Sony Prohibits Chinese Users From Downloading Overseas Games
Over the past couple of months, Chinese Playstation 4 users have been taking advantage of a back door to log onto foreign servers and gain access to the overseas version of games available on the PlayStation Store.
Over 5,000 PlayStation 4 games have been launched globally; however, the Chinese market has had fewer games when compared to other markets.
Japanese tech giant Sony noticed the back door, and have taken preventive measures to disable it in the mainland Chinese version of PlayStation 4.
In its newest system update, the back door appears to have been disabled. Previously, the back door could be accessed by pressing some buttons while the console was on reset mode. But the method seems to have stopped since the latest update rolled out.
However, some users have claimed that players who have the backdoor activated on their console could still access the foreign servers after the latest update.
Gamers in China had been making use of the backdoor due to the few numbers of games available in the Chinese market (mind you, in China games, have to go through an approval process by authorities).
Sony said it has released over 150 games in the Chinese market. However, the data from the State Administration of Press and Publications in China, shows only eight PlayStation games have been approved.
It is because of this that the back door “was created, and it has been a great feature for users who bought the Mainland China version of the PlayStation 4,” founder of the Chengdu Gaming Federation, Charlie Moseley, said.
At the start of the month, local reports mentioned that a user of Chinese site Weibo reported the PlayStation 4 back to authorities.
Sony immediately suspended its PlayStation Store after the news emerged. The store was down for a considerable time with PlayStation citing that the store was down for a routine “system security upgrade.” Sony didn’t specify when it will reopen the store. The shutdown means, new PlayStation users in the country would have no way to download games online, their only resolve is to buy physical games on discs.
Sony Is Leading The Way
Console gaming is relatively new in China, thanks to the national ban put in place for more than a decade. It was not until 2014 that the Chinese government removed the 14-year ban. This promoted big industry names like Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony to tussle for the market share. In the past six years, Sony emerged as the dominant player, with PlayStation 4 accounting for more than 75% of the 500,000 consoles sold in China last year.