With the recent news that China will now allow the sale of video game consoles and software for the first time since 2000, there is a lot of opportunity for Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo to market their hardware and games to Chinese gamers. While true console exclusivity is becoming more and more of a rarity, there are plenty of titles that have only ever been released on consoles. As a result, Chinese gamers have some pretty massive holes in their gaming canon to fill. We’ve looked over the past 15 years of game releases and picked out one title from each year that best represent the defining moments of console gaming. It’s just too bad that a good number of these probably won’t make it past China’s stringent content restrictions.
*Please note that it’s difficult to know with certainty all of the games that have or have not been banned in China, so for the purposes of this list, it is assumed that any title is fair game for release.
2001 – Halo: Combat Evolved (Microsoft Xbox)
While it’s true that the original Halo was eventually given a PC port, Halo: Combat Evolved remains synonymous with Microsoft’s Xbox and pretty much defined how first-person shooters should play on consoles. Later entries in the series play better and are richer experiences overall, but you really can’t talk about first-person shooters on consoles without starting with Halo.
https://www.halowaypoint.com/en-us/games/halo-combat-evolved/xbox Source: halowaypoint.com
