PlayStation coming to China

Sony has partnered with Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group Co Ltd to begin bringing in the PlayStation consoles in China, following the country's lift of a 14-year ban on the sale of consoles.

According to BusinessWeek, Sony has agreed to form two ventures with Shanghai Oriental Pearl Group to begin making and selling PlayStation consoles. Sony will own a 70 percent stake in one venture and 49 percent in the other.

Sony did not reveal what timeframe consoles are expected to hit the Chinese market. It was not confirmed whether the PlayStation 4 or a specially designed console would be sold.

The announcement follows on from news last month of Microsoft's plans to release the Xbox One in China this September. Statistics released at the Games Marketing Summit last month revealed that China holds a large potential market, with the number of gamers in the country surpassing the total population of the United States.

China originally implemented the ban of consoles in 2000 over concerns that video games could negatively impact the physical and mental development of children. Following the lift of the ban, a list of censorship rules for console games was published, disallowing games that promoted violence or drug use.