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Brazil gets its own special pricing policy on Steam (and its currency)
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MrChocolate
Member
Can any brazilian say if this is any good? I don't know whats the current price of games over there.
their gaming market is chocked with inflated prices so it's very good.
Yep. As of right now, this is great news for brazilian gamers.
dinosaur_hunter2
Member
I can. And they're good, they're not even doing the conversion. For example, 1 dollar is roughly equivalent to 2.05 reais. There's a tax here called IOF that is applied on any financial operation (usually 6.38%), so you'd have to add that to the pile. I liked the prices and am really surprised with that.
MrChocolate
Member
Ok thanks for the replies.
Gaben, now do the same with the rest of South America. We seriously need it.
Gaben, now do the same with the rest of South America. We seriously need it.
I thought only Brazil had this problem with inflated prices. Consoles cost ridiculous amount of money there.
Madrugador
Member
Wonder how this will affect the rest of South America.
I prefer to pay in dollars, but it could be interesting to pay in my local currency if the prices are lower.
I prefer to pay in dollars, but it could be interesting to pay in my local currency if the prices are lower.
ColossalLazy
Member
Thats a pretty good conversion for us, since 1$ = 2R$ nowadays.
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
I basically think this, like special pricing for CIS-Russia and India and China, is a pretty good idea.
It's a temporary measure at best and I don't like the way companies game globalization to access new markets while at the same time expecting developed world customers not to revolt against price stratification, and I'm very much against region locking or anti-import provisions that prevent consumers from taking advantage of this stuff.
But in a temporary context, in these specific geographical areas, in this specific industry, it seems like the right thing to do.
It's a temporary measure at best and I don't like the way companies game globalization to access new markets while at the same time expecting developed world customers not to revolt against price stratification, and I'm very much against region locking or anti-import provisions that prevent consumers from taking advantage of this stuff.
But in a temporary context, in these specific geographical areas, in this specific industry, it seems like the right thing to do.
dinosaur_hunter2
Member
Yup, a Xbox 360 manufactured here costs about 800 dollars. And that's because it is manufactured here, it was much worse before that. A 3DS costs around 400 dollars and so on. It usually is 4 times the price in the US.
Only Brazil.
cutmeamango
Banned
Great pricing, falls along pc games pricing properly distributed here in Brazil.
Brazil only.
Brazil only.
The absurd taxes only affect console games and hardware, PC games are taxed as regular software so they pay much lower taxes.
For example FIFA 13 is R$99 on PC, R$179 on Xbox 360/PS3. Same game, same publisher, different taxes.
I was asking about the name Real rather than the Brazillian Real in particular.
Sgt.Pepper
Banned
This is great. I hope they do it to all South America too.
I'm from Brazil and I don't know if this will be good or not.
First of all the dollar fluctuates a lot here at times. So right now our currency is about 2 dollars to 1 real, but it has been as low as 1.7 dollars to 1 real. A long time ago, when real was implemented, we had an exchange rate of 1 dollar to 1 real during some time. It was awesome for the middle/high class, imported goods were a lot cheaper, we could travel abroad easily and all that. (after a while our stupid government decided to raise the dollar price so our crappy industries don't sink in the global market).
Since every single attempt to get games here is usually a huge fail for me (for example, we have Diablo and Starcraft here released officialy, but I purchased both from Blizzard's online store, paying a higher price for them) I'm a bit worried about steam doing this. I don't mind at all paying in dollar and now I'm worried this will make some games unavailable to us or some weird prices. Is that conversion rate mandatory or can companies still price the games how much they want in real or even not make them available at all here? That's my main concern...
Talking about consoles now, I get every single game for them imported from China. It does take a month or two to get them here due to customs and mail service, but it's almost half the price stores charge for these games here.
First of all the dollar fluctuates a lot here at times. So right now our currency is about 2 dollars to 1 real, but it has been as low as 1.7 dollars to 1 real. A long time ago, when real was implemented, we had an exchange rate of 1 dollar to 1 real during some time. It was awesome for the middle/high class, imported goods were a lot cheaper, we could travel abroad easily and all that. (after a while our stupid government decided to raise the dollar price so our crappy industries don't sink in the global market).
Since every single attempt to get games here is usually a huge fail for me (for example, we have Diablo and Starcraft here released officialy, but I purchased both from Blizzard's online store, paying a higher price for them) I'm a bit worried about steam doing this. I don't mind at all paying in dollar and now I'm worried this will make some games unavailable to us or some weird prices. Is that conversion rate mandatory or can companies still price the games how much they want in real or even not make them available at all here? That's my main concern...
Talking about consoles now, I get every single game for them imported from China. It does take a month or two to get them here due to customs and mail service, but it's almost half the price stores charge for these games here.
_illmatic_
Member
Expensive games was the trade off for the worlds most beautiful women. Now you get the best of both worlds. I'm moving......
But it is a huge market for games. Yesterday I read on the newspaper that Brazil is now the 4th largest market for games worldwide. I can translate the main info of the article if you want.
cutmeamango
Banned
Well, that's the name of our currency. Real. The 'brazilian' in Brazilian Real is a mere identification of its nationality due to the probably unknown relation of currency name to country. Not a differentiation.
"Real?"
"The brazilian
Not
"Which Real?"
"The brazilian Real."
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
Honestly, it's just a matter of population numbers. Imagine you're a business, and you sell a product everyone on earth wants, but your pricing strategy only allows people in the developed world to buy it. Now imagine you need to tell your investors that of the top 10 population countries in the world, you're only selling in 20, because you're not willing to lower your margins or change your models to tap the other countries?
Countries by population
1 China 1,347,350,000
2 India 1,210,193,422
3 United States 314,548,000
4 Indonesia 237,641,326
5 Brazil 193,946,886
6 Pakistan 180,891,000
7 Nigeria 166,629,000
8 Bangladesh 152,518,015
9 Russia 143,200,000
10 Japan 127,520,000
It's a no-brainer that Brazil would be a huge market if people just bothered to sell to them... so why let second-string Brazillian companies be the ones to take the profits?
Messofanego
Banned
Wow, for real? Is there some kind of list? I'm curious about the other countries.
dinosaur_hunter2
Member
A small correction, FIFA 13 is R$59 on PC. But yes, PC games are taxed differently.
PixelHorror
Member
Other Latin American countries should get these kind of pricing ajustments, USD dollar is crazy expensive and piracy is such a common sight.
This more or less matches the prices charged by PC gaming distributors (full price new release = R$99), which has been cheaper than US prices since the currency rate went up a while ago.
So, a US$59.99 release would cost R$120 on Steam, but only R$99 in physical stores and local DD retailers (including Origin).
Steam was actually getting some competition lately in Brazil: EA's Origin always charged in Reais and usually sells cheaper than in the US and we have two Brazilian DD stores (Nuuven and Xogo) which offer great deals and accept local credit cards and other payment methods.
Harlock
Member
PC games were always cheaper than console games. 99 Reais (~ U$ 50) for PC game and 180/200 Reais (~ U$ 100) for new console games. Sometimes Sony and Microsoft sell for lower prices, but not that much. The worst case of all is Nintendo, because is represented by Lamatel and your prices are always the high. The combination of high tax and greedy retailers make the prices be way too high. The piracy is not the main problem, prices are.
I believe that Steam will be taxed by the brazilian government in the future. This payment method changing is not a good signal.
I believe that Steam will be taxed by the brazilian government in the future. This payment method changing is not a good signal.
Never heard of them and I REALLY would not trust my money on those two companies. What if they go down? You lose all games you bought?
I read your post above, seems you're really out of the loop with the PC market in Brazil. Those two companies sell CD-keys bought from wholesale CD-key distributors, just like any DD store that isn't Steam or GoG. Back up your install and your keys and you're golden.
You can also pay using boleto, so you don't need to risk your credit card. We still need to know if Valve is going to support local paying methods.
Nop, about R$ 1200,00.
Nuuvem is pretty reliable actually, got sleeping dogs from them in a promo for 25$. Since I usually stick to steamworks games, I do not worry that much about them going down.
Yeah, a friend just told me that. I almost always play on my xbox and get only deals on steam or my hack and slash fix with games like Diablo and Torchlight =P
Stumpokapow
listen to the mad man
The source is a prominent eastern european blogger who broke the STALKER/GSC closure earlier this year. I seem to remember he worked in marketing for games over there as well. Presumably he took an interest to the story because the Brazilian situation is basically the same as the CIS-situation, and presumably his source is a developer who was alerted by Valve and told to pick a pricepoint in time for the Brazilian launch.
wilmar.dupont
Neo Member
That's pretty good for sure. If only PSN was like this.
I NEED SCISSORS
Banned
crazygambit
Member
It's not exclusive to Brazil. I think it's a problem in all South America. I can say that this is an issue for sure in Chile, though it has gotten better we still pay 1.5x-2x American prices and per capita income is much lower, so in relative terms videogames are super expensive over here.
Last time I saw a truly researched list it was
USA
The UK (surprising I know)
Japan
Brazil
Canada and a bunch of other European countries.
Projectjustice
Banned
I hope their online infrastructure gets better. I avoid them whenever i get on GGPO or Supercade.
The article don't mention the first, second and third countries, but it should be the US, Japan and the UK.
Main facts from the article:
- The games industry generated 840 million reais in 2011 (about 413 million US Dollars)
- 7,1% Growth YOY
- 23% of the brazilian population plays videogames on some level (about 45,2 million people)
- Mostly plays on Console, followed by PC, Smartphones and tablets, and handhelds.
- Only 53% of the videogames players are male. A huge untapped female market is in here.