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After China opted to temporarily lift its ban on foreign-made video game consoles earlier this week, both Nintendo and Sony saw small bumps in their respective stock prices. As of this writing, Nintendo shares are trading at $18.66, whereas Sony is trading at $18.25. By comparison, Nintendo closed Monday at $17.01 and Sony closed at $17.30.
Nintendo's shares lifted to 15,850 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Wednesday, an 11 percent increase, then closed Thursday at 15,420 yen. Sony closed at 1,894 yen Thursday, up from Monday's 1,802 yen. Nintendo's increase is the highest since it traded at 16,430 yen in July 2011, at which point Nintendo dropped the price of the 3DS from $250 to $170, resulting in a stock plummet the company is still recovering from.
To temper the excitement, both Nintendo and Sony's movements aren't enormous compared to its recent history. Additionally, both company's consoles were available in China as grey market imports, so the suspension of the console ban in the country just makes access to game systems that much easier. As Gamasutra points out though, should Sony or Nintendo begin manufacturing systems in the free trade zone, it must all be inspected by Chinese authorities before the consoles can be legally sold in the country, which might be enough time for the government to resume the console ban altogether.
