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Mainland China, which is all of the territories under the direct rule of the People’s Republic of China, has been without an official launch of Nintendo Switch ever since the console debuted globally on March 3, 2017. While it’s certainly possible to get a hold of the system and its games via what’s known as the “gray market” in that region, Nintendo had not formally made Switch available outside of Chinese territories like Hong Kong and Taiwan. This is set to change next week when the hybrid console finally becomes available to all of China on December 10.
Working with technology giant Tencent, Nintendo will be selling the baseline, original model of Switch with bundled copies of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe for ¥2,099 (~$297). Other games like Super Mario Odyssey and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe have been confirmed for the region but will not be available at launch. Officially, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa has stated that the company hasn’t “factored the sales in China into our financial forecast for the current fiscal year, and even if the launch does occur during the current fiscal year, we do not expect a significant impact on this year’s business results.”
As of this writing, it’s estimated that 50,000 units of the system have been preordered in China. Time will tell what impact the Chinese market does or doesn’t have on Nintendo as a business, but the region is the largest gaming audience in the world, so it makes sense that the company would want to try to at least get a slice of that particular pie.
Source: Nintendo/Tencent PR
