Nintendo is leaving the Brazilian market, giving the local business environment as its reason. This month, the publisher and hardware giant will cease distribution of all of its products, software and hardware, in the country.
Brazil has high import taxes, especially on foreign technological goods, which Nintendo could circumvent by manufacturing its products in the country, but that’s not the only problem that the company faces. UOL Jogos, a Brazilian gaming outlet, claims Nintendo had distribution problems in the region, and that eShop sales were hampered by local banking regulations, which prevent the use of certain bank cards with storefronts that list prices in local currency but charge in US dollars.
“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,” a company representative wrote GameInformer. “Starting in January 2015, Gaming do Brasil […] 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.
“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,” the representative continued. “These challenges include high import duties that apply to our sector and our decision not to have a local manufacturing operation. We will continue to monitor the evolution of the business environment and evaluate how best to serve our Brazilian fans in the future.”
This development is sad, but not entirely unexpected. Gaming has been an expensive hobby in Brazil for a while now, even before this latest console generation, which saw the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One debut in the country for USD$1,850 and USD$1,000, respectively.
The only recourse Brazilian fans of Nintendo have now is to import their games and hardware. Then again, they already do that for most everything else, so maybe the situation isn’t such a sad one, after all.
