Sony cancels this week’s PS4 launch in China, postponed indefinitely

Sony today announced it will delay sales of the Playstation 4 in China indefinitely, according to Reuters.

The game console along with the handheld PS Vita were slated to launch on January 11, but is postponed because of “various factors,” a statement from Sony said today. A new sale date has not been confirmed.

An unnamed source from Sony in China told Reuters that negotiations with Chinese authorities were prolonged, causing the delay.

Sony’s planned launch lineup for China seemed fairly vanilla – non-offensive games certain to get through the Ministry of Culture’s approval board. We even lambasted it for not including bestselling titles like The Last of Us, Infamous, and Uncharted. But perhaps the censors caught a whiff of dissidence while playing LittleBigPlanet 3.

Microsoft’s Xbox One became the first game console in 14 years to be sold in China in September.

Sony has sold 18.5 million Playstation 4s worldwide so far this year. If and when it begins sales in China, it will cost RMB 2,899 (US$467).

See: Game consoles in China: the tortoise or the hare?

(Source: Reuters)