Wait wait wait… who the what now? You know, it never even donned on me that China might not be buying video game systems. I mean, I read the numbers, there are 84 Million Wii systems in the world, and 40 Million of them in the US alone. I just never realized that China, a country fat-packed with 2 Billion persons, might not represent any of that other 40 Million. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
Well, turns out the Chinese have something else up their sleeve, and it just may be the dark horse of the next generation. Introducing: the iSec.
There’s not a lot to tell yet, but its certainly worth mentioning. Betanews, amongst others, is reporting today that Chinese PC manufacturer Lenovo is entering the console market with their completely-original-and-totally-Chinese-named iSec system.
The iSec is currently shaping up to be a completely motion controlled system, using a little control camera-thing that looks very much like the Kinect for the 360. All the games will be designed, according to initial reports, to interact with the motion sensor, and about a dozen games are planned.
Now, this could go either way. I mean, it looks a lot like the Kinect, so this could just be some sort of reverse engineered crap like China is known for shoveling over here… but Lenovo is basically China’s Microsoft, so they could end up producing a quality product.
If it is a good product, this could be a big deal. To date, there have been no motion controlled games in China… or really many games at all. For a couple decades now, there have been major trade issues between the countries involved that prevent foreign game consoles from being sold in China. Now that one has been developed for their tremendous population, Lenovo projects that their system, distributed through subsidiary Eedoo, will launch into 120 Million Chinese homes, making them the most-owned video game system on the planet.
And those trade stipulations that prevent our game systems from heading into China? Well, they don’t work the other way. China could very well try the iSec in the US market, unless they coat it in lead paint or something, and who knows where it could go from there?
The other big issue to consider is that Nintendo didn’t actually develop motion controls for the Wii in-house. The technology for the Wii-mote and the PS3 Move were both developed by China’s AiLive. With another Chinese company developing a platform compatible with AiLive’s motion controls right next door, AiLive might decide to take their motion technologies elsewhere, or at least, start asking more for their licenses, in response to the greater demand and competition amongst motion controlled systems.
Its all speculation at the moment, but the possibilities are fascinating, aren’t they?
