Will The PS4 And Xbox One Officially Launch In Bangladesh?
Yesterday’s news from Microsoft that the Xbox One will not work in Bangladesh has come as a great shock to us Bangladeshi gamers.
Basically, Microsoft has published a list of 21 countries which will officially support the Xbox One and (to no surprise to anyone) Bangladesh isn’t on the list.
Microsoft has instructed us to buy the console from the “region in which [we] live in”. Since the Xbox One will not be available in Bangladesh, we cannot buy it.
To add insult to injury, the Xbox One requires us to authenticate with Microsoft’s server every 24 hours or the console stops playing games.
Now you can see the problems that will arise. Say, if an Xbox One is imported in Bangladesh and it cannot connect to Xbox Live, it means that it will not work in Bangladesh.
We are used to importing consoles from abroad. The PS3s and Xbox 360s that are sold in Bangladesh are imported and not sold by any official re-seller. There has been no problems as Xbox Live and PSN work from Bangladesh.
So, if the Xbox Live for Xbox One will not work in the future, what does it mean? Can we hope that the PS4 and Xbox One will officially launch in Bangladesh?
There are two important factors to consider here: piracy in Bangladesh and the state of the video gaming market.
Firstly, piracy is a huge issue in Bangladesh. By huge, I mean that over 95% of all games sold in Bangladesh are pirated. The rest 4.99% are mostly original PS3 games.
And the rest 0.01%? I believe there are a couple of Gamersworldbd readers out there (myself included) who buy original games just to support their favourite game developer.
Secondly, the economic condition in Bangladesh means that only a fraction of people play video games as a hobby.
And only a fraction of those people buy original video games. See, where I’m getting it?
It is not worthwhile for Microsoft and Sony to officially launch the Xbox One and PS4 in Bangladesh. At least not yet.
But can we hope that it will happen in the future? To be blunt (and this is going to hurt), I do not think that there will be any video games console that will launch in Bangladesh in the foreseeable future.
We can continue to hope. With Bangladesh’s economy growing at a steady pace, it will be a while before console gaming is mainstream in Bangladesh. At the moment, I will safely say that PC gamers are the majority.
However, the PS3 games market has shown that original games are successful in Bangladesh. There is a market for it. But the market is not that big.
So, unfortunately the PS4 but Xbox One will not officially launch in Bangladesh. And neither will the next generation of consoles (I’m talking about the PS5 and whatever Microsoft names their next Xbox). But what about after that? We can hope for it!
Jun 15th, 2013 at 3:47 pm
I can’t even dream of the Ps10 or the Xbox counterpart to that launching officially in Bangladesh, let alone the next generation.
Jun 15th, 2013 at 4:24 pm
@sng425
True and that might not even happen in the case of the PS10. But we have to remain hopeful that one day it will 🙂
Aug 19th, 2013 at 12:24 pm
Why won’t they sell officially here in Bangladesh, i can bet after the days of ps4 and xbox1 are gone, the next consoles will be lunched officially here.
If in India they can sell them officially, why not here? Ya i am aware that India is huge in comparison to BD and so is there market. But BD console market is growing gradually. And if not xbox at least ps5 should, cause SONY got showrooms all over BD.
Oct 19th, 2013 at 12:52 pm
Assalamualykum!…I’ve one ps3…and i got many games from abroad…and my question is…cant sony create one official shop and region here in bangladesh…i use ps home on my ps3…using another country’s reference…when will sony bring playstation officially here in Bangladesh…
Oct 19th, 2013 at 12:57 pm
is there anybody who uses ps home in bangladesh…i didnt get any bangladeshi friend there…will u pls tell me ur id, if u use ps home?…my id is …. Adroit_Ador…pls add me and message me there …if u have any id one ps home…. 🙂
Mar 24th, 2014 at 3:10 pm
If we ever want an official console or game titles to be released
in Bangladesh we have to stop piracy at all cost.Although a lot of people won’t like it but there is no other way around it.Video games are a huge industry in developed nation like Japan,U.S.A, it can be the same in Bangladesh if our government starts taking it more seriously.As a matter I think this industry is very linked to other hardware industry like graphics card,Ram,Processor or even consoles.If we can make demands for video games insaallah then it will create serious demand for hardware if we can create demand for Hardware we create demand for factories,We create factories we reduce the price of hard ware and video games and which creats more demand for hard ware and video games eventually it becomes an industry far more profitable then garments,And creats millions of new jobs with better salary.Hopefully if our government realise this they will take action against piracy.Then we can hope for official launch for consoles.Although Sony might consider an official release of their new console since they are in better position then microsoft.
Apr 6th, 2014 at 12:30 am
well bangladeshi gamers had to see this one comin , i mean , PIRATED dvds are easier to find than original ones , is there any more to say ?