Looking for its sweet piece of the seemingly bottomless pie that is China's economy, Nintendo released an official version of its otherwise successful Switch console in the country, but the venture has already devolved into a complete mess. It's gotten so bad for Chinese players that many are actively seeking out opportunities to pay more for illegitimately obtained consoles than suffer the heavily censored one that Nintendo's brought to its shores.
China's always had a really bizarre relationship with the gaming industry, having grown into a haven for knock-offs and black market goods for those willing to shell out the cash along the way. This month, the Chinese Communist Party's mostly negative outlook on the medium once again reared its ugly head, with de facto dictator Xi Jinping seemingly shaping up to fully prohibit Chinese players from playing online with others elsewhere in the world. His party's authoritarian grip on power is inherently razor-thin and maintains legitimacy by constantly reminding denizens of its absolute control. Of course, the possible censorship edict would come in response to an online incident Nintendo's Animal Crossing, in which a Hong Kong protester publicly compared Jinping to Winnie the Pooh (oh, bother).
It should come as little surprise, then, that even partnering with the Chinese government's go-to tech industry giant, Tencent, to launch an official Switch in China could not save the venture from becoming an unmitigated disaster for Nintendo. According to a South China Morning Post report, players are snubbing the affordable console in favor of illegally imported foreign Switches, as the official console still only supports three games after being available for months. Nintendo's criminally toned-down offering is so hated that Chinese customers are willing to pay upwards of twice of its retail price just to score an actual Switch from online scalpers.
It's a biting bit of irony for Nintendo that while it scrambles in every other corner of the globe to address a steep console shortage, Chinese players are turning up their noses at their own country's plentiful stock of heavily censored Switches. This isn't the company's first failed attempt at infiltrating its South China Sea neighbor's console market, with the strange, similarly game-lacking iQue Player having been a complete flop in mainline China back in 2003. If history's proven anything of Nintendo's desperation to tap into Chinese consumers' wallets, this latest mistake will not be its last.
If they want to cut out the middleman, can procure the parts needed, and are somehow browsing the open internet without causing an international incident, prospective Switch owners in China would be better off building their own. Or, if they're already set on turning to the black market, getting hold of an eight-year-old Wii U might even be preferable, as just about anything has to be better than settling for Nintendo's and Tencent's pathetic excuse for a console.
Source: South China Morning Post