Unless everything is F2P or insanely cheap it's not getting anywhere. When I lived there you could get your console modded at any local upscale shopping mall.
See above. There's a niche for richer kids who get the latest consoles but paying for software is not something commonly seen.
This. The people who think that countries like China and India are going to be some huge console market, just because the economy is booming are talking out their ass.
There's a reason why Japan is still seen as an important gaming market, while countries like India/China get the
shrug, like you said... the huge wall of
paying for software is the biggest hurdle for console companies to establish themselves in places like China.
They're used to downright piracy, they don't believe in paying an upward of $30, much less $60 for software, F2P market there is substantial , etc.
Until a shift in consumer mindset towards these kinds of things change, consoles will never be more than a niche there. A country like India sells only around 1 million consoles in 10 years, and majority of them are PS2s. That's insane.