As the Switch goes on sale in China, Nintendo’s own games are mostly absent

Tencent announced the Nintendo Switch will arrive in China this month with Mario and Chinese indie games, and it’s cheaper than in the US

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Tencent is working with ecommerce sites and retailers to distribute the Nintendo Switch in China. (Picture: Tencent/JD.com)

Josh Ye

Published: 11:35pm, 4 Dec 2019Updated: 12:44am, 5 Dec 2019

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

The Nintendo Switch finally has a launch date in China, and gamers aren’t just getting Mario and Zelda. Chinese distributor Tencent is promising a slew of both first-party titles and Chinese indie games.

The Switch will finally join Microsoft’s Xbox and Sony’s PlayStation in the world’s second largest gaming market on December 10, Tencent announced at a press conference. The launch has been highly anticipated since Tencent said back in April that it was partnering with Nintendo to bring the Switch to China.

The first batch of the consoles will come bundled with New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe for a price of 2,099 yuan (US$298). That’s about the same price as the console alone in the US, where gamers have to shell out another US$59.99 for games. Tencent said games in China will be priced at 299 yuan (US$42).

Tens of thousands of Switch pre-orders were placed shortly following Tencent’s press conference. JD.com alone got more than 30,000 pre-orders within five hours.

In addition to Nintendo’s own games, a number of popular Chinese indie titles will be slowly coming to the Switch. These include Chinese Parents, Iris.Fall and My Time at Portia, which might help increase the appeal of the Switch in a country that hasn’t widely adopted console gaming partly because of a 15-year console ban.