Sony China has announced that it will be officially launching the next-gen PS5 console in mainland China in the second quarter of 2021. Tatsuo Eguchi, the president of SIE Shanghai, and Soeda Takehito, the vice-chairman of the group, confirmed the news today in a special Chinese New Year greetings video. At present, if you want to buy a PS5 or Xbox Series X in China, you’ll have to import it from another country.
The official Chinese variant of the PS5 will have its online services region-locked similar to the local Steam version. The PS5 hardware was approved for sale in December (3C Certification for two models: CFI-1009A, Disc, and CFI-1009B, Digital) and now the software is being probed.
The PS5 has been green-lit for launch in PRC just a few months after the US/EU launch. In comparison, the PS4 was launched in China a year and a half after the global release. The Xbox Series X|S has also been given the 3C Certification on the 17th of November, and the official announcement should follow shortly.