SCE Asia enters Vietnamese market

A while ago SCE Asia said it had abandoned efforts to enter mainland China after several years of attempts due to the lack of cooperation by the Chinese government in legalising video game consoles. Instead it said it would focus on expanding it's presence in South East Asia. This must also be the reason why the 2007 announcement by Nintendo of plans to launch the Wii in mainland China during 2008 never materialised.

Following it's entrance into the Indonesian market in November SCE Asia continues it's South East Asian expansion with the initiation of it's PlayStation business in Vietnam. Having already been present in Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand, along with Hong Kong, South Korea, and Taiwan this now leaves the Philippines as the only significant market economy in East Asia without official operations by SCE Asia excluding mainland China. It would seem that the Philippines is likely to be the next and final territory in SCE Asia's SE Asian expansion plans.

Press Release

Hồ Chí Minh, Socialist Republic of Vietnam, 16th January, 2010 – Sony Computer Entertainment Asia (SCE Asia) today announced that the company will initiate the PlayStation® business in Socialist Republic of Vietnam on 16th January, 2010, making the world’s popular computer entertainment systems and services available to the PlayStation fans and consumers in the country. Vietnam will be the 8th country and region in the SCE Asia territories.

Along with the initiation of the PlayStation business in Vietnam, SCE Asia will introduce to the market, PlayStation®3 (PS3™) (CECH-2006A) (body color: charcoal black) computer entertainment system featuring an extremely streamlined form factor with a 120GB Hard Disk Drive (HDD), PlayStation®2 (SCPH-90006CB) computer entertainment system, the world's most selling computer entertainment system and PSP® (PlayStation®Portable) (PSP-3006) handheld entertainment system. The PS3, PlayStation 2 and PSP system will become available in stores from 16th January, 2010, at very attractive suggested retail prices of VND 9,990,000, VND 4,490,000 and VND 5,990,000 respectively (including tax). With the launch of the PlayStation platforms, users in Vietnam will be able to enjoy a wide variety of entertainment content including games, music and movies on the favorite entertainment systems.