In June 2000, the State Council issued a notice calling for a halt to the game console manufacturing industry, which sent China's game console industry into a cold winter on a hot summer day. Until January 2015, accompanied by the Shanghai Free Trade Zone reform pilot notice of the lifting of the ban, the dust of 15 years long game machine manufacturing and sales industry in the domestic curtain reopened. And these 15 years, we missed the best 15 years in the history of the development of game consoles.
While purchasing a PS4 would no longer be difficult for me today, there is still an inexplicable urge to get the licensed version of the PS4. In the eyes of many post-80s people, the licensed PS4 is not just a game console, it is a symbol of the end of an era.
What's in the licensed standard PS4?
The licensed standard version of the PS4 is priced at $2,899, and the kit version is $3,299, which is obviously much more affordable price-wise than the Microsoft XBO.
I got a kit version of the licensed PS4, which includes a console, a controller in the same color scheme, a camera, a dock, an HDMI cable, a pair of mono headsets, a MicroUSB cable (for charging the controller), and the product's manual and warranty card.
Oh, and of course, there's the randomly included game redemption codes for the State Line perks Mr. Pumpkin's Adventure and Jiu Yang Shen Gong.
How do you recognize whether a PS4 console is licensed without turning it on? The Chinese fonts on the outer packaging can prove it, as can the Chinese stickers on the back of the body and grip, and the Chinese manual and three-pack certificate inside the package. Other than that, there is no other way.
In other words, there's no cosmetic difference between the licensed PS4 and the international version, unless you can live with the rustic design of Sony's PS4 Limited Dragon Edition, which was customized especially for the Chinese launch.
OK, turn it on!
I had almost no time to see the differences in the packaging before I found a place to set up the PS4. After hooking up the power cable and HDMI, I lit up the console and the familiar white status light came on, and Sony's logo appeared on the big screen.
Since I got my test unit after the product was launched, the system version was updated to the latest 2.50, which is in sync with the international version. The new backup feature is also available on the licensed version of the PS4.
The PS4 does not initially have Live From Playstation, an official live streaming service that Sony has no plans to introduce in China, so it has been removed from the licensed version, which is pretty much the biggest difference between the licensed version and the international version in boot mode.
Does the licensed version of the PS4 lock the internet?
There's not much to say about the host, the PS4 is just the vehicle, more content is reflected in the difference in the game. With the entry of the licensed PS4 into China, Sony opened a PSN server in China early, along with the host registration or direct registration on the website can get a country line PSN account.
Need to popularize a knowledge, PSN is the short spelling of PlayStation Network, which is a network service provided by Sony, from the PS3 era began to appear. Sony's PSN account is similar to Apple's App store account, and is necessary for downloading games, purchasing services, and backing up your system.
But unlike Apple, Sony has rigidly defined the region to which the PSN belongs. For example, the PSN account we registered on the China website can only access the PlayStation Store in China to buy games, and if you want to access the U.S. service to buy games, you must register for a U.S.-based PSN, which is a free and open registration process.
The licensed version currently has only a pitiful six games available on the PlayStation Store after logging into the PSN, including Nine Suns, Three Kingdoms, Fierce Generals 7, Sodium's Big Adventure, Mr. Pumpkin's Big Adventure, Rayman Legends, and Stunt Moto. Due to the limitations of the game censorship mechanism, if you choose to buy the licensed version of the PS4, then you want to buy your favorite game on the national PSN in addition to waiting for the game company to produce, but also to wait for the Ministry of Culture's censorship, look at the progress of the entry of the Big Pineapple 3, you should be able to understand what I'm talking about.
Oh, and also, the licensed version of the game displays 48 words of truth when running, unique to the China-bound game, which is kind of a necessary change for localization.
The best news is that the PS4 is not locked. I tested the US version of COD 11 and the Hong Kong version of GTA5, and they both ran smoothly on the PS4 console, and I was able to download the patches and run them online, but I think my network is limited, so I need to go over the wall to connect to COD 11.
The licensed PS4 does not lock discs, so if you buy a licensed PS4, you can buy any regional version of the game without worrying about the discs, which are available on the licensed PS4.
But here's the problem, PSN is locked
As rumored, the PSN account is locked on the licensed version of the PS4, and only licensed PSN accounts can log in on the PS4. I tested PSN accounts in Hong Kong (Asia), US, and Japan, and got "This account is not available for this PS4." I made sure it wasn't because of network limitations, and even if I went over the wall, I still couldn't log in on the other regions' PSNs.
There's another way to prove that the PS4 is locked to the PSN. When you register your PSN account on the PS4, you can select any region on the international PS4, but you can only select China on the licensed PS4.
What's the loss for users with a locked PSN? Obviously, the most immediate problem comes from the fact that if you've ever purchased or downloaded a game on the US or Japanese PSN, it's impossible to run it on a licensed PS4.
On the day I wrote this, I came across a post online about how to download a game for a licensed PS4 that was not on a licensed PSN account, using the new Backup Restore feature that was added in version 2.50.
The whole process is very simple, you need to log in to your international PSN account on an international PS4, download the games you need, and then back them up to a removable drive. Then just restore the backup on your PS4. But I think this so-called "crack" is quite a muggle ...... process that requires two PS4s, one international and one domestic, so why bother migrating data when I have two PS4s?
In my opinion, this feature is nothing more than a way for unscrupulous Taobao merchants to make more money, if you really rare international version of the PSN, I still recommend that you just buy the international version of the PS4.
Some details
With the release of the national version of the PS4, PlayStation Plus services are also localized, the price of 209 yuan for a one-year membership I personally think it's quite fair, of course, provided that in the line of more games, otherwise every time to provide a special offer or a limited time free games to flip just so many, buy it is not much fun.
The sharing feature added to the PS4 is unchanged on the licensed version, and the result of applying it directly to the international version is that the only things Chinese users can share are Facebook and Twitter ...... and then there's no more.
The licensed version of the PS4 offers a pinyin input method, which supports the associative function, and is quite easy to type without too much of a sense of dissonance. The browser's current search function doesn't work, I don't know why.
The licensed PS4 can directly search to add players from all over the world, not limited to PSN in China.
Chinese game disks and PSNs can be used on the international version of the console, so you don't need to worry about buying a PS4 and purchasing games that won't play on other versions of the console.
Buying advice
Finally, buying advice. Almost everyone around me who cares about the PS4 or wants to buy one asks me the same question, should I buy a PS4 or should I buy a licensed PS4?
First, let's make it clear that the advantages and disadvantages of the licensed PS4 are very obvious:
The advantages of the PS4 are that it's easy to buy, you don't need to worry about buying a refurbished or used machine, the licensed PS4 comes with a two-year warranty, which eliminates a lot of worries for the user, and the licensed PS4 has been proven not to be picky about the disks, and all the regional versions of the game disks can be used on the licensed PS4. The PS4 has been proven not to pick and choose disks, and all regional versions of game discs will work on the PS4.
Then again, the PS4 has a PSN lock, which makes it impossible to use an international PSN account on the PS4, so those who want to buy a PS4 to replace a PS4 are doomed to disappointment.
Another problem is that even though the PS4 is cheaper than its old rival, XBO, it is still more expensive than the $2,899 price tag for the licensed version, so many users who don't value the PS4's warranty service are more likely to choose the licensed version. (That said, my Hong Kong version of the PS3 has been in the bottom of the box, but now still intact as the first ......)
So I suggest that if you do not know much about consoles, or for the first time to contact the PS4, then I recommend that you buy licensed goods, convenient, safe, big deal in the future, only to play the CD-ROM game, anyway, the forums now change the disk to play a lot, to disk for disk to play also! The disc for disc is also not lost a kind of fun.