• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Do you see Tencent or other Chinese company make their own gaming console?

Tencent has been gobbling up Western gaming studios (at least buying some stakes in the company) so it's not too far fetched to think that they might just have a plan to release their own hardware

Chinese companies are getting bigger and bigger and many are cash rich, so I think it's just a matter of time until we see a console released by a Chinese company

What do you guys think?
 

elliot5

Member
I don't see the Chinese market buying a console much really and I highly doubt a chinese console would take off in western markets.
 

FStubbs

Member
I think Tencent wants to destroy all walled gardens entirely and then dominate a landscape of commodity Chinese hardware.
 
Last edited:
I don't see the Chinese market buying a console much really and I highly doubt a chinese console would take off in western markets.

Consoles are irrelevant in China and releasing one in the West would be pointless. Not gonna happen.

But their local market is so huge, they don't really need to be successful in the West....plus they can market their consoles in South East Asia. They can make cheap consoles and undercut Playstation and Nintendo
 
I could foresee a device FOR the Chinese market, but an export to compete with PC, iOS/Android, PS, Xbox, and/or Nintendo? The biggest corps in China are too closely aligned and capitulate too readily to the CCP. Governments would get involved and/or the technology would be readily duplicated by a non-Chinese entity before the market share would be filled by a Chinese product.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Im sure the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) would like a console they control.
They control all apps and smartphones so console would make sense.

Afterall tech companies are the biggest threat to the CCP.
 
But their local market is so huge, they don't really need to be successful in the West....plus they can market their consoles in South East Asia. They can make cheap consoles and undercut Playstation and Nintendo
Or they could just keep raking in billions by making games for mobile, a platform every single person in China and the rest of Asia already owns, one that has seen massive growth and is likely to keep growing for years to come and has much more of a future in that market than any home console.
 

yurinka

Member
I could foresee a device FOR the Chinese market, but an export to compete with PC, iOS/Android, PS, Xbox, and/or Nintendo? The biggest corps in China are too closely aligned and capitulate too readily to the CCP. Governments would get involved and/or the technology would be readily duplicated by a non-Chinese entity before the market share would be filled by a Chinese product.
Several Chinese companies make portable consoles. Many of them to play retro games using Emuelec or stuff like that, but there are also Steam Deck like portable PC consoles. I assume once Steam Deck popularizes portable PC gaming they will become popular, since there are already very powerful that run Window with a bigger resolution than Steam Deck.

In fact I'd say Steam Deck is inspired by these Chinese portable consoles/PCs. By the time Steam Deck gets in the hand of people, there will be more powerful (and maybe even cheaper) Chinese alternatives.

 
Last edited:

TransTrender

Gold Member
I don't think a Chinese console would be a thing in China because 'Spiritual Opium' and whatnot. Definitely wouldn't fly in the EU or NA either.
 

BigBooper

Member
I think a dedicated gaming console would be more subject to the draconian gaming restrictions in China than a pc. I can't see why they'd bring one to the west either, when they can focus on the games instead and hit all markets.
 
Last edited:

k_trout

Member
I think no, the machinery we use to access games will become increasingly more irrelevant, until its beamed straight into your brain
 
Several Chinese companies make portable consoles. Many of them to play retro games using Emuelec or stuff like that, but there are also Steam Deck like portable PC consoles. I assume once Steam Deck popularizes portable PC gaming they will become popular, since there are already very powerful that run Window with a bigger resolution than Steam Deck.

In fact I'd say Steam Deck is inspired by these Chinese portable consoles/PCs. By the time Steam Deck gets in the hand of people, there will be more powerful (and maybe even cheaper) Chinese alternatives.


Isn’t Windows, therefore, the platform? I was assuming a “console” meant the entire product would be the property of the manufacturer, both hardware and software.
 
China makes tons of consoles. Here's one now!

PYL0mcm.jpg
 

yurinka

Member
Isn’t Windows, therefore, the platform? I was assuming a “console” meant the entire product would be the property of the manufacturer, both hardware and software.
Windows is an operative system. Dreamcast did use it and was a Sega console. Consoles like Steam Deck or these chinese ones can use Windows or other OS like Linux variants (like this upcoming cool SteamOS). You were also allowed to run other operative systems in consoles like PS3. Many consoles use an OS that is basically a Linux or (like Ouya) Android with a tweaked UI layer on top and maybe other custom stuff.

I'd say a a console is a hardware made to mainly and almost exclusively to play, portable or plugged to a tv/monitor display.
 
Last edited:

ManaByte

Member
Dreamcast did use it and was a Sega console.

To be clear, the Dreamcast didn't run Windows CE. It never ran anything in the sense of a traditional OS, instead injecting the necessary bits when it booted up a game.

Despite the celebratory trumpets and huge press attention on the fact Microsoft and Sega had come together, Windows CE on the Dreamcast was a catastrophe. The console itself enjoyed a short life, but Windows CE was barely adopted at all.

This is because Sega also had its own custom software that was offered as a choice to developers on the Dreamcast. And, overwhelmingly, it became the favorite. There were very few titles ever made that used Windows CE, despite the fact the Microsoft logo was proudly displayed on the front of the console.
 

FeldMonster

Member
I think that with the current anti-gaming rules of the communist ruling party, Tencent knows that a console is a no go. By purchasing a small stake in a huge number of Western gaming companies, Tencent gets the financial benefit of the growing gaming market without much risk. If the local rules change, Tencent can then purchase some of those studies outright and/or develop a consoles with lots of first party content.
 

Reallink

Member
Several Chinese companies make portable consoles. Many of them to play retro games using Emuelec or stuff like that, but there are also Steam Deck like portable PC consoles. I assume once Steam Deck popularizes portable PC gaming they will become popular, since there are already very powerful that run Window with a bigger resolution than Steam Deck.

In fact I'd say Steam Deck is inspired by these Chinese portable consoles/PCs. By the time Steam Deck gets in the hand of people, there will be more powerful (and maybe even cheaper) Chinese alternatives.



These have existed for more than half a decade, plenty of time to expand beyond their niche of a niche of a niche. They have never found a meaningful market beyond the Youtubers who do videos on them in large part because the only ones worth buying are pushing $1000 or more. And in second part because I don't actually think there's a console sized market (even an unsuccessful one) who wants to play PC games on a massive portable. Their largest demographics would be big city public transit commuters and sad dads who hide in their hallway to play games. The overwhelming majority of hardcore PC gamers willing to buy expensive single use hardware will never use these cause they'd be trading M/KB's and 360Hz monitors for a 30Hz controller experience, which is as close to blasphemy as you can get in the PC market..
 
Last edited:

kingfey

Banned
Its much better to have a company who owns a console, instead of making your own.

You can make more money this way, since you arent shouldering the console production. and you arfe pretty much guarenteed to have customers waiting to buy your games.

Tencent way of doing is little bit genius. That doesnt mean their games would be smart though. Especially with this guy.
election 2016 politics GIF by Animatron
 
I think we will see something from China, likely Tencent, as they would want some sort of Chinese platform as a 'national' brand to compete on the global market.
The question is in what form will this device be in. It is either this or Tencent buys Nintendo and Sony, bam. I do not see myself getting a Chinese console as I have been conditioned from a young age to be subservient and loyal to Nintendo and Sony but the right content can steer me towards a hypothetical CCP console (ie. not those multiplayer stuff that is popular as esports aside from Fighters).
 
Last edited:
Top Bottom