Nintendo Pulls Out of Brazil

[Steven Bogos]

Nintendo Pulls Out of Brazil

Due to is insanely high electronics tariffs, Nintendo will no longer sell any products in Brazil.

Bad news for Brazilian Nintendo fans: the console manufacturer has announced that it is planning to halt all sales of all Nintendo products in the region. That means no consoles, games, or other official Nintendo accessories will be available for purchase in Brazil. The reason? The country's insanely high import taxes and tariffs on electronics.

"In response to ongoing developments in the Brazilian market, Nintendo of America Inc. today announced changes to the physical distribution of its products in that country. Starting in January 2015, Gaming do Brasil, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Juegos de Video Latinoamérica, GmbH, will no longer distribute Nintendo products in Brazil. Gaming do Brasil has distributed Nintendo products in the country for the past four years. Despite the changes in Brazil, Juegos de Video Latinoamérica will continue to be Nintendo's distributor for Latin America and they remain committed to the brand and the region," said Nintendo in an official statement [http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/10/7524759/nintendo-brazil-wii-u-3ds-tariffs-taxes].

It explained that "Brazil is an important market for Nintendo and home to many passionate fans, but unfortunately, challenges in the local business environment have made our current distribution model in the country unsustainable. These challenges include high import duties that apply to our sector and our decision not to have a local manufacturing operation."

For reference, the Wii U retailed in Brazil for 1,899 Brazilian Real, which works out to a whopping $700 USD. And if you think that's bad, buying a PS4 in Brazil will set you back 4,000 Brazilian Real, which is an insane $1,500 USD. The Xbox One on the other hand, despite being similarly priced to the PS4 in North America, is considerably cheaper in Brazil, at just 2,200 Brazilian Real or $800 USD - mostly due to the fact that Microsoft actually has a manufacturing plant in the region.

And I thought Australia's electronics import taxes were bad...

Source: Polygon [http://www.polygon.com/2015/1/10/7524759/nintendo-brazil-wii-u-3ds-tariffs-taxes]

Permalink

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

$4,000 FOR A PS4!!!! I can buy a hot tub with that money what the fuck is up with Brazil.

 

[Diablo2000]

$4,000 FOR A PS4!!!! I can buy a hot tub with that money what the fuck is up with Brazil.

Very, very bullshit taxes.
I am not surprised by this, Nintendo wasn't being given a fuck for a time now.

BTW: With that money it would be cheaper to book a flight to the US, buy one there and come back. (I read someone on the internet saying that and checked, it's indeed cheaper)

 

[grigjd3]

Wait, you mean the price differences that gamers are complaining all the time about might have more to do with their governments than with gaming companies trying to screw them over? Nooooo!!!!!!!!!! Seriously though, some price differences are ridiculous, but you should consider the effects of your government's policies. Companies like Ninty, $ony and M$ want everyone to buy their products because that means more $ for them. They get no benefit in alienating a nation. There is often (granted not always before the self righteous decide this comment should be skewered, and they will anyways) a likely governmental cause to these things.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

$4,000 FOR A PS4!!!! I can buy a hot tub with that money what the fuck is up with Brazil.

Very, very bullshit taxes.
I am not surprised by this, Nintendo wasn't being given a fuck for a time now.

BTW: With that money it would be cheaper to book a flight to the US, buy one there and come back. (I read someone on the internet saying that and checked, it's indeed cheaper)

wow that must suck. question? why do you guys have this shity tax on video game console.

 

[cathou]

$4,000 FOR A PS4!!!! I can buy a hot tub with that money what the fuck is up with Brazil.

Very, very bullshit taxes.
I am not surprised by this, Nintendo wasn't being given a fuck for a time now.

BTW: With that money it would be cheaper to book a flight to the US, buy one there and come back. (I read someone on the internet saying that and checked, it's indeed cheaper)

hey for the price of a PS4, you can take a flight, go to the US buy all 3 consols and come back...

 

[Diablo2000]

$4,000 FOR A PS4!!!! I can buy a hot tub with that money what the fuck is up with Brazil.

Very, very bullshit taxes.
I am not surprised by this, Nintendo wasn't being given a fuck for a time now.

BTW: With that money it would be cheaper to book a flight to the US, buy one there and come back. (I read someone on the internet saying that and checked, it's indeed cheaper)

wow that must suck. question? why do you guys have this shity tax on video game console.

It's because they are classified under "Gambling" (Which is wrong), they get a huge tax percentage, "72,18%" of the total valor to be exact and that's before all other taxes. So yeah, like I said, Bullshit.
A couple years ago there was a canditade who tried to pass a law to change that (Jogo Justo or translating it "Fair Game"), but he eventually lost all his voting support when he said he was going try to tax Steam. (His core audience being gamers did not take kindly to that)

 

[Baresark]

The Brazilian government stands as a shining example of the dangers of high tariffs and protectionism at it's worst. Good job Brazil, no wonder everyone is super crazy about soccer there, it's all they have to do because no one can import things into your country.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

It's because they are classified under "Gambling"

I have no words. How do you even get from Gambling to videogames.

 

[Supernova1138]

It's because they are classified under "Gambling"

I have no words. How do you even get from Gambling to videogames.

My guess is the law was more related to video poker machines and gaming consoles got thrown under that umbrella due to some ambiguous wording or some old geezer who had no idea what game console was.

 

[Big_Boss_Mantis]

$4,000 FOR A PS4!!!! I can buy a hot tub with that money what the fuck is up with Brazil.

Very, very bullshit taxes.
I am not surprised by this, Nintendo wasn't being given a fuck for a time now.

BTW: With that money it would be cheaper to book a flight to the US, buy one there and come back. (I read someone on the internet saying that and checked, it's indeed cheaper)

wow that must suck. question? why do you guys have this shity tax on video game console.

I can answer that. I am Brazilian and have a law degree. First there is the fact that our government is NOTORIOUSLY INCOMPETENT about taxes. See, in the US, when you buy a product, you see $$$ price + $$$ tax. We call this OUTSIDE TAX. What we have in Brazil is INSIDE TAX. We NEVER KNOW HOW MUCH WE ARE PAYING AS TAXES.
Not only that, we have a phenomenon where the same thing is being taxed by two different "tributes" (I am a little lost on the jargon, hope I can get across) and, as we have INSIDE TAX, the second tax is calculated over the price of the product INCLUDING THE FIRST TAX. We pay TAX OVER TAX! That's how it is in Brazil.
And our tax system is ""light"" on income (because IT AIN'T LIGHT), like the IRS, and HEAVY on consume.

That's a problem with the taxation of EVERYTHING. But videogames get it worse.
See, PC games are sold as Software, and are taxed the same as a Windows OS, or an MS Office. But videogames are taxed as TOYS, considered superfluous and RIDICULOUSLY OVERTAXED.
So we have the stupidity that Call Of Duty, or Assassin's Creed retail at R$ 99,90 (about 40 USD) and THE EXACT SAME GAME RETAIL FOR R$ 199,90 (about 80 USD) for PS3/PS4/X360/XBONE.

I really studied Law of the Public Sector and believe me... Brazil is a shitty country. That's just it. We are shitty.

There was a campaign to change it, named "jogo justo" (fair game), but there wasn't political interest to change it. Brazil's politics are disgusting.

So what we do? We have options.
1- travel to the US, pack our bags and hope they don't check;
2- buy it on the gray market, which is very strong. Lots of people live shipping lots of stuff from the US to the gray market here;
3- buy digital, lying about our addresses (I live on Altamonte Springs, Florida, even though I never set foot there);
4- buy on eBay and wait a loooooong time for international shipping. Viable only for software, never hardware.

2 and 3 are my favorites.

That said, anyone would receive my Club Nintendo Smash Bros promotional double CD and ship it to me? I would buy you a beer (apart of the shipping costs, obviously)!

 

[Big_Boss_Mantis]

$4,000 FOR A PS4!!!! I can buy a hot tub with that money what the fuck is up with Brazil.

Very, very bullshit taxes.
I am not surprised by this, Nintendo wasn't being given a fuck for a time now.

BTW: With that money it would be cheaper to book a flight to the US, buy one there and come back. (I read someone on the internet saying that and checked, it's indeed cheaper)

wow that must suck. question? why do you guys have this shity tax on video game console.

It's because they are classified under "Gambling" (Which is wrong), they get a huge tax percentage, "72,18%" of the total valor to be exact and that's before all other taxes. So yeah, like I said, Bullshit.
A couple years ago there was a canditade who tried to pass a law to change that (Jogo Justo or translating it "Fair Game"), but he eventually lost all his voting support when he said he was going try to tax Steam. (His core audience being gamers did not take kindly to that)

Damn ninja... LOL

It is not exactly "gambling" (which, by the way, is illegal in Brazil). "Toy" is more like it. It is a old law made for arcade machines and when owning a Sega GENESIS meant you were mega rich, and could afford a little overtax.
I didn't knew that he wanted to tax Steam (which, unfortunately, there is no legal reason for not being taxed, so he was right)...

Anyway the funny thing about all that is that the taxes are so absurd that people buy it on the gray market and the government don't see a penny of it. Stupid tax policy ALWAYS makes the gray market grow, and people avoiding to pay taxes.

 

[Diablo2000]

$4,000 FOR A PS4!!!! I can buy a hot tub with that money what the fuck is up with Brazil.

Very, very bullshit taxes.
I am not surprised by this, Nintendo wasn't being given a fuck for a time now.

BTW: With that money it would be cheaper to book a flight to the US, buy one there and come back. (I read someone on the internet saying that and checked, it's indeed cheaper)

wow that must suck. question? why do you guys have this shity tax on video game console.

It's because they are classified under "Gambling" (Which is wrong), they get a huge tax percentage, "72,18%" of the total valor to be exact and that's before all other taxes. So yeah, like I said, Bullshit.
A couple years ago there was a canditade who tried to pass a law to change that (Jogo Justo or translating it "Fair Game"), but he eventually lost all his voting support when he said he was going try to tax Steam. (His core audience being gamers did not take kindly to that)

Damn ninja... LOL

It is not exactly "gambling" (which, by the way, is illegal in Brazil). "Toy" is more like it. It is a old law made for arcade machines and when owning a Sega GENESIS meant you were mega rich, and could afford a little overtax.
I didn't knew that he wanted to tax Steam (which, unfortunately, there is no legal reason for not being taxed, so he was right)...

Anyway the funny thing about all that is that the taxes are so absurd that people buy it on the gray market and the government don't see a penny of it. Stupid tax policy ALWAYS makes the gray market grow, and people avoiding to pay taxes.

I think people were pissed off about the Steam mostly because they were paying taxes over a non-physical product, which is understantable, plus no one in the right mind want more taxes.
And aren't videogames over the jogos de azar (Translating it's Luck Games for our english speaking buds) taxes, therefore being something akin to gambling and not toys?

 

[Big_Boss_Mantis]

Snip

I think people were pissed off about the Steam mostly because they were paying taxes over a non-physical product, which is understantable, plus no one in the right mind want more taxes.
And aren't videogames over the jogos de azar (Translating it's Luck Games for our english speaking buds) taxes, therefore being something akin to gambling and not toys?

Actually, I heard both versions, "gambling" (jogos de azar) and "toy" (brinquedos eletrônicos), but never from a reliable, official source. (Unfortunately, I am used to the press printing gross mistakes)
I am a lawyer, not a tax man, but "toy" always made more sense to me (since gambling is illegal). But I am not positive about that.

Either way, it is badly categorized and absurdly taxed.

 

[Diablo2000]

Snip

I think people were pissed off about the Steam mostly because they were paying taxes over a non-physical product, which is understantable, plus no one in the right mind want more taxes.
And aren't videogames over the jogos de azar (Translating it's Luck Games for our english speaking buds) taxes, therefore being something akin to gambling and not toys?

Actually, I heard both versions, "gambling" (jogos de azar) and "toy" (brinquedos eletrônicos), but never from a reliable, official source. (Unfortunately, I am used to the press printing gross mistakes)
I am a lawyer, not a tax man, but "toy" always made more sense to me (since gambling is illegal). But I am not positive about that.

Either way, it is badly categorized and absurdly taxed.

This does make sense considering that videogames were pretty much classified by our stores as "Toys" before Tec-Toy game along with Sega and change that somewhat. But a large amount of those were NES or Master System clones assembled in Brazil (Oh, how times have changed, this shit wouldn't pass these days), therefore no taxes over then. I found it weird because I always heard it was over "gambling". Maybe it's not technicly illegal to ship them in and just to play them? I don't know, the law can be weird like that sometimes.

 

[Roxas1359]

This sucks for the possible few people who have Wii U's or 3DS games in Brazil, especially because of the fact that the consoles are region locked, although I'm sure those people probably also imported their systems as well.

 

[BoogieManFL]

Hey look, more laws that are governing things that they obviously aren't suited to govern. That's what happens when all your politicians are a bunch old geezers who are completely out of touch with the times.

Good job pricing yourself into oblivion. Instead of working out a reasonable deal, you'll instead demand an absurd amount of money and drive people to seek other ways of obtaining them, ways you won't see ANY money for.

GOOD PLAN!

 

[Diablo2000]

This sucks for the possible few people who have Wii U's or 3DS games in Brazil, especially because of the fact that the consoles are region locked, although I'm sure those people probably also imported their systems as well.

Most of our consoles come from Grey Market, imports from the US. So, we will be fine of Nintendo products. The problem is that there's seems to be less and less stores selling 3ds games. Even in Rio's own Uruguayana, a big Grey Market\Piracy\Whatever thing (Visit it if you ever come, just stay clear from more shady individuals) I could only find one store with extremely limited supply.

 

[FalloutJack]

But now the Brazillians won't get to play Blanka anymore!

 

[KisaiTenshi]

This sucks for the possible few people who have Wii U's or 3DS games in Brazil, especially because of the fact that the consoles are region locked, although I'm sure those people probably also imported their systems as well.

Most of our consoles come from Grey Market, imports from the US. So, we will be fine of Nintendo products. The problem is that there's seems to be less and less stores selling 3ds games. Even in Rio's own Uruguayana, a big Grey Market\Piracy\Whatever thing (Visit it if you ever come, just stay clear from more shady individuals) I could only find one store with extremely limited supply.

I think there is some morbid irony in that international gamers have to assume an American ID just to play games sold on the American Marketplace because their domestic marketplace is such a disaster. See also Australia.

This is why people get rightfully upset at region locking and DRM, at the surface it looks like the content creators are being dicks, but the deeper story is that every government wants their own piece of the pie, and knows damn well that people will buy from the cheapest origin country, even if the game isn't in their language.

Software is this magical concept. It costs nothing to produce unlimited copies, so the ability to do price discrimination is unlimited. But that doesn't mean all software should be free, but it does mean that taxing software is arbitrary set at whatever the government wants to set it at. If the companies want to stand up to the government, they would just release the software for free in "trial" mode, and then turn a blind eye to the customers buying US unlock codes.