gray-market imports rather than the Chinese version of the console.

The Xbox One also recently went region-free in an attempt to better compete with the rival Sony PlayStation 4, which ironically is being sold domestically by the same Chinese partner company. But both consoles still face a very uphill battle in China. Chinese gamers tend to prefer the PC platform, and strict government censorship means very few games are approved for release on official consoles anyway. At present, both devices have paltry game libraries available to Chinese gamers, and the result has been a distinct lack of enthusiasm for the “console revolution” in China. (If Tmall is any indication, Sony’s sales aren’t much better than Microsoft’s).

Microsoft does still have the release of Halo: The Master Chief Collection to look forward to. That game will hit Chinese consoles in June, and it may well be Microsoft’s last hopeat turning the Xbox One into a Chinese gaming hit.

This post Xbox One gets $100 price drop in China to boost sales appeared first on Tech in Asia.