Piracy in Brazil blog - WerewolfGeneral

IMPORTANT: I don't own anything writen between the 2 lines of "=====", i found this interesting to be posted here because it explain very well why piracy is so strong in Brazil.
This is part of an article that can be found in this link:
Gamasutra.com

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Piracy in Brazil

I’ve long heard other people in the industry say Brazil simply isn't a viable market for games because of the piracy rate. This isn't true. It’s not a viable market for games because of the tax rate.

Games which are six months old in the US are being sold through legitimate vendors at 250 reais, or around $140 US dollars. This is an exorbitant price. It’s prohibitive. If you’re reading this article, you're probably pretty into games and know many people who are. Think about yourself and your friends. How many games would you purchase per year at $140? One, maybe two? Would you buy a console in the first place if you knew that every game you were going to buy was $140? All the consoles I saw in Brazil were sold at roughly one and a half to two times their price in the United States as well.

What if I then told you that you couldn't get on Xbox Live in Brazil? Would you buy an Xbox 360?

Even the very wealthy Brazilians with whom I spoke bought the majority of their legitimate games through Steam or other digital distribution services. For console games, Play Asia is by far the most popular choice (Amazon won’t even ship most games to Brazil), followed by Submarino.com (which still has exorbitant prices but occasionally has good sales), with the local retail outlets being a distant third.

The sad fact about all this is that the retail outlets seem almost exclusively to cater to parents who don't know where else to go. That's anecdotal evidence, but after spending several hours loitering in major retail game stores in several different states, it seemed universally to be the case.

All this isn’t to say piracy isn't an issue. Pirate stores sell games at 5-15 reais ($2.80-$8.50) and have better service. For the most part, pirate game dealerships are small local operations that know their clientele and are willing to go further for their customers than the large retail chains. Interestingly enough, I heard people say that their pirate dealers would let them buy a game and, if they didn't like it, come back a few days later and switch it for something else. That's the sort of service I wish we had in the US.

Regardless of the extra service, people seemed interested in legitimate versions of games so long as they came at a reasonable price. In general people told me they’d be willing pay $20 to $30 more for a legitimate game over the pirated version. That number went up to approximately $40 if the game had internet play and required a legitimate version of the game to play online.

If anyone has sales figures of PlayStation 3 games in Brazil, I’d like to know. PS3 games are currently un-piratable due to the Blue Ray discs.

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My observations:

1st
"Games which are six months old in the US are being sold through legitimate vendors at 250 reais, or around $140 US dollars "
I paid 256,90 reais for C&C First Decade, 6 months after its release, its release price was 665 reais

2nd
" How many games would you purchase per year at $140? "
I would NEVER pay all of that for just one game.

3rd
" Would you buy a console in the first place if you knew that every game you were going to buy was $140? "
That is why i don't want a console platform!

4rth
" Pirate stores sell games at 5-15 reais ($2.80-$8.50) and have better service "
" pirate game dealerships are small local operations that know their clientele and are willing to go further for their customers than the large retail chains "
True, they know if you are a gamer or not, so you are walking on the street, then a guy come to you and ask if you would like to buy a game (PC, XBOX, PS2...), if you say yes, then they guide you to a store with original games for sale in the front door, then they show you a book with the box images of games, and tell you the price(5reais per CD, 10-15 per DVD), you chose one or more and wait, a few minutes later a guy arrive with the game you chose, you pay and go.

5fth
" I heard people say that their pirate dealers would let them buy a game and, if they didn't like it, come back a few days later and switch it for something else. "
That is true, that is how i got MoH Airborne.

6th
" people seemed interested in legitimate versions of games so long as they came at a reasonable price. In general people told me they’d be willing pay $20 to $30 more for a legitimate game over the pirated version. "
If the price was fair, i would only buy originals, instead of having to play pirat while i wait for the price of the original to get low. By the way, my next original is probaly going to be Crysis, FINALLY!

7th
" If anyone has sales figures of PlayStation 3 games in Brazil, I’d like to know. PS3 games are currently un-piratable due to the Blue Ray discs. "
You are wrong dude, many of the people i know and that have a PS3 has pirat games, they say: "screw the online gameplay, i want the game". They download the games into portable HDs and connect them tho their PS3s.

Conclusion, the only way to stop, or at least reduce drastically the piracy in Brazil is through the reduction of taxes over not only the games. But all products, i mean, 50% of the price that my father paid for his new car are taxes, a PS3 recive 50% taxes just to enter in Brazil + 20 something % because its a eletronic product + transport + individual state taxes + store profit, if one day i sudently come with a PS3, its because i bought it on Paraguay or if someone gave it to me.
If it wasn't for the taxes 90-96 % of my games would be original, i would be able to play online with many games, i would have more money to update... I would have a whole new PC, preaps i would also have console platforms.