In disappointing news, Nintendo has announced that it'll be ceasing operations in Brazil, effectively leaving the marketplace for the foreseeable future. As of this month distribution of systems and games in the country will stop, taking the company out of a sizeable but also troublesome market.
The issue appears to be linked to laws that heavily tax some goods - including game consoles and its titles - that aren't produced within Brazil. The challenge for companies is to either setup local manufacturing or sell their products at exorbitant prices - for example, at launch the PS4 cost over $1850USD in Brazil. High prices affect both hardware and games, and while some fans may travel to the US for a system and download all games using an account for that country, others without that option faced high domestic costs. On the issue of accounts, those with a Brazilian account - ie those not in a position to use relevant credit cards on a US account - saw eShop content effectively end due to limits on some banking cards.
With these factors in mind we've been told by readers in the past that Nintendo content and systems are hard to come by in Brazil, and over-priced when they are available. With that poor market position the announcement is no surprise, with the following being a translation of comments given by Bill van Zyll, Director and General Manager for Latin America of Nintendo of America.
Brazil is an important market for Nintendo and home to many passionate fans but unfortunately challenges in the business local environment have made our current distribution model in the country unsustainable.
These challenges include high tariffs on imports that apply to our industry and our decision not to have a local manufacturing operation. Working together with the Juegos de Video Latinoamérica, we will monitor the evolution of the business environment and evaluate the best way to serve our Brazilian fans in the future.
...We will continue to monitor the environment in the country so that we can evaluate future opportunities.
This is clearly disappointing for gamers in the region and fans as a whole, with a large and growing economy being abandoned at this point. A sliver of positive light is in Latin / South American distribution partner Juegos de Video Latinoamérica referring to a need to "re-evaluate our approach to distribution in Brazil", so we hope Nintendo will return.
[source jogos.uol.com.br, via neogaf.com]
Comments 137
Sad times for us.
Wow, that's bad! Next they'll step away from the UK ;_;
Their video games tax is ridiculously high.(120%). I'm not surprised that Nintendo quit Brazilian market. Unless Brazilian's government significantly lowers their tax, you can expect Sony or Microsoft will do the same.
Man that sucks
Socialism is a bad thing
@Inkling No, they stepped away from Brazil, because Brazilians would have to pay very high prices for their system and games. The UK doesn't make people pay high prices for consoles and games, so it's safe.
@ Danrenfroe2016 lmao that has nothing to do with socialism
Good news for China, bad news for Brazil. While China is starting to sell game consoles again (after 3 generations of gaming ban), seems like Brazil is starting to get rid of them (well maybe except the Sega Master System since they like staying in the past too much).
Reminds me of Extra Credits video about the Brasilian gaming market.
v=KnOjSL2RLwA
Ugh... I have close Smash friends in Brazil, so this is a bad thing...
@Inkling You're kidding, right?
Do you think they'd have launched an official UK store if they were planning to pull out?
The UK doesn't have a massive tax on video games like Brazil does.
Oh no!!!! @GuSolarFlare
@Savino Oh I've been to your country more times than I have China. Even lived there for 5 years mind you.
@Inkling What are you talking about?
And i thought that video games in México where expensive, well they are but not as much, .... and we lost our Nintendo representative a long time ago.
by the way, i recall that there is a new proposal to add a new tax to video games ... U_U
I live in Argentina and Nintendo does not even know we exist, the only thing I can get from Nintendo legally are the Mcdonals toys.
The $2000 PS4? Half of that is profit:
http://olhardigital.uol.com.br/noticia/playstation-4-a-matematica-por-tras-dos-r-4-mil/38298
It is easy to blame taxes for everything but at some point people get trapped into thinking everything is expensive so companies take advantage to boost their margins.
The Wii U never even got a Brazilian eShop and as far as I know due to the outrageous local prices (and the Brazilian eShop on 3DS not allowing you add funds from most bank accounts as NOA couldn't be bothered to read up on Brazilian banking regulations, something Micorsoft and Sony managed to implement within a week) everybody used the Canadian eShop anyway (although I think that has the same problem of not being able to add funds from most banks). How outrageous were the local prices, let's just say I saw an image offering monthly installments as a payment option.
What is worse though is from a support perspective in terms of repairs etc but maybe that already was bad.
I live in Brazil but we generally use importation or MercadoLivre (ebay representative and equivalent in Brazil) to buy Nintendo and gaming stuff. So it's sad but don't worry about us.
Gaming Brazil (Nintendo representative here) is awful so, I think that might be for good.
@Inkling
Good, good. So that they'll put Nintendo Europe store and cater for the rest of Europe.
Sad day for Brazilians.
oh well........
at least most game shops here import the games already, though I imagine the prices will rise, even more.
and there won't be the cardboard covers in portuguese with an inacurate rating(lol, W101 went from T to our equivalent of E ) over the game boxes anymore. XD
but those are terrible times for gamers in Brazil..... unless you're a PC gamer, Steam is having some nice prices(wish I had a decent PC)
@SethNintendo you don't know Brazilian people, some would rather starve than skip the newest console or smartphone they like.
ok, it's not everyone that take things this far, but it's a considerable number.
yeah I'm not exactly what anyone would call a patriot
Isso é muito triste para os fãs da Nintendo aqui. Mas não é só culpa da carga tributária. Na verdade, é só uma desculpa para que as empresas coloquem uma margem de lucro abusiva. É chamado informalmente de "Lucro Brasil". Um exemplo claro foi o PS4, que no lançamento custava R$ 4.000,00 (U$ 1800,00).
@savino so true, always the good old pay in 12x or more scheme! XD
@SethNintendo Brazil is doing pretty well, a lot of people make what you make. I think a lot just own less games. Piracy is also pretty big, but I think a lot just play less.
Fun fact! Adjusted for inflation, the SNES was $700, and my original fatty gameboy was $223. DonkeyKong 64 and Chrono Trigger, again adjust for inflation, were each $160 US when they came out. (Chrono was $80 at most stores here, and DK64 was frequently 69$)
@Danrenfroe2016 Sorry to break it to ya, but it's not a bad thing. Of course, we're not about to get into this here
My company has a hard time selling stuff in Brazil because of the tariffs. So I'm not surprised by this, but it is sad.
Triste isso...mas eu ainda acredito que a nintendo não vai largar o Brasil assim tão fácil
This wouldn't be a big issue for me, if eShop BR's prices weren't a big joke on major games while digital-only and more obscure stuff are actually cheaper than US/CA. There's a very slim chance they'll fix that since the digital copies don't have to match local prices anymore (since they'll cease to exist). But it feels unlikely since despite showing in Reais, not only the prices are ridiculous, but you can't even pay with non-International cards, and the same cards can buy games on CA eshop for R$~45 less (~19.78 CAD, 16.77 USD). You almost have zero reason not to register your NNID on Canada if it's fresh (I'll have a few losses if I do, but I'm considering it). There's also the OR/AS demo that took like 3 days longer to arrive on the BR eshop than it did on US/CA.
tl;dr if they fix the eShop, I may forgive them for the time being
(also I'm definitively jumping off the boat for the next generation of portable consoles, if nothing is done about this)
As a brazilian and hardcore Nintendo fan for many many years I'm really sad by this news. This pretty much means that we won't see any evolution in terms of local eShop, Amiibos in retail store, Club Nintendo and many other offers we constantly see available outside Brazilian territory.
However, for any hardcore fan, this won't change much on how we acquire content, so that's a silver lining. But I sure hope they change their business strategies by the time Wii U's sucessor is announced.
@Savino "Although our 1.600 US$ PS4 sells a lot more than the 400$ WiiU!"
Let's be honest here, nobody actually buys the consoles officially released here. Game stores in my city sell the PS4 for about 700 US$.
@Starwolf_UK The canadian eShop apparently accepts ANY credit card. Don't ask me why.
@Savino A big difference I guess is that most people here in Brazil don't even know Wii U exists. ...
@Savino Not ever. I live in Campinas/SP, so every once in a while there's some sort of Nintendo promotion in big stores around here (Fnac), but that's it, very generic (like buy 2 games and get a plushie), not game-specific.
@Savino That wasn't my point. Also, people are buying more PS4's than Wii U's pretty much everywhere besides Japan.
@Savino You're not entirely right, man... You are showing an odd Brazil even for me, a typical Brazilian guy!
(I am living in Ireland now, but I grew up in São Paulo. And I was a high school teacher in Brazil. I always considered myself (and my family) middle class - working-hard class.)
Although I've always loved videogames, we always had to go to rent shops to be able to play, because the price of games was always ridiculous.
For instance, in 1996, a SNES game would cost around R$ 150,00 (around U$60,00). But the minimal wage was U$40,00. I'm not even considering inflation. That's why piracy was (and still is) a big thing there. Who would spend more than 50% of the minimal wage in video games, if you could rent an original copy at 70c or buy piracy for the same or a little more - which was still a lot?
Nowadays, a 3DS game costs around R$150,00 - the same U$60,00, but the minimal wage today is around U$270.
Now, according to the government website (http://www.brasil.gov.br/economia-e-emprego/2014/04/salario-medio-alcanca-patamar-de-r-1-166-84) the average wage of Brazilian workers last year (first 3 months) was around U$440.
Could one spend more than 10% of the wage in one game, plus rent, insurance, medical services and food, not considering school fees? Could one buy a 3DS for U$300,00 (http://lista.mercadolivre.com.br/nintendo-3ds)? A WiiU would be around U$ 480,00 - more than the average wage! That's why people use their credit card to spend what they don't have and essentially defaulting a lot.
(Note: what you said about schools is not true. As a schoolworker I saw bad food given to students, expired even sometimes and the school system is as corrupt as the political system. Children do receive textbooks (which they must give back at the end of the year) and alwas have absent teachers because those are struggling with 60-70 working hours/week in order to get a little more than that average wage. The health service is horribly and insurance prices too high.
That's why I've left. It's sad though.
Brazil is a country of appearances - exactly like the world cup.
***
If the government were clever (or honest) they would give Nintendo, Sony, Valve, Microsoft and any other game company financial incentives, like reduced taxes in order to make the national industry grow. But when you have people like Marta Suplicy saying that video games aren't cultural products and 70% taxation on these products you cannot have hope of improvement.
Of course people are starving in Brazil, not so much in the big cities, but in small cities, slums in big cities, suburbs and countryside there relly are people like this. You have to chose between pay your bills and have fun. Sadly, as you said, people would rather buy phones and gadgets than basic products. But what can they do if the media stimulates this style of life and even popular musics like the "funk ostentação" that preaches extreme luxury and churches preaches the same message?
Is was and it is sad to be a Brazilian gamer. Or citizen I'd add.
WOOOOOOOW! I've written a lot! Sorry, got sad and had to cry here. I do feel better now.
Oh, well, gaming from Brazil (Nintendo representative) was always bad here, not enough support, I always use a foreign account for digital purchases, last game i bought physical was Smash 3DS for like around $65, so very expensive...
And taxes are no excuse for companies do that "theft" with the consumers, a Xbox One I can get officially here for around $450 on the other way a official Wii U I can't get for less than $700 and a PS4 for less than $1200.
Yeah, it's hard to be a gamer in Brazil, specially a Nintendo fan, but maybe that's not exclusive to our country, sadly.
wow.....
all this time I've been on this site I never noticed that there are so many Brazilian users here!!!
mind blown
@daniruy man, you live in the Brazil of 70's/80's, now the education and opportunities are very good and the free Health care it's average, better than most of countries.
UK is probably next due to being dominated by Sonysoft
i wont blame other to follow, it is hard to sell their products at affordable prices but because the government are money hungry parasites they add such a ludicrous amount of tax. its harder for them to get a ps4 since its almost $2000. maybe if the taxes weren't so damn high they (nintendo) would not have left.
@GuSolarFlare We're going to rule the world man.
@Inkling
You may be misunderstanding why they're moving away from Brazil, namely, Brazilian laws which are punishingly expensive for imported products. I recall reading a similar report about the hurdles Microsoft and Sony were going to face in the country, as taxes and tariffs make things unnecessarily and ridiculously expensive.
This may also be related to the financial troubles Nintendo has faced the past three years. Gotta cut the fat somewhere.
That's really sad but understandable. Oh hey, it's kind of like it is in Scandinavia, where it's not Nintendo themselves that supervise but a second party known as Bergsala! At least gameing is cheaper in Denmark than Brazil...
@Grumblevolcano
That is not the reason Nintendo is yanking from Brazil. Re-read the article--it's based on fees and taxes. Nothing at all indicates that what you're saying would logically follow this. Those are two totally unrelated reasons, and if it was up to "domination from Sony," Nintendo would be dropping from every market except Japan.
Then eventually Japan.
@Inkling If we leave the EU this might happen as Nintendo Hq is in germany the distrubution.
@ferrers405 Maybe in Middle-Brazil where elves and dwarves are ellected politicians and our president is Aragorn. The real Brazil is not that you're talking about.
@ferrers405
It's cheaper for the Xbox One for specific reasons, not because the companies are trying to screw you. You don't have all the information and shouldn't make those assumptions. It's entirely possible that the XBO is cheaper simply because it's developed and shipped from closer to Brazil, but that's just a guess.
Nintendo - masters of making excuses. And master complainers.
Backing out of the market that you are losing and not making money is sensible decision, though. I still wonder why MS still insists on their boxes in Japan.
@Quorthon
You are right about Xbox. Microsoft took the approach to manufacture the XBox One in Brazil in order to not be stung by the non local manufacturing tax (import tax) on foreign goods. Sony decided against local manufacturing as they were restructuring their playstation business and unlike what is reported, they still make a huge loss for every system they sell except in Brazil. Brazil is a rare market that allows the PS4 to not be price competitive and since they are riding the wave of positive marketing, their product (PS4) is getting PR for being desirable. That means they can afford to sell the PS4 at cost (or slight profit), add the 100% tax and the retailers profit, and still be laughing. The xbox one also has the opportunity to grab a larger market share just based on price and software availability. This makes the Wii U and its under-performing market perception seem very expensive in comparison.
@Quorthon did I said otherwise? Of course Xbox One is produced and manufactured here, what I'm saying is that Nintendo and Sony can do the same thing as Microsoft, they just don't care and "prefer" to say f* to the brazilian consumers.
I have Nintendo and Playstation systems but as a consumer Microsoft have my respect.
@daniruy is always so nice having a constructive and intelligent chat with people so brilliant like you, have a good day.
No! I'm really mad at Nintendo right now! So what? Those who bought WiiU and 3DS should throw them out now because nothing new will come unless we import it? You lost my respect, Nintendo.
I've read so many times Nintendo being against the idea of dropping WiiU for its bad sales out of respect for its costumers. At least you should've done the same to us, brazilians. Ugh! It's like PS4 with absurd prices and Xbox forcing online all over again...
@ferrers405
You're being personally offended by a major corporate decision that doesn't remotely factor you into the equation. Sony is rebounding from a tough decade of near-constant losses and sold a billion dollar office building as well as selling off the Vaio PC division in part of that restructuring. No doubt, it's fiscally more responsible for them to just deal with the tariffs than it is to build and open an entire manufacturing plant in Brazil. (It does leave some question as to what happened to the PS3 manufacturing plant they had down there, but given that the plant apparently only opened in 2013, they probably aren't ready to move it over to the PS4 just yet: http://www.joystiq.com/2013/05/07/sony-to-begin-manufacturing-playstation-3-units-in-brazil/)
You, the customers, are not a part of that equation. It's absurd to be personally offended by this, or to assume Nintendo or Sony have something against consumers in Brazil over this.
On the other side, Nintendo is potentially only now crawling out of three years of painful losses--the first time they'd ever really had to deal with such losses, and no doubt they see closing facilities or moving away from a market such as Brazil is a more financially feasible solution at this time. I would imagine that the now-flagging 3DS (which is drastically falling behind in game releases), and the ailing Wii U were not making them enough money in Brazil to make up for the costs and time.
If you're going to be offended by anyone, look at your elected officials that drove these issues into place.
@RenanKJ Didn't you read the article? It clearly states that getting games in Brazil is extremely expensive so the only option is to get it from abroad which is fairly reasonable. I do that most of the time with my family getting my games from Dubai and US most of the time.
I think Nintendo even shut down their headquarters in Thailand but atleast Nintendo is doing something about Asia.
@megamanlink
It is curious that Sony isn't manufacturing the PS4 in Brazil as they apparently did with the PS3, but as noted, this may be related to their hefty restructuring over the past few years. However, as I noted above, they do have a PS3 plant down there, but it opened in 2013, so they might not be ready to transition it to PS4 just yet. The PS4 actually isn't losing money for Sony, by the way. It's actually a very profitable console, arguably the most profitable of this generation (barring the 3DS).
For the first time in the history of console gaming, MS and Sony are actually selling their hardware for profit--small though it is, but better than the $250 loss each PS3 incurred, or the $126 loss each X360 brought on.
@SethNintendo
As I noted elsewhere (with this link: http://www.joystiq.com/2013/05/07/sony-to-begin-manufacturing-playstation-3-units-in-brazil/), Sony also has a plant in Brazil. I suspected it was something about MS having a plant in Brazil, but didn't see it in my (brief) Google search.
Sony's plant only opened in 2013, so it's likely still churning out PS3's, and PS4 prices there may change if the factory moves on to the new console.
@NintyMan
Gambling? How!?... At least be against them for the right reason.
Dang... I live in America and I feel really bad for Brazilian fans. And it's all because of stupid politicians.
We only buy imported used and pirated products anyway
@Quorthon well, yeah and that's the problem, they don't factor the consumer in the equation, to gain market share and be lucrative they have to invest more and look into the future, that kind of decision just hurt they even more in a growing market and that's why you see here PS4's way more expensive outselling WiiU by a large margin and the same happen in the world.
Nintendo is so niche sometimes that they have to hit a wall like was with the Gamecube to recover with the Wii to simple throw away all over again with the WiiU.
You know what makes this even sadder? We got the Mario figurines on McDonald's last november, and they were an astounding success. I had to drive around several stores to find the ones I wanted, and everywhere I went McDonald's employees would comment on how they were selling out fast, with big lines and everything. That helped remind me how Nintendo's IPs are still very much present on the popular consciousness around here, and made me hopeful that they'd step up their game in the near future.
This is a quite sad day indeed.
@Starwolf_UK "let's just say I saw an image offering monthly instalments as a payment option."
Monthly instalments are on absolutely everything here!!! I saw a R$50 kitchen blender with 10x payment plan yesterday. lol
Gaming prices don't seem to worry me as much when im lying on the beach with an ice cold caipirinha
I have know that most gamers rather import stuff from the US rather to buy them localy and also I know they buy game digitally because is much cheaper. This issue also provokes piracy which Brazil is realy big at and I honestly don't blame them thanks to prices like that.
In my opinion its a smart decision and Brazilians can still import and turns out much cheaper in the end.
@Frank90
I see. That's good. I was really getting worried that you guys were really left with barely any way to play the games you want to enjoy.
This eye-opener certainly makes me see Europe's somewhat sluggish games market compared to the US's in a very different light. Gotta be thankful for what we do have I suppose. Plus at least we Europeans can freely import stuff so long as shipping options are a bit leenient.
Not surprised. I can't blame 'em.
@ferrers405
I'm sure they were factoring in the part of consumers that matter to corporations: That the consumers weren't buying the hardware, which is largely Nintendo's fault, but still. If they aren't making money there, they aren't going to stick around.
Again, this sounds like the politicians in Brazil were the bigger problem, as they made it much more difficult for companies like Nintendo to do business there.
@ricklongo
Were they really a success, or did Nintendo just fail to get enough toys to the market?
You know, the same problem we see with Amiibos.
@Quorthon
At least in my town (Campinas) they were an absolute success, lots of lines everywhere. Pretty much the same thing happened with the Pokémon themed toys a few years ago.
@Nintendo_Ninja I'm not so sure about that. We've always had high taxes. Somehow Nintendo's Wii U became more expensive with the years. I bought mine imported on launch for R$ 1350. Now that gaming distributes it, it costs 1850. I'm not sure what happened here, but as far as I know the Wii U got it's price DROPPED, instead of raised about 50%!
I'm traveling south america right now, and though I feel sorry for the fans, there is just no market here in general for video games compared to the us or Europe
@Quorthon Now that I think about it, Nintendo not putting out enough stock isn't a new thing - the Wii suffered this very issue as they did not expect to take off at all even with the aggressive marketing after the GameCube sold poorly. Then they faked stock issues to raise demand - they might be doing the same now with amiibo.
@daniruy agreed with everything. You don't live here anymore, but what you said is exactly what is happening here. Unfortunatly people keep voting on the same politicians that don't care about the people.
@GuSolarFlare The rating isn't innacurate, just because it received a Teen rating in the US doesn't mean it has to have the same rating in Brazil.
@Danrenfroe2016 There's no such thing as socialism. It's like communism with a fake mustache on.
@Quorthon They were. People were flooding social media with pictures of the figurines, and I'm talking people who I never knew had any fondness for Nintendo (or McDonald's, for that matter). I even started a conversation with an acquaintance about them on Facebook, someone who apparently hadn't owned a Nintendo system since the SNES, and as a result he got himself a Wii U with Tropical Freeze for Christmas. I even had to walk him through how to purchase stuff from the Canadian e-shop, heh.
So because Brazil charges huge taxes, tariffs and duties on their stuff, it's Nintendo's fault for not wanting people to get ripped off?
I mean, really, it's reverse piracy.
The country is literally robbing its citizens to sustain the local economy and it's horrible.
Canadian prices are more than the US, because our dollar is weaker now, but whatever the case, it's tough to comment on the situation without being in it myself.
If I'd had to pay 500-600$ for a Wii U and over 300$ for a 3DS, I'd be mad at my government and their terrible customs policies, not the company selling them.
That's what happens when you have a dictatorship disguised as democracy. As long as people remain complacent and the country is governed by thieves, nothing is going to change. I mean, is it even possible to change?
This is really sad news. I know that Nintendo has been pretty much non-existent here, but I never thought they would abandon the country entirely. Well, I can always import, so this probably won't affect me, but it's still a shame.
@Heiki A "dictatorship". Please, don't embarrass yourself.
And FYI, the current taxing politics was in place way before the current government. Ask anyone who bought NES or Master System games and consoles back in the day.
yes Brazil taxes are ridiculous huge and there are taxes and fees for everything. So importing can be complicated to some people. as a full time student with not real job just yet it is for me, because you may or may not pay taxes before getting it into your home. It's a lottery, they simply choose some packages and taxed them.I live in the south, where you pay 90% of the product + shipping in taxes.
I'm okay paying $40 for a new game. But $40 + $10 shipping + taxes = $97,00. That's R$260,00. The minimum wage here is R$788. It's absurd. For ONE game!
And they keep trying to add taxes now and then when the government realize there are too many people buying from China and U.S. or even trying to change the law so they can tax every single package. Well, if you don't have the item here at least let us buy without taking half a month salary. Stupid country.
For Brazilian fans: you can read more about this decision here - http://nintendoworld.com.br//4572-ARTIGOS-NINTENDO-NO-BRASIL-O-QUE-VAI-MUDAR-EM-NOSSAS-VIDAS?
They paint a somewhat less doom-and-gloomy picture, which is somewhat comforting. I guess we can all agree that Gaming do Brasil is poop, pretty much, so if this means Nintendo will resume operations in the country with another distributor (or maybe even a dedicated Brazilian branch), then I'm all for it.
@IceClimbers
That's a tough point. Either Nintendo is incompetent or malicious. Either they're bad at getting sufficient product to the market and understanding the market, or they're deliberately screwing with it.
If this were "old" Nintendo, of the NES, SNES, and N64 era, I'd go with the maliciousness, because let's face it, old Nintendo was kind of a barsteward. But given the way Iwata and Reggie seem to operate, I'd almost go with the incompetence. After all, Iwata loves to admit failure, for some damn reason.
Why, I can just picture Iwata or Reggie shrugging their shoulders right now.
@ricklongo
Oh honestly now, the eShop is not that hard to use!
@Quorthon Since there isn't a Wii U e-Shop in Brazil, we're forced to buy from the Canadian store, and that's not exactly all that easy. First you have to set up a Canadian account separate from your Brazilian one, then change the country of residence to Canada on the system settings, then access the e-Shop. As you put your credit card number, you have to put only the first six digits of your Brazilian ZIP code, because that's how long Canadian ZIP codes are (Brazilian ones have eight digits). Stuff like that. Not exactly easy to grasp at first.
This is sad news, luckily you can still import games from other Latin American countries and keep gaming.
Maybe you just were too sexy for Nintendo
#NintendontCareAboutUs T-T
Wow, that's quite unfortunate. Hopefully they will return somehow in the future.
@Danrenfroe2016 Except it's not socialism, it's protectionism. George W Bush placed a steel tariff in place in 2002, no-one would ever call him a socialist.
It's unfortunate and I hope people didn't lose employment as a result of this change. I have a feeling american consoles will start to flow into Brazil unless the government reduces that dumb tax.
Here in Brazil people often went to trips to the US or asked friends to buy game-related merchandises and technology products in general. There are stores which already imported from 'non-official' distributors, so it's not going to change for gamers at all. Only the masses will be affected - which is obviously a bad thing, so big Nintendo games may be hard to find at an acceptable price.
Nintendo was always conservative in a preventive way, I can only respect that. They are not going to get involved with a protectionist government - besides their marketing is not good nowadays; besides Brazil didn't live the great Nintendo era (80's and 90's) the way US and other crounties did, so the Playstation brand and even Sega consoles before it were bigger here than Nintendo ones, as far as I know. They're not going anywhere, though. Just wait a few seconds.
Basically, Nintendo couldn't handle the extortion Brazil puts in the consumer and the retailer. Brazilian Nintendo fans will be fine. Not great, but better than with Gaming Brazil (Nintendo's - former - official distributor here).
All you're going to do with these ludicrous import taxes is drive piracy through the roof.
@daniruy
Err.. yeah, the Brazil situation is not even close to EU. No crazy taxes for EU + EU sees WAAAAY more sales for Nintendo compared to Brazil. lol.
I'm not surprised to see this actually. Console prices are crazy in Brazil, so it's not like Nintendo could've been making enough profit. I'm sure we'll get a "Nintendo iz d00med" article about it though.
we are not socialist, don't be stupid!! and for me wont change anything, I buy from the eshop or via internet in mercado livre our ebay.
@RCMADIAX True and after that, Xbox 360 became the main system in Brazil.
and nintendo has is also guilty not only our goverment. sony and microsoft are still strong here, nintendo is incopetent and now they blame our goverment like they didnt do anything wrong.
@Savino best explanation ever!
@Savino October 2013, man. I was in São Paulo's protests, strikes, etc. Grew tired of that same damn thing. When you work in public services, like I did as a teacher, you not only realise how bad everything is, but you feel it in your bones as well.
But our focus here is games. As a gamer, I always bought pre-owned games. I remember Super Mario Galaxy 2, which I was desperate for, cost me 95 dollars. And I had to pay my 3DS in several monthly instalments.
That said, is important to consider that Nintendo's market in Brazil is ridiculous. I mean, worldwide people didn't understand what is a "WiiU" at all in general. We are gamers, we did research and eventually we got it. But those guys who owned playstations and xboxes just for Fifas, PES, ad COD (as good as those games are) didn't give importance to this product.
@CrimsonMoonMist
Be a gamer in Brazil is never easy. Always expensive, always hard to find the games you want. Be a Nintendo fan is even harder, but hell if we don't love challenges why would we play games?
And by the way, thanks for your concern.
But I don't see Europe with the same problem as Brazil, our biggest enemy is the stupid govern and the "stupidier" population.
It is sad because the Brazialian people deserve better. We can look at the World Cup as an example of the income inequality plaguing Brazil. The Majority of soccer fans could not afford a ticket. The prizes of game consoles are only for the haves leaving the have nots out of fun, now no one gets to enjoy games there. I would not blame Nintendo. I would blame the Brazialian Goverment.
@Savino I have sme friends from Minas Gerais here in Ireland and they say something similar. Maybe it's Minas. SUS in São Paulo is always a nightmare. Probably it's because there are around 23 million people living and working in the same area. São Paulo makes everything harder, that's for sure. I could actually say that I could never vote on PSDB anymore because of their actions over the last 20 years in São Paulo. (And neither could I vote in PT, for obvious corruption reasons!)
Now, your diarista (I suppose you could call her a housekeeper anyways) is indeed an example of the disparity in Brazil. Things getting better, in a way, for some. But look at this, while your housekeeper is making 1500 dolars (?) monthly, a teacher would make 1/3 of that for decent working hours (around 35-40/week).
Brazil seems better for some, and it is better for some, but in general it's even more unequal and perverse.
@Savino I also live in Minas and I agree with you. Things aren't perfect but it has improved a LOT. There's a lot of room to improve though.
About Nintendo leaving Brazil. It's bad but we can get by. A lot of niche games, like almost all of the RPGs from Atlus, I had to import and some games I had to import because they launched here much later than un the US and the wait was killing me. MercadoLivre, our ebay equivalent, always has some good importers and I just hope they don't raise the price...
Hopefully,thing will improve.
@daniruy You do have a lot of good points. Teachers here are undervalued. My sister could be a portuguese teacher but the payment was so low that she went to work editing books because the payment was higher.
Ouuh!! de onde saíram todos os estes BRs? isto é incrível, nunca imaginei que tivessem tantos registrados aqui, onde estavam caras? haha!
@Hero-of-WiiU People here used to import slot machines and things like that as arcade machines.
@ricklongo
Okay, well that's incredibly asinine and needlessly complicated.
and here´s where I´m proven right Nintendo´s anti consumer policies suck
@DualWielding The situation is more complex than that. Brazilian taxes are really high and even though I'm disappointed by this move, it is understandable.
Coming from a South American country Nintendo has never served themselves, probably not much will change in Brazil. Video games stores will import and sell at huge prices on their own, and people who can will still avoid paying those prices at all costs.
From what I understand, Nintendo has been doing such a bad job/the tariffs were so high that there won't be much changing. Maybe Ninty should just invest in selling those figurines and other stuff that won't be taxed as heavily.
@RCMADIAX It's true, the Xbox one had a much better lunch due to this, the price diference bitween the Xone and the ps4 at launch was like 500 dolars cheaper!
@Azooooz Nope, Sony and Microsft will be just fine here. Microsofter has a manufacturing plant here, so the price isn't that absurd, that's why the Xbox One had a much better lunch than the ps4 here, the ps4 was 500 dollars more exepnsive! Sony did a smart move too, they started manufactoring one of the ps4 parts here, so the console became ''national'' and the price decreased drasticaly, it's really funny XD.
@retro_player_22 At least that Master system comes with many games, that's cheaper than bying them on digital e-shops!
This wouldn't be a problem if they adertised their damn consoles like Microsoft did here! Heck, I remeber seeing Wii advertisement here, but what about Wii U?! I went to a local gaming shop, and the seller didn't even know what is Wii U! I blame Nintendo for this.
@Savino Eu estava lá em uma expedição, mas foi brutalmente ferido, então eu ficar com as pessoas agradáveis lá por 5 anos. Foi uma fantástica cinco anos também e curiosamente, eles tiveram um SMS lá para me aproveitar.
@RaphaBoss True, but importing them games for play here on our SMS is very expensive especially the ones that were never released here (Ninja Gaiden and Sagaia for example).
@RaphaBoss So if Nintendo produced stickers that said "This sticker was made in brazil" and put them on all the Wii U's, would the price drop? XD
@GuSolarFlare You're from Brazil? Mind blown.
@Savino That's because sentence structure is different between languages & Google Translate just does a literal word for word translation.
I'm not up to date enough to really discuss Brazilian economics, but I can understand Nintendo's decision as the WiiU was always designed to be the cheaper, more fun console... a position they can't sustain in a country where they either invest heavily in new manufacturing plants (at a time when they are recovering from some pretty nasty losses) or sit next to the xBox as the console that does less for more.
As for their lack of marketing, it doesn't seem to make much sense for Nintendo to spend huge amounts of money advertising when they already know their returns are limited. Do you spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on a marketing campaign in a country where you already know a large amount of the people can't afford your hardware?
As for comments about the UK being a Sony State, that's rubbish - the PS4 is outselling the WiiU, but that's not limited to the UK... that's Nintendo's fault for a terrible launch and slow games release. The PS Vita however was predictably destroyed by the 3DS in the UK sales for years & was saved by the PS4 compatibility. Even in Japan the Vita was behind until Monster Hunter 4 was released to the Vita. Even now, Vita game prices hold value like a sieve holds water (the only reason I'm tempted to get one - £20 could get me a pretty big games collection).
@Savino Coming from the current government? I really doubt so. We better wait (and pray) to have better days after 2018...
@Hy8ogen
...
T~T
I'm all for taxing things reasonably, but Brazil went a bit overboard, obviously. Not that big companies should be listened to about taxes, especially not in American politics, Je-sus Christ, but this is a clear misstep.
@Kasplat LOL, I don't think that's as simple as it look.
@Savino @retro_player_22
Tudo BR?
@Savino kkkkk, cada um podia postar seu Nintendo network ID aqui , eu quase não conhesso brasileiro com Wii U.
@RaphaBoss I'm brazilian too and my Nintendo Network ID is JMCBrasil.
@Savino We have free education here in the U.S., too (except college), as well as a recently enacted yet very controversial national health care insurance system; but no wonder your country has all those ridiculous taxes and tariffs if they're handing out completely free health care as well as free credit to anyone with a job. I wasn't aware that Brazil had such a socialized economy.
@Starwolf_UK Buddy, your comment resumes the situation here in Brazil. I'm actually surprised that even the canadian scheme you knew...
The problem is not only the high taxes, it's the lack of support by the masses. Most of the ppl here thinks Nintendo is only for children and boycott them. The PS4 is selling far far better at both it's "official price of 1600 USD (the price with the actual conversion updated)" and the most online retailers that import it by themselves and sell for about 600 USD. It's difficult to see many persons with Wii Us and 3DS. But, at least, there are a significant few that have a 3DS. Only the big sellers do well here for Ninty, the likes of Smash and Pokémon.
@Danrenfroe2016
This has nothing to do with socialism. Socialism is when the government owns the means of production. Nintendo, as a private company, can sell its products in Brazil without the Brazilian government sharing ownership; it is, by default, not pure socialism. High taxes and socialism are linked by correlation, not causation. Sorry if that seems obsequious, but as a teacher of history and political science, I felt the need to point out that fallacy.
I am one of those who holds the unpopular opinion that high taxes are good, but Brazil's video game tax is ridiculous. There's such a thing as "too much of a good thing;" this goes beyond that and straight into "Jesus Christ, what the hell are you people thinking?"
@LawRulesALL It's not just because they think it is for children, heck, McDonald's happy meal with Mario was sucesfull with teens and young adults, so that's not really he problem. The problem is, as I stated above, lack of advertisement, I remember seeing a Wii ad on TV once, never saw a single Wii U one. Most people simple don't know what a Wii U is. I went to a local gaming store here in Rio das Ostras, and the seller didn't even know what it is, and they sell both Xbox One and PS4 games. Oh please, if you're brazilian, add me on Wii U, I'm Rapha666br.
@BulbasaurusRex That's not socialism Rex, England has free Healthcare, schooling (up until 18/19), working credits and the provision of benefits towards childcare & yet we don't need gigantic charges on companies that sell their products here. You pay 20% tax at the point of sale whether it's a bar of chocolate or Mario Kart 8.
I remember a US news story stating that if Stephen Hawking was English he'd never have survived to revolutionise physics. He IS English (his voicebox has a US slang) & we provided the pioneering, free care that enabled him to live his life. I think America is so against National Healthcare because they hear so many lies about it on a regular basis. Much like Fox & their terrorism expert who came out with some ridiculous lies about the UK a few days ago.
@DanteSolablood Socialism isn't just a yes or no answer. It's a sliding scale between completely unregulated capitalism and a completely government run economy. Any kind of government assistance is a form of socialism. Brazil just happens to be on the higher end of the scale than most countries that aren't communist. The United States usually prefers to stick to the lower end of the scale, particularily the Republican Party, although everyone nowadays recognizes that some government assistance and regulations are necessary.
By the way, there's a major difference between national healthcare (making government run health insurance available to everyone) and flat out free healthcare, insurance being a moot point. Also, you guys are paying for your additional benefits at the register (and likely with other taxes as well), as the sales tax is much lower on this side of the pond. It varies from state to state, but for example, here in Missouri it's about 4% for food and about 7.2% for everything else.
@RaphaBoss Dude, I know Nintendo lacks advertisement. But let's be sincere here, do you really think the guys that buy a PS4/Xbox One because of their third party support and especific exclusives like Uncharted 4 and Halo 5 (those will launch eventually but there are others already in the market) would spare money or even think about buying a Wii U for... let's say Zelda or Smash? It indeed happens, but only in a minimum degree. I have just one friend here in Recife that have a Wii U and another that's interested in buying but with no prediction of when... So that's that. The guys here, and I bet on the rest of Brazil also, want to play Advanced Warfare, Destiny, Forza and so on... Because of their "mature" content and for having 100% translation in portuguese or at the very least subtitles. I get sad to see such a scenario, but it's true.
@RaphaBoss Channels in Youtube like Mundo Canibal among others doesn't help either... They reaffirm to the masses the tought that Ninty is for children. The boycott indeed happens bro, go to forums about Wii U rage, see some games programs like the one in Globo channel that airs late in the night or even the site UOL. They all focus themselves on Sony and Microsoft products. Even with good launches on Nintendo Platforms such as 3DS and the U. Heck, they didn't even cover the launch of smash U, just done it for the 3DS version...
@LawRulesALL Hum, I never really cared for these brazilian gaming communities, but I will give'em a try. I really can't stand talking about gaming with most brazilians, they're so close minded. Why do you think they prefer any fighting game over Smash Bros? Because they don't understand it! They're so lazy to get into something new, that's why they're stuck playing FIFA( because they already know what to before even playing), and shooters are also pretty easy to get into.
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