It’s priced at R$799, which works out to be about $500. So, yes, it’s expensive to buy video games in Brazil. Our man Pedro tells us that with a nine-year-old console only just launching, there obviously isn’t an official PS3 presence, though he says Sony do sell some older PS3 games. For R$199 ($125).

Ever wanted to know why piracy was rife in South America? Those prices might get you in the right direction.

Sony traz PlayStation e jogos oficialmente para o Brasil. Não comemore [Gizmodo BR]

Children’s show Bom Dia & Companhia (Good Morning & Company) airs daily on SBT, one of the top three Brazilian TV networks. It also rips off LittleBigPlanet.

The network, reports tipster Bruno, is known for copycating.

Who’s winning the Metroid cosplay wars? The Swedes looked to have had it locked down, thanks to Samus cosplayer Jenni Källberg. But Brazil has fired a shot across Sweden’s bow, one named Thaís.

26-year-old Thaís Jussim is the one responsible for the beautifully crafted Samus Aran space suit seen above, one the Brazilian Metroid Prime fan assembled over the course of six months. The beast of a bounty hunter suit is lit by 73 battery powered LEDs and set Jussim back US$350 in material costs.

Jussim, who created the suit with the help of friends and family, says the suit weighs about 23 pounds and is surprisingly not very comfortable. Who would have guessed. Jussim also reveals that there’s, uh… Zero Suit Samus cosplay in the works, by the way. It’s her next project.

*ahem* Anyway, if you’d like to see more shots of the costume and learn more about the woman behind the visor, read on. (Oh, and sorry for the lateness on this one. You’d be amazed how little time I spend on cosplay web sites.)

Metroid [DeviantArt - thanks, Amy!]
The MDb Interviews Samus Aran! [Metroid Database - thanks, Ryan!]

Every year, Nintendo documents the worst countries in the world in terms of rampant Nintendo game piracy, issuing a report to the U.S. Trade Representative requesting help. What countries made the list this year?

The Unique Selling Point of games downloaded over-the-air is an attempt to combat Brazil’s thriving market in pirated software and the console is being priced to suit a market where huge import costs make legitimate copies of games a tough sell.

Incidentally, Urban Dictionary defines ‘Zeebo’ as “A mad, often confused, lonely and possibly misunderstood ape from the hill-like village of Menzieshill.” Just, you know, FYI.

Tectoy Zeebo Gaming System Uses Free 3G Connection to Distribute Games [Gizmodo]

Estamos Pensando [We Are Thinking] [wall jump explained]

Insert Credit dug up details on the “new” EA Genesis titles, which happen to be based on the mobile device releases and are being ported by Tectoy devs. Those games are just four of the 86 titles that will come pre-installed on the budget console, including classics like Shinobi III and Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle. There are even some new titles of hazy origin. Everything old is new again… or vice versa.

News: Four “new” EA games on Genesis/Mega Drive [Insert Credit]

Master System 3 (131 jogos) [Tectoy via Insert Credit]

According to the AFP report on the matter, the prohibition on selling CS and EQ was actually passed in October of 2007, but was only recently enforced by PROCON, the national consumer protection agency. Good work, Brazil. Glad all of your problems are sorted out now that the video game police are tackling the tough issues!

Members of the Kotaku Brazilian Connection wrote in to let us know about the ban. Their letters are after the jump and provide some insight into the local video game market.

From Pinguin:

Since 01/17, Counter Strike and Everquest are banned in Brazil. The decision came from a federal judge, based in the Consumer Rights, saying that it puts in danger the life of buyers. You can see the full decision in this site. (in Brazilian portuguese)

The counter strike was banned because, in experts opinion, teachs war strategies.
Everquest was banned because of their quests. The Brazilian judge, claims that, some quests ask for the user do good things and bad things, leading the user to pscicological problems.

In Brazil, those games were rated to 18+, by the Justice. In the past, before those rates exist, games like Carmagedon, Grand Theft Auto and Postal were banned too.

But, we still can play Postal 2, Manhunt (the complete version) and all the other games. Everquest isn’t even [sold] in Brazil!

From Romulo:

Since 17/01/2008 the games “Counter-Strike” and “EverQuest” are been confiscated in the Brazilian state of Goiás by the PROCON, an organism created to defend consumer rights. The decision is extended trough all brazilian territory, the games were considered “[improper] for consume” and “nocive to the consumer health” offending some articles of the brazilian “consumer defense and protection code”, a law that is usually used to protection the consumer against big companies.

Here in Brazil a single judge can make a decision that is valid in the whole country, this is the case, but other states are not confiscating the game as they think there may be something wrong with such a decision. The judge also classify CounterStrike and Everquest as being “nefast”.

Acording to procon and the judge, Counter-Strike is described as “a game where drug deales sequestram and take to a morro thre UN representatives. Police invades the place and is received with bullets”, the text also affirms, without showing names ou researches, that “in the vision of specialists that game teaches war techniches”. Thats not counter strike´s but user generated content, CS_rio is a very popular map and played a lot in Brazil.

The reason to justify the ban, “violent games ou that bring violece are capable of forming agressive individuals, its evident is strong power of influence, reforcing agressive atitude on some individuals and social groups.”, they go even farther when justifying everquest ban, [everquest] “takes the player to total nonsense and heavy psicologycal conflicts, because the quests he receives may be good or bad.”

EA Brazil released a note claiming the content cited is not from counter strike but user generated, and say it´s waiting for a judicial notification to take legal action.

From Hank:

This is kotaku user HANK-SP, from Brazil, reporting that the brazilian state of Goias has banned the games Counter-Strike and the RPG EverQuest. The decision, taken by a court in Goias, is extented to all Brazil. The federal police IS already taking away copies from these games, altough EverQuest is not officially released in Brazil. Procon, brazilian governmental foundation for consumer defense, argued, on its website, that Counter-Strike is a game where “Rio de Janeiro drug dealers kidnapp and take to a slum three UN representants. The police invades the place and is welcomed with bullets. (…) In the vision of experts the game teaches war techniques”. As for EverQuest, Procon states that it “takes the gamer to complete moral conflict and ‘heavy’ psychological conflicts; for the tasks that are given to them could be bad or good. (…) Violent videogames that use violence are capable of forming agressive individuals, making it evident that is strong its influence on psyquism, reinforcing aggressive attitude against certain individuals and social groups”.

The web site also states that anyone who sees these games being sold, that they should contact Procon for the arrest of the games.

All this information has come from UOL, Brazil’s biggest web portal, owned by Brazil’s biggest newspaper “Folha de Sao Paulo”.

http://jogos.uol.com.br/pc/ultnot/2008/01/18/ult182u7954.jhtm

In another news, UOL reports that EA has already answered that Counter-Strike doesn’t have any Rio de Janeiro, any slums, any funk soundtrack, neither UN comissioners.

http://jogos.uol.com.br/pc/ultnot/2008/01/18/ult182u7956.jhtm

Thanks for taking the time to write in, guys. Keep us informed of any developments, if you have the time.

Brazil bans popular video games seen to incite violence [AFP/Google]