Video game pricing in South America has been outrageous for years, but it’s taken a recent backlash against the Brazilian PS4 to convince Sony to weigh into the matter publicly. And their statement is a surprising one.
Instead of providing some vague justification for the exorbitant price and hoping we all just get on with our lives, Sony Computer Entertainment America instead goes on the attack, pointing specifically towards a “heavy tax burden” that means 68% of the console’s $US1850 price in Brazil is made up of various import taxes.
“We want to emphasise that it isn’t in the interest of Sony Computer Entertainment America to sell PS4 units at this high retail price”, the statement reads, “as it’s not good for our gamers and it’s not good for the PlayStation brand.”
Sony says in order to help reduce the price that it’s going to “continue to talk with the relevant government agencies”, as well as exploring the possibility of manufacturing the PS4 locally (Sony already builds some PS3s in the country).
You can read the full statement below.
We have read thousands of your comments and heard your frustration loud and clear about the PlayStation 4 retail price of R$3,999 in Brazil. We want to emphasise that it isn’t in the interest of Sony Computer Entertainment America to sell PS4 units at this high retail price, as it’s not good for our gamers and it’s not good for the PlayStation brand. We have always maintained an open and honest dialogue with PlayStation Nation in Brazil, we want to be fully transparent as to what makes up this price, so gamers can be fully informed and make their own conclusion.
There is a lot of confusion and inaccurate information spreading online about Brazil’s import tax policies online and the PlayStation 4 retail price, so we’d like to set the record straight: of the R$3,999 gamers pay, 63% of the retail price goes to offset the various taxes that are applied in the process of importation. Some do not consider the IPI on the distributor price and PIS/COFINS on retailers price and much less, include the ICMS and ICMS-ST taxes. You can see a true breakdown of the price model at Valor Economico http://www.valor.com.br/empresas/33111…. The other 15.5% goes to retailer margin and 21.5% to PS4 Transfer Price (equivalent to USD$390).
We will continue to talk with the relevant government agencies to help us reduce the heavy tax burden that gamers, retailers and Sony Computer Entertainment America are paying. Our primary focus right now is to ensure we are in full compliance with Brazilian import tax laws and look ahead the opportunity to locally manufacturing the PS4, which will significantly reduce the retail price. Sony Computer Entertainment began locally manufacturing PlayStation 3 in Manaus this past May and it immediately made PS3 more affordable to gamers in Brazil. PlayStation is fully committed to Brazilian gamers and we are proud of the strong relationship we’ve been able to build over the years. We are doing everything possible at this moment to reduce the PS4 price for you. Thank you for your thousands of passionate comments…we are in this together!
Comments
19 responses to “Even Sony Thinks An $US1850 PS4 Is “Bad For Gamers””
that’s screwed up! how d hell do the taxes compounded on the product cost over 3 times more than the damn ps4 itself!?
At least cigarettes are still cheap
what good is cheap if customs is cracking down on quantities in oz 🙁
I got through with 10 cartons last time i went to taiwan 😀
I have a system lol
An ingenious system of dying more quickly than usual.
At least when smokers buy cigarettes here the ridiculous tax rates more than compensate for the public hospital bills.
Im sure ive shortened my life by 10 years…but hey its the 10 worse years at that end lol
Unless you die 9 years before scientists figure out how to stop the process of ageing…
Preceded by 10 years of being permanently short of breath and coughing horribly.
Wasting my time anyway. Almost as addictive as cocaine that stuff..
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Rational_scale_to_assess_the_harm_of_drugs_(mean_physical_harm_and_mean_dependence).svg
Agreed smoking is shit, i wish i never started……
These smokes taste like arse…
Nah thats where i stash the coke lol
I know it doesn’t affect the bulk of the cost, but that graphic seems to suggest that Sony America is selling the consoles to Sony Brazil at just $9 below the US retail price. That’d probably mean that US retailers are getting a better deal from Sony America than Sony Brazil gets.
Not really, the margins in the US are ridiculously small on consoles. I reckon it wouldn’t be a whole lot more than $9.
Why is the Xbox One half the price of the PS4 in Brazil? ($1000 compared to $1850) http://www.neowin.net/news/oh-meu-deus-xbox-one-will-be-cheaper-than-ps4-in-brazil-but-will-still-cost-1000 Are they already manufacturing some of them there?
yeah it seems that microsoft produces them in Brazil.
So that’s why they get the red ring of death…
This seems like a capitalist-company with Western interests, criticising a major Latin American power. Who knows, these taxes could be imposed on foreign companies for all we know, to encourage local manufacturing, I dunno. The taxes are probably very ridiculous, but it’s just a western-type attack on Latin American (in westernising the region) a place that is obviously much left to a capitalists pleasure.
Sony wouldn’t have said anything if not for Brazilian gamers sending them hatemail. I fail to see how it is suppose to be an attack on Latin America when the entire issue is caused by Latin American citizens being mad.
Well… Brazil has an incredibly corrupt and opaque bureaucracy. I suspect anyone even peripherally involved in the distribution chain between the manufacturer and buyer, gets a taste. By the time your PS4 arrives, you’ve paid 4x as much and it’s cut with so much baby powder you can’t even get remotely high, wait what were we talking about?