After dev claims Xbox One will fail in China, Microsoft says region has “lots of interest” in consoles

Just a day after Alice developer American McGee laid out his reasons why he believes the Xbox One will fail in China, Head of Xbox Phil Spencer has issued a statement of his own, which is much more positive about the console's prospects in the region.

"In Shanghai today talking to devs about Xbox coming. Lots of interest in consoles and how Chinese studios can get to worldwide gamers," Spencer said on Twitter.

Spencer didn't give anything more in the way of specifics, like which developers he spoke with or what they discussed. Microsoft announced Wednesday that it would launch the Xbox One in China this September through a partnership with BesTV.

It should come as no surprise that Spencer is speaking positively about the Xbox One's prospects, as he is after all the man in charge of the platform and would like to see it succeed.

China is a massive potential market for the Xbox One; there are more gamers there than the entire US population. Microsoft also has a first-mover advantage in the country, as neither Nintendo nor Sony have announced plans to enter the market yet.

Still, China's recently disclosed list of censorship rules, which make clear that games sold in the country will not be allowed to promote drug use or violence, could limit the popularity of consoles in the country. China relaxed its 14-year ban on consoles earlier this year. The country originally implemented the ban in 2000 over concerns that video games could negatively impact the physical and mental development of children.

Eddie Makuch is a news editor at GameSpot, and you can follow him on Twitter @EddieMakuch
Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
Filed under: Video Games

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