Buying Video Games in China for Less Than $1

Gaming in China

The dubious foundation of video game culture and society in China rests on – you guessed it – software piracy. Mega-developer Activision is not only not making millions from sales in China but there isn’t even a Chinese language localization because they’re too intimidated by the ubiquitous 5 yuan burned copies. In China, the rules are very different.
In fact, this might be one of the best places in the world to be a video gamer because all of the latest games cost less than $1. That’s 1/4 of what you’d pay to rent them for 3 days at Blockbuster in the US and the games here come out before the official release date. This, with quickly falling HDTV prices (you can get 42″ LCD’s with HDMI for 4,000? now) makes this a fun option for passing worst season in Chengdu.

Consoles

There are three current-generation consoles available:
  • The XBox 360 comes pre-modded in China

    Xbox 360 – The Xbox 360, released in 2007, has flourished and become a best seller. When you buy the console it comes modified and ready to play bootleg games, of which there are more than 500. You’ll be flipping through catalogs for an hour if you check out all the games that are available. The enormous game library is great, but it comes with a few drawbacks. The first several revisions of the Xbox 360 were poorly manufactured and resulted in thousands of customers getting stuck with consoles that fatally malfunctioned. Fortunately Microsoft has seemed to have fixed the problem but remember that when you purchase a modified console you can’t send it to Microsoft for repair. However, there are local places which offer repair services. One of the greatest assets of the Xbox 360 is the online component, called Xbox Live. For years there were huge communities of mainland Chinese playing on Xbox Live but this seems to have been stopped by Microsoft which recently banned over a million Xbox’s from their online service due to modified hardware. D’oh.

    The cost involved is about 2,400 yuan for the console which includes a 120gb hard drive, one wireless controller, and the cables you’ll need to hook it up to your TV. Games are less than $1, so go crazy. One thing to keep in mind is that a 360 console bought in China will be region-locked to games released in Asia which means you can’t play US or EU store-bought games on it.

    Summary: Hundreds of great quality games. Outstanding graphics, reasonable price. Unfortunately if you play online, Microsoft will most likely permanently ban your console from their online service.

  • Pirated games aren't available for Sony's PS3

    Playstation 3 – Successor to the ubiquitous Playstation 2, the Playstation 3 offers HD gaming like the Xbox but with the addition of Blu-Ray movie playback. The crippling downside is that the console won’t boot bootleg games, so you’ll be paying more than 300? on each one. The system includes Wi-fi and comes in a newly redesigned slim form factor. Online play works since the console can’t be modified but there are few players in China due to the high cost of entry.Cost involved: 2,300? for the console which also includes a 120gb hard drive and one wireless controller. Games cost an astounding sixty times more than the Xbox 360 counterparts. Ouch.

    Summary: If you’re interested in one particular game and the Blu-Ray playback this makes a decent option but otherwise it doesn’t make a lot of sense. At more than 300? a piece, you probably won’t be buying many games but at least Blu-Ray movies are cheap and plentiful.

  • Wii games cost 5 yuan a disc in China

    Nintendo Wii – The runaway sales success which targeted the casual gamer, made by quintessential gaming pioneer Nintendo. It’s controlled by a motion tracking device inside what looks like a white TV remote, so instead of manipulating a traditional controller you fling, swing, and otherwise look stupid with this thing in your hand. This also comes modified when you buy it and games cost five yuan just like the Xbox, which is great. Unfortunately there are few good games and even those are generally party games you’ll be playing with your kids or girlfriend. It doesn’t support HD so the graphics won’t dazzle you, but they’re still making new Mario games in 2009.Cost involved: 1,800 yuan for the console, which doesn’t include a hard drive, and one motion tracking wand-like device. Games are cheap and there are hundreds.

    Summary: This is a good option for people living with kids or with significant other who want to bowl and play tennis on tv. This is the cheapest option of the three but there’s a shallow pool of good games for people who will want to play for more than a few minutes in a sitting.

Where to Buy

If you’re in Chengdu the place to go is Digital Square (located at the intersection of Renmin Nan Lu and 1st Ring Road), otherwise an equivalent can be found in every major  city in China. Normally vendors who carry video games are on the upper levels but you’ll know you’re in the right place when you see people playing fighting games or soccer on big screen HDTV’s. In Chengdu alone there are dozens of separate locations where you can buy Playstations, Xboxes, and more games and accessories than you can imagine. Prices are roughly the same – about 5 yuan for a DVD that looks roughly like the real deal with printing on the surface of the disc.

An alternative is by buy on Taobao but I recommend buying locally in case you come upon hardware problems after your purchase.

Happy gaming!

Binders filled with hundreds of Xbox 360 games include new titles like Dragon Age and Assassin

41 thoughts on “Buying Video Games in China for Less Than $1”

      • The only downside that I can see is that you can’t play most of these games online, because they’re on modified consoles. Other than that, it’s all upside. Every game is available here for less than $1.

        Reply
    • Despite games on X360 & PS3,
      in China most of the PC games suffer great lag when playing online. Primarily because there’re few domestic servers. You have to connect to US/Euro in order to play,which gives you a ping at least 200+

      Reply
        • That’s strange. If you’re playing on domestic (Chinese) servers, you should have a ping between 30-100ms depending on the game. If you’re playing with people overseas, I’ve gotten around 130-200. This is on China Telecom 4M residential connection.

          Reply
  1. Charlie;
    I have a friend that visits China often, she has asked me what games I want stating what you have posted, that they are averaging $1 each. Can I not have her buy me $300 worth of games and ship them to me here in America? I’m a gaming freak! How much modifying do I need to do to my Xbox 360? I almost dare not even open the thing but i will if it allows me to play all these games. Thanks, Tony

    Reply
    • Hi Tony-

      Shipping them shouldn’t be a problem. If you send a huge quantity they might get searched. I’d put the games into binders before you ship.

      To modify your console, you might want to send it to someone else. You can check locally on Craigslist if you’re near a major city for console modding service, otherwise find a company which does that by mail with a Google search. It should cost less than $25, it’s just a software hack to enable booting copied games. It’s not risky or particularly difficult. Once the modification is complete, it’ll boot backup games.

      If you’re on Xbox Live though you risk getting banned by modding your consoles firmware. If you don’t go online with your 360 it’s not an issue, otherwise acknowledge that the downside to doing this is that you will most likely get banned from Xbox Live (on that particular console) eventually.

      Reply
    • I mention in the article where to buy them in Chengdu, but I do actually have a number on hand. The name of the shop that I have a business card from is 长江电玩: 86313838

      Reply
  2. If you take the Xbox360 console home to say Europe or Australia will it work without any problems (minus the fact that games purchased from those countries will not actually work) And a reverse question, would my Australian Playstation 1 work here in China. Great blog.

    Reply
      • They have been selling legal (水货) games for years, it’s just that no one buys them because piracy is so rampant. I would be surprised if people suddenly choose to pay Western prices for games while they still have the option of pirating games for about $1 each. The Chinese people that I know don’t even consider buying legitimate software licenses, they just buy pirated software without thinking about it at all.

        Reply
  3. If the games were bought from China, would they work on a UK xbox 360 console? Or is it just that a chinese xbox wont play uk games? Or is it both?!

    Reply
    • Sure, but they’re in Chinese. The easiest site to buy these is http://www.taobao.com

      You’ll need to have connections in China to do that, though. Selling these on the internet anywhere else is really dangerous since if you have an address (web address or otherwise), Microsoft will find you and sue you into oblivion.

      An alternative is to download them and burn them yourself. With a modded console you will likely be banned from Xbox Live, though.

      Reply
      • lol stuff downloading them it would take 2 long since they are like 7gb per game, ill just buy them from taobao so do they ship world wide ?

        Reply
        • Each seller is different but I’m sure you can find one that will ship overseas. Get the seller to put 100 games in a DVD binder or something and ship them that way. That’s what I’d do, at least.

          Reply
          • yea my mates dad he works over in indo rite and he comes back with like five binders full of game & movies so that must be the way 2 go, have ever bought from this site befor ?

    • They’re sold individually normally but if you contact the seller and tell him a list of games you want he should be able to oblige. Search for xbox 360 and sort by price – all the games will fall between 5-15 yuan.

      Reply
    • Sorry, that sounds like more trouble than it’s worth. Feel free to email me with more questions, this comment thread is getting out of hand lol

      charlie at chengduliving.com

      Reply
  4. Maybe you should make changes to the post name Buying Video Games in China for Less Than $1 | Chengdu Living to something more catching for your content you write. I enjoyed the blog post still.

    Reply
  5. I have been there in chengdu.
    But i don’t find any oldies.
    Is there a place in chengdu to buy old video games, like old nintendo as famicom games, the japanese nes?
    Im interesting into old stuffs,even fake.
    Thank you

    Reply
  6. Hi Charlie I am looking for xbox 360 consoles brand new from China and video games,to buy.I am ftpm Zimbabwe and I wanted to resale them.Do you know of a good genuine company where I can do business with.Thanx

    Minesh

    Reply

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