Nintendo withdraws from Brazilian market, fearing high taxes

"Mario" Game developers Nintendo January 12 revealed that the company plans to end its operations in South America (UOL Brazil), Nintendo will no longer sell hardware and software products in Brazil, the company said that the current Brazilian import and export tax makes the region's investment needs to continue to increase. Brazil uses very high tax rates to protect its manufacturing sector and encourages overseas companies to build factories in their home countries to create more job opportunities. Nintendo could have built its own localization company in Brazil to avoid high taxes, but the company decided to leave the Brazilian market because of the cost.

Brazil is one of the growing markets in the game market, but most companies are taking PCs and free game-oriented businesses in the region because it makes it easier to avoid high taxes.

"Brazil is a very important market for Nintendo and a gathering place for a lot of loyal fans," said Bill Van Zyll, general manager of the Nintendo Latin America Department in a statement. Unfortunately, the challenges of the local business environment make it difficult for our current distribution model to work in Brazil. ”

Nintendo's local partner in Brazil, Juegos de video Latinoamerica, had previously been responsible for the region's Wii U and Nintendo game distribution, but according to Nintendo's statement, the company will no longer be responsible after this month. Nintendo also did not specify how much income it received from the Brazilian region, but only divided its income into Japan, Europe and the Americas. The United States, Canada and Mexico have made good money for the company, although Brazil's GDP is the sum of all the rest of South America, but the market seems unlikely to be the fourth largest source of revenue for Nintendo's Americas.

However, Nintendo does not permanently stop entering the Brazilian market. "[Nintendo] is working closely with Juegos de video Latinoamerica, we will look at changes in the business environment in the region and find the best way to serve Brazilian fans in the future," Van Zyll said. We will continue to focus on the market to ensure that future opportunities in the region can be enhanced. ”

In fact, the cost of gaming companies entering Brazil has always been more expensive.

When PS4 in the Brazilian region in 2013, Sony sold $1845 in the region, and the company explained to fans that it was not intentionally to increase the price, but because of taxes and tariffs in Brazil, 60% of the $1845 trillion was given to the Brazilian government.

In early 2013, Sony had solved the high tax problem by building a local factory in Brazil, so the price of PS 3 in the Brazilian region was not too high.

But before that, the high host gaming costs in Brazil have led many players to free-mode PC games, so the region's players spend most of their time and money on the free PC gaming market, and the League of Legends and Legion Fortress 2 are hot in the region, The two products have accumulated over the past 12 months in the Brazilian region, up to $420 million trillion.

In fact, in addition to high taxes, the Brazilian player's shift to free gaming may also be another important reason for Nintendo's reluctance to build local factories in Brazil.