Nintendo Switch Launches In Brazil With More Than 100 Games Available Day One

Great that more people get to experience such a unique and portable console with some of the best software of any console ever glad to see more people can have access to games that will definitely make people's childhood this will be really big I think there because up till now they have been pretty much playing the Sega genesis with it being still popular there today if my memory serves correctly which is kind of odd considering how old it is lol. Correct me if I'm thinking if somewhere else besides Brazil here haha.

I know people have been importing it, but there is a huge population in Brazil. Great news! I am happy for them.

Chinese eShop has left the chat.

Now that's a good set of launch titles lol. Glad to see them reenter with a bang.

No! I don't wanna go to Brazil! NO! NOOOOOOO

My currency converter says its $53,899 usd... I'm assuming that's wrong.

I live in Brazil but already have my Switch since the first week. Good for other people that wish to buy, though.
Next step, a proper Brazilian eshop.

Damn, that must be incredible having a launch lineup like that!

@Cool_Squirtle you probably put 299,00, but it's 2999,00

It still baffles me that Nintendo apparently ignored such a large market.

Or does Brazil have extra strict laws on gaming? Or did they have them and something change recently?

Yeah! We are glad that Nintendo is officialy back in Brazil with the Switch console, but we have the Brazilian Nintendo Oficial Store since 2017. More than having the consoles in store officialy imported by Nintendo, the thing that we need is the physical games to officialy come to Brazil. Prices are getting crazy.

@Heavyarms55 Basically Brazil law requires the whole console to be manufactured in Brazil. This is why for example the Sega Megadrive was a huge success in Brazil.. This is of course absurd, and I assume something has in fact change since I doubt Brazil has it's own chip fabricator.

@Heavyarms55 are you giving Nintendo the benefit of the doubt here? Because its entirely on Nintendo not regional policies. They have been and still are ignoring most “Other” markets beyond West and Japan.

Yeah, this is great. It's only digital games (which we have since 2018, I think...), but there was no official seller and support for hardware. I'm brazilian and I already have the console since September 2017. I bought it from R$950,00 (a friend bring it to me from US) but it was costing about R$1700,00 at the time in the "gray market" (I don't know if other countries have this expression, it means the console was legit bought in other countries then sold in Brazil, it's something like scalper) but now days it was at least R$3500,00 and I saw a lot of stores selling at R$4500,00.

@Heavyarms55 in fact we have a congressman trying to cut off some taxes. It is overtaxed (about 40%, plus others taxes) and computer parts, smartphones and other electronics have smaller taxes (about 15% plus other taxes).

@Agriculture I don’t think thats accurate. Nintendo was in Brazil until the early years of the Wii U. The problem here is that there is a huge percentage of taxes over imported eletronic products. Consoles that were manufectured in Brazil could bypass this taxes and sell for a cheaper price.

Pure marketing, while in reality the prices are prohibitive. Exchange rates and taxation bring the cost of the console to a ridiculous ~U$600 and while the eshop has been available for a long time, the selection is kinda lacking. Also, nintendo is actually RAISING their prices, even for old games.

I am guessing it costs R$2999.00 Which is 464 Euro or $540.

I bought mine in US, but I'm purchasing games through Loja Nintendo as mentioned in the article (which is like eShop but exclusive to browsers, not sure why they don't offer a proper eShop). Glad Nintendo is back, though, I hope they're successful now that all consoles are pretty much with similar prices.

As for Sega still being a thing, honestly, I have no idea why people still think that, haha. PlayStation 2 was a huge hit here (still somewhat is due to piracy and social contrast in different regions of the country), but we're gamers by heart, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were also a huge hit. Nintendo unfortunately lost its space to PlayStation and Xbox.

If you were to look statistically, I believe most gamers play in their smartphones in Brazil due to lower prices. In console space, PlayStation leads.

@Heavyarms55 Nintendo was officialy in Brazil for a long time, but they left In the early years of the Wii U. Probably because there was even less interest in the Wii U and 3DS in Brazil, than in other countries at the time.

In a way, getting all those Nintendo first-party exclusives on day one is pretty cool.

I bought my console in April 2017 at the Nintendo store in New York. And I believe that most Switch owners around here, have done the same, because the prices practiced here are exorbitant. Nintendo left the country in 2015. She threw a big party for the launch of WiiU in a Hotel in Sao Paulo and I was present. I hope that with this return, more people will have the opportunity to get to know the Switch. Oh, and I also hope that physical games are also sold.

That’s a proper launch. I remember the Switch launch in China only had one game and that was a Wii U port.

The sega master system is officially on notice!

@Saemon Regional policies are definitely at play here. Brazil has huge taxes on imported electronics, they try to encourage everything made in country. You don't think of Brazil first when you think of chipset manufacturers, do you?

@Vil8000 @LucBL Is there much hope for the Switch launch in Brazil?

@Agriculture that's 100% wrong. There are fiscal benefits to who produced goods inside our borders, but imported goods are not forbidden at all. This import ban was real in the past but it was 30 years ago.

Most of those games were already present on the e-shop.

We got the Pro Controller at least, but at a steep price.

@Cool_Squirtle $360.82 USD

@dustinprewitt It's amazing how much of a phenomenon the Master System was over there. Great little machine, I loved mine...

@RCGamer Games are taxed that much more than other electronics? Why? Do you have some uber conservative anti-fun old farts running Brazil? Or some of those religious nuts who think having fun is the work of the devil or something?

@Agriculture Oh, so it's manufacturing protectionist policies. I see. That makes more sense than what I thought initially.

Good news. Next step: more sales/deals in the national eShop (even if they are aligned with those in North America, as in the Brazilian 3DS eShop), because that's the only way to buy several of the games; prices are prohibitive for the current economic situation in Brazil. The local currency is very devalued (USD 1.00 = R $ 5.50, whereas in January it was R $ 4.00).

FINALLY SOMETHING TO REPLACE THE SEGA MASTER SYSTEM! 😆

I'm sure that they'll be competitively priced too, right???

I don't even know why they bothered. Brazil have a really good import system going and anyone who wanted one could get one quite easily.

Aside from the fact that it would likely be cheaper to import it themselves than doing to through Nintendo.

No complete launch games list?

The real good benefit here is that the grey market prices will now have to adapt to the official prices... Having the official one without propper translations, warranty and eShop doesn't mean much for the fans that already bought the console and is using a US eShop... And I don't think THAT many people will buy this instead of a ps4 for a son/daughter...

@Savino Agreed. And the fact that Series S is launching at a similar price point, will make the switch a harder sell as well.

At least the digital game prices in the BR store are cheaper than what we would spend on the US eshop, so that's a good thing

I am Brazilian and from time to time the economy has changed a lot. Even though the Switch being released officially is more expensive than before when it was imported ... but due to the current world situation it is cheaper than the imported one. So I don't think it's bad, the joy cons also have a more competitive price.

And there are people saying that is the end of Switch Oline? BRs are the best, huehuehue br br

@Razer Unfortunately due to high demand the imported prices went WAY up so Nintendo actually is forcing stores to bring the price down a bit.

@HotGoomba Brazilians play Switch since launch day...
imported. The difference is that it has only officially arrived.

@Heavyarms55 There are many nuances. A lot of electronics have imported components, but are partially or completely assembled in Brazil, or some segments might have specific laws do reduce taxations.

@Heavyarms55 Games and consoles are taxed as "gambling goods" which are hit really heavy (40%). Add in import taxes (60% on original price+shipping), sale (from the manufacturer) and re-sale (store) taxes (around 30%) and "service" taxes (5~10%), some of those have to be paid more than once (our system is a mess...) and we have Brazil.
Also, I simplified A LOT how taxes actually work here.

Then more countires that get teh switch the better, also Brazil could do with a nice distraction about now

@Heavyarms55 videogames was compared to gambling. Now gambling is forbbiden and they didn't change the tax

With their prices and economy, and with how late it is into the consoles life, they would be better off buying it used once the new console comes out.

@thiagofreire @RCGamer Ah, okay. Honestly I can see it. Especially with all the loot boxes and mircotransactions these days. I don't favor the high taxes of course, but I do see how they could make that comparison.

@Krockman What? I don't think you realize that I was memeing.

@HotGoomba Okay, in peace

@Heavyarms55 but the comparison was made in the 80s... They could compare with board games, for example.

Nintendo 3DS: You're going to Brazil.
Nintendo Switch: NOOOOOO!

@Ghostchip No man, we have all the regular consoles here. Most people dont buy videogames in the regular markets, they import or buy from stores that sell imported ones (which are everywhere)

Why would it take this long to release it there in the first place? Seems like an obvious huge missed opportunity.

VAI CORINTHIANS

@Felipevelloso oh okay guess I must be mixing up locations then lol enjoy some mario zelda and fire emblem over there!

I'm glad that it's finally available here in official capacity, but I do hope that it's not just another half baked attempt like they did with the WiiU back in the day, with no official eshop and sparsely available physical games.

@Vil8000 That's what I meant. They never outright banned things like the NES, but it would have been to expensive since it had that import tax, which the Megadrive avoided by manufacturing it in Brazil.

@Agriculture My bad, it is as you said. The companies have to choose between producing the consoles in Brazil to have an “affordable price” or import it with a price that dosen’t match the purchasing power of the majority of brazilians.

This is actually pretty awesome, thumbs up. Although most people who wanted one in Brazil already had one probably. That's also a sneaky way of Nintendo saying they had the best launch in history.

@thiagofreire

But many Countries have that kind of Taxes or similiar ones.
Normally Contracts like Mercosur and free trade agreements are made to skip those Taxes.

And i can understand why such Taxes are made.
Some Countries are subzidizing their Industry hardly, if your Country import that kind of Goods, your local not supported Industry can't compete.

Will the Switch manage to dethrone the almighty Master System in Brazil?

Or will the plucky 8-Bit Sega System that refuses to die manage to endure yet again?

By the way, that's not a joke. The Master System has been in Brazil since 1989 and remained very popular and in production since then.

Even with 100 games at launch, I don't think the Switch will be winning in Brazil anytime soon.

Which is kinda funny when you think about it. Sega is not even in the home console business anymore, and yet one of their pieces of hardware still manages to thrive and endure all these years later to the point where the Master System now holds the record for the longest lifespan of any console ever made.

That is so strange and warms my heart as a Sega fanboy.

@Heavyarms55 We have two problems here: High taxation and a lot of tax evasion sellers. Also, a big pirate hardware market. On the ps2 era, many could simply not afford to pay the prices official stores were asking for games and controllers, so the counterfeit market grew a lot.

But taxation is the number one culprit. The switch here is costing almost 400 USD...

@Caryslan Dude...We do not live in the stone age. Sorry to break your Sega heart, but the master system is dead here. It was the first console I owned ( 25 years ago). The king here is playstation, since the ps1.

@Caryslan I knew it somebody told me I was wrong but I knew a sega console was the big boy in Brazil! Yeah at games owns the rights to the console (they've done a lot of cool stuff with this purchase I have an arcade cabinet that was cheap with tons of sega stuff and other!) So they've kept production going in Brazil so thank atgames

@Heavyarms55

Brasil has extra strict laws on anything not made in Brasil.