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Sony is overcharging Brazilian customers and don't answer why

D

DD

Member
AgIdDBo.jpg


Other examples:

I Am Setsuna - R$ 123 on PSN - R$ 73 on Steam
Dead Island - R$ 150 on PSN - R$ 79 on Xbox Live - R$ 74 on Steam.
Adr1ft - R$ 71,50 on PSN - R$ 37 on Steam)
ABZÛ - R$ 61,50 on PSN - R$ 37 on Steam
Batman: The Telltale Series - R$ 77 on PSN - R$ 46 on Steam.

They didn't awnswered UOL Jogos when asked about the issue.

https://translate.google.com.br/tra...xplica.htm?cmpid=fb-uoljog&edit-text=&act=url
 
D

dragonflys545

Member
I thought everything in Brazil cost considerably more than anywhere else in the world.

Edit:
I'm not really comparing the two, just saying in general. But yeah the price is ridiculous.
 
V

Vuze

Member
dragonflys545 said:
I thought everything in Brazil cost considerably more than anywhere else in the world.
Click to expand...
Did you even bother to read the OP or merely look at the image there at least?
Price difference between Xbox one and PS4 versions is the subject.

That's really strange and disgusting behaviour, I wasn't aware. Curious as to why they are overcharging as well.
 
L

LuuKyK

Member
dragonflys545 said:
I thought everything in Brazil cost considerably more than anywhere else in the world.
Click to expand...

Thats true, but the OP is comparing two brazilian platforms (Xbox Live BR and PSN BR), so they shouldn't be different considering they theoretically have the same taxes on them.
 
K

Kenzodielocke

Banned
Hm, strange.

But that raises the question, if it's easy to buy R$ and just buy the games from there, since it's pretty cheap for europeans and co. ?
 
S

sleepwalkcapsules

Member
Games with retail releases used to be the only problem, because even in the digital form the publishers wanted parity. So "digital only" games remained fair priced.

For some reason this isn't the case anymore. Which is really unfortunate.
 
F

FelipeMGM

Member
You cant compare PSN prices to Steam prices in BR, legislations are different for console and PC games, which means different taxes as well (yeah, its dumb)

The thing where games cost one thing on Xbox Store and other on the PS Store is true tho, and it happens both ways.

For example Mighty No 9 was twice the price on PSN as it was on Live, on the other hand Unravel was twice the price on Live as it was on PSN...
 
Rellik

Rellik

Member
Don't they have to pay ridiculous tax since nothing from Sony is made inside of Brazil? I may be talking shit, but sure I saw something like that about the actual consoles. Could it be that for the games too?
 
E

Einherjar

Member
I thought the reason for this is because some countries expect the companies (ie. Sony) to have a physical location manufacturing the goods (PS4) in order to get major tax breaks.

I assume this means MS has an operation in Brazil while Sony does not.
 
E

Essay

Member
Einherjar said:
I thought the reason for this is because some countries expect the companies (ie. Sony) to have a physical location manufacturing the goods (PS4) in order to get major tax breaks.

I assume this means MS has an operation in Brazil while Sony does not.
Click to expand...

This was my assumption too. Could've sworn MS manufactures in Brazil.
 
W

wowbaggerBR

Member
That's easy to understand. All that "buh, our taxes are so high" is a pretty damn great excuse to overcharge and make some huge margins. Look it up, the auto industry get their highest margins here because if they choose to put a econobox for sale for US$ 20.000 they can get away with it.

Seems to be the case with Sony.

EDIT: Brazil has a cultural thing with paying the more expensive price, even when it doesn't make any sense.
 
P

Platy

Member
Isn't Steam and PSN/XBL receiving diferent taxes since the videogame one also have physical versions so they use the same price as digital ?
 
SmokedMeat

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
So by Microsoft manufacturing hardware in Brazil, they can sell their wares at a much cheaper price? That's quite a difference.

Both Sony and Microsoft have plants to manufature the PS4 and Xbox One in Brazil.
Click to expand...

Just saw this after posting. Well, that's odd. It's not like PS4 is a brand new system. Has it always been this way? Has anyone bothered tweeting someone at Sony for an explanation?
 
F

FrozenCell

Member
supply & demand

publisher thinks they can sell at those prices
since it's multiplat, you are free to vote with your wallet
 
A

Atilac

Member
Brazils economy is in the toilet, sony is raising the price to account for the weakened currency. They aren't overcharging, microsoft is under-charging. Microsoft isn't raising prices because they need any advantage they can get, Sony doesn't need to lower the price in order to sell.
 
H

Hsieh

Member
Brazil has taxes for games made in foreign countries. This only applies to physical games and not to digital games. Sony probably has some sort of corporate requirement for PSN games that they have to be at price parity with physical releases which explains why PSN games cost more. Steam is digital only so they can ignore the tax entirely.
 
autoduelist

autoduelist

Member
inpHilltr8r said:
Surely this is an issue with the publisher?
Click to expand...

Einherjar said:
I thought the reason for this is because some countries expect the companies (ie. Sony) to have a physical location manufacturing the goods (PS4) in order to get major tax breaks.

I assume this means MS has an operation in Brazil while Sony does not.
Click to expand...

jacks81x said:
Doesn't the publisher decide what the price is?
Click to expand...

I'm sure one of these is the answer.

Bizarre thread. To assume the answer is just that Sony wants to make 'more money' and they are 'disgusting' is absurd, given that Sony doesn't do this in any other country [charge double-ish of other services] and that Brazil is known to have odd regulations/taxes. The sane assumption is that this is on the publishers and/or Brazil.
 
U

Unai

Member
autoduelist said:
I'm sure one of these is the answer.

Bizarre thread. To assume the answer is just that Sony wants to make 'more money' and they are 'disgusting' is absurd, given that Sony doesn't do this in any other country [charge double-ish of other services] and that Brazil is known to have odd regulations/taxes. The sane assumption is that this is on the publishers and/or Brazil.
Click to expand...

There are no taxes whatsoever in digital goods in Brazil.
 
K

kirblar

Member
Einherjar said:
I thought the reason for this is because some countries expect the companies (ie. Sony) to have a physical location manufacturing the goods (PS4) in order to get major tax breaks.

I assume this means MS has an operation in Brazil while Sony does not.
Click to expand...
I believe this is exactly what's going on, if memory serves. It's protectionism.
 
H

heringer

Member
They are just charging a price closer to the price in US dollars instead of pricing it within the reality of the market. Nintendo and Bethesda do the same thing, I think.
 
J

Jakartalado

Member
About the Steam and PlayStation comparison.

We all know that Steam converts the price of their game using 1 USD = 2 R$ which is different from the PlayStation Store that after the market collapsing brought the convertion to 1 USD = 3 R$ for the digital only games (games with digital and retail SKUs costs the same as retail)

For example:

Resident Evil 4,5 and 6 should cost 60,99R$ just like it was released, but as soon as the retail game was communicated to the Ps Store, they charged R$ 149,99 (all 3 games are charged as single retail games, total of 180 U$D = 450 R$).

But the difference in the Xbox Live is really stupid.

Also.... There are issues with publishers that are very well known to overcharge games in Brazil using the excuse of taxes like Capcom, Warner, EA and Activision.

But again, the Xbox Live and PlayStation Store should be the same.
 
B

Boney

Banned
Regional pricing discrimination has always happened with video games. They're usually sold at much higher cost outside of North America and western Europe because they're sold as a premium good on top of additional taxes involved.

Progressive regional pricing is a rare sight to see, but Valve has pushed for this with Russia for example. Microsoft must be doing the same here to gain momentum as Brazil was supposed to be one of the next big markets for videogames (which might not happen in a while).

They've always been overcharging, but now the competition isnt, so consumers instead of asking Sony why they're doing it, should give them the middle finger and go with an alternative.

It bears to mention that Nintendo has the same shit policies in Brazil and doesn't even support other countries in the region.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
To be fair I think Steam and Xbl are the ones who are wrong in this because they usually use a 1 USD = 2 R$ conversion rate, so games are literaly cheaper here.

Not that I'm complaining, I love me some cheap games :p
 
B

Bowl0l

Member
DD, if not mistaken Steam game prices for third world countries are very competitive.
Not sure why you bother to use Steam as comparison unless XBox is cheaper.
 
Z

zelas

Member
Einherjar said:
I thought the reason for this is because some countries expect the companies (ie. Sony) to have a physical location manufacturing the goods (PS4) in order to get major tax breaks.

I assume this means MS has an operation in Brazil while Sony does not.
Click to expand...
Isnt this the reason nintendo pulled out or never had a presence there?
 
X

xir

Likely to be eaten by a grue
hasn't this been covered as some sort of weird tax import thing?
Sega master system for life
 
J

jrmanimal

Member
Some prices are pretty weird...I usually buy games a lot cheaper on live, compared to the PStore, where I usually only buy games when there's a sale. Only exception I think it was MUA...it was 229/249 at live, I don't remember correctly, and it was 183 at the PStore
 
W

Wertyscp

Neo Member
As said by other users, Brazil has extremely high import taxes, so any company that wants to be competitive in the market needs to invest in the local economy and MS does have factories there(http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/40-brazilian-price-cut-for-360-as-new-factory-opens/085562).
If I had to guess why xbox games are also cheaper i would say that MS probably made deals with the brazilian government to get more tax cuts on their businesses in return for their investments in the country
 
Tiu Neo

Tiu Neo

Member
Wertyscp said:
As said by other users, Brazil has extremely high import taxes, so any company that wants to be competitive in the market needs to invest in the local economy and MS does have factories there(http://www.mcvuk.com/news/read/40-brazilian-price-cut-for-360-as-new-factory-opens/085562).
If I had to guess why xbox games are also cheaper i would say that MS probably made deals with the brazilian government to get more tax cuts on their businesses in return for their investments in the country
Click to expand...

As far as I know, digital goods aren't taxed (Yet. Of course there are people who want to change that).
 
W

Wertyscp

Neo Member
Tiu Neo said:
As far as I know, digital goods aren't taxed (Yet. Of course there are people who want to change that).
Click to expand...
I'm not from Brazil but in Portugal and in all of the EU all purchases are taxed, including digital.
lMdFvr8.png


Maybe someone from brazil can check their receipts from PSN? See if there's any weird tax...



...and yes, I paid 2,5€ for blood dlc, now shut up
 
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