http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/10/7524759/nintendo-brazil-wii-u-3ds-tariffs-taxes Apparently due to the absurdly high taxes on imported electronics (aka why the PS4 is over a thousand dollars there) and maybe piracy too, Nintendo is going to stop selling in Brazil.
Actually it's not Nintendo, but the official distributor. Their latin american distributor "gave up" on Brazil. I's different because Nintendo never really cared about Brazil. For example, they refused to comply with a recently changed Brazilian bank's rule for credit card process, making their online store unusable by anyone with a Brazilians account. This is not something new, it's being over a year. Both Sony and Microsoft changed their online stores to work with these rules in less than a month. They were just giving excuses, not really trying to do real business here. Both Microsoft and Sony have being translating their games to brazilian portuguese in such a way that it's become a normal thing. Nintendo doesn't give a damn about this. Yes, Taxes are very high but both Microsoft and Sony are trying. Microsoft really needs praise on this. They manufacture the Xbox 360 and Xbox One, press their games here and really work hard to support their customers. Sony does manufacture the PS3, but no the PS4. Still, they press the game discs here and although i think they lack on quality, they are cheaper than importing. Nintendo still kept importing the game discs and only adding a slipcover with portuguese text. The PS4 is hugely expensive but anyone wanting one just import the system, buy it on a trip or get in on game stores (gray market). The actual game prices have lowered to the point it's basicly the same price is US. And with online stores doing sales, sometimes even cheaper. The official distributor sold 3DS and WiiU games with a ridiculous overpriced system, more expensive than anything from Microsoft and Sony. Also, both of them have been increasing their shelf space on stores, while Nintendo still sits in the corner. Honestly the distributor leaving the country doesn't mean anything. Anyone with a 3DS and WiiU or any interest in purchasing any of those will just create a Canadian or US online account and import the systems and games.
Microsoft and Sony might be trying but you also have to remember that Sony and Microsoft make other products to outset costs. Because it wouldn't make sense if the consoles were the only thing they manufacturer there to get past the taxes. As with Nintendo the games and console are the only thing that gives them an income at the moment and a smallish user base (not saying Brazil is a small market but the Wii-U and 3DS user base probably would be there) and extremely high tax rate would have pushed them out of the market so it would of made sense for them to do this on a purely financial point of view. EDIT - fixed a few mistakes (still might be some there though lol)
Yeah, if you are outside the USA or Canada, Nintendo really sucks. They do this in Mexico, too. Consoles 3 times or more expensive than prices in the US, making them more expensive or same prices as Sony and MS consoles, jacking up the prices of any game that has Mario or Zelda on the cover both in retail stores and in their eshop for Latin America, so you cannot escape the Mario tax, etc. I guess Nintendo sees Latin America as a sort of an "optional bonus" and not as a market they have to win from the hands of Microsoft and Sony, who offer better prices both in retail and their online stores, as well as in game text and voice acting in spanish.
It's not that Nintendo was ever "Official" in Brazil. They always relied on other companies for distribution. Remember that they are required to have technical assistance in varios cities around the country. Their business model for small markets is like that. Another company does the job. It's kind of an opportunity for a business right now.
It's a pretty slacking for a business to work like that. Would individuals importing be beneficial for customers in brazil?
I'm not saying Nintendo should spend a huge ammount of money just to enter the country. But they could, at least, check if their distributor is doing a good job. They could make money here and in other south american countries. Still, Nintendo haven't even bothered fixing a credit card process problem that won't allow them to receive money from online purchases! I mean, really?! Also where is the difficult to press game discs in the region and have a better distribution system for south america?! As for being a small market, it's not difficult to find kids with a DS/3DS, just like in the days of the GameboyColor. During the time the rights were with Playtronic / Gradiente, consoles and games were assembled here. They even translated some games, had a real marketing strategy and even though games were just as expensive, they were actually selling. People actually saw Nintendo products on stores. Honestly Nintendo is just insane. Region locking, digital purchases tied to console and not the account, overpriced games, ridiculous overseas strategy... They always have to do things more difficult than it should.
Thanks for the insight here guys. With prices so high in Brazil, it's amazing anybody buys games at all. Shame to see Nintendo gone from the area, if for nothing else it just looks bad.
With the high tax's is it not much cheaper if Brazilians to open a US Playstation account and buy PSN cards through PayPal instead of using their own currency on the Brazilian store, They are probably doing this on the Nintendo store that's why Nintendo did't bother because most will just use the US store anyway.
The situation is a lot better than it used to be. It's not difficult to pre-order / buy games at launch paying the same prices that in US. Sometimes even cheaper. There are some still people whining, but these are people that used to love piracy and think games should cost 10 Reais. Games ranging from 120 to 160 Reais is a normal price for a physical copy. But it's not difficult to find recent games (1 year old) for 80, 90 Reais. This is amazing, specially when you remember the dollar is now worth 2,63 Reais. A couple of years ago games used to cost 199 Reais or even more (even when the dollar was 1,70 Reais), hence why most people imported from US and Asian online stores. I remember buying GT5 Collectors Edition with the help of Assembler and in the end it was just a bit more than buying the regular GT5 from Sony Brazil. The price has gone down because the market is getting better and stable. Stores like FNAC used to have a very small game section, but now they have decent spaces with demo kiosks, big TVs and shelves full of games. This is mostly because Sony and Microsoft press their discs here and manufacture the consoles as well (except the PS4). The hardware is still expensive, although Microsoft efforts are really worth of praise. You can buy a Xbox One for about 500 dollars. The PS4 is still worth importing as the official one costs 3.999 Reais and the grey market between 1.600 / 2.000 Reais. But it won't be long till they manufacture it here. As for PSN and XBOX Live, having a US account is no problem. The biggest different nowadays is content, sometimes not available in the Brazilian stores because of licensing. As the currency skyrocket, the price different between the US and Brazilian online stores are probably the same. Nintendo on the other hand had a distributor that imported the games from US, added a slipcover with brazilian portuguese text and sold the game with higher prices than anything from Sony or Microsoft. Not only that, you had to hunt for their games. Plus Nintendo allowed people to create a Brazilian online account on the 3DS and WiiU only to make it impossible to buy anything. When Microsoft opened the Brazilian Xbox Live Store they allowed people to migrate their US accounts, if they wanted. Sony haven't done this, but still allows anyone to have multiple accounts if they decide so. Nintendo locks the account to the console.
Nintendo never bothered doing business in Latin America or anywhere outside the three mayor markets, they just translate games to Spanish and they only started doing this on the Wii days. If they ever try to sell consoles here it's probably with some third-world console they will put zero effort in, like the iQue.
Sorry my engrish is bad. Do you mean the Nintendo side or the distributor side? Isn't (or wasn't) in some countries in Europe this same way? I remember seeing some PAL boxes made by a local distributor. (Halifax in Italy?) The individuals importing would be just like the US people that sell "japanese imports". They call it "L@@K RARE!!!" Play Asia looks better, IMO. Actually, Brazil just lost the overpriced cheap translated manuals. Nothing really changing despite facebook noobs making it look worse. The "business part" I'm saying is not only about the games, but more about the consoles, where the distributor needs technical assistance like Microsoft and Sony, Apple, Phillips, LG, Samsung have. Because consumer rights, etc. You can't just send a broken console in warranty to USA for repair. If the shop sell an imported console, they need someone to cover the warranty. There are "unofficial" distributors, aka "importers" to cover that (companies, not individuals). The shops can't handle that by themselves.
Without going into detail about my work, we ship refurbished networking equipment internationally and Brazil is such a pain that we have a dedicated department that handles nothing but Brazil freight. It is ridiculous the levels we have to go to get customs to even allow an order to ship then about half the time they refuse to let it into the country and the freight comes back. I honestly have no idea how we make money off those shipments but there has to be some there because they have been working with Brazilian customs for over 2 years to get to where we are now.
Precisely what they did for Brazilians. Right now zero Nintendo-authorized brick and mortar hardware or software distribution exists in the country. Wide open for further gray market shenanigans.
