Nintendo pulls out of Brazil due to high import taxes

Brazil’s import taxes are so insane that they’ve become somewhat of a joke, but Brazilians aren’t laughing, and neither is Nintendo apparently. The company has announced that it has ended it partnership with its official distributor in the country and has no intention of finding a replacement. Nintendo also has no intention of setting up local factories to avoid import tariffs. 

Nintendo is pulling out of Brazil. The company announced yesterday that it will no longer distribute products there due to the country’s high tariffs on electronics, despite its “many passionate fans” that live there.2 Nintendo officially blames “challenges in the local business environment,” including “high import duties…and our decision not to have a local manufacturing operation.” They’ll continue to distribute products elsewhere in South America, but for Brazil, Mario, Link and Pikachu are now effectively out of reach. Video game consoles are really expensive in Brazil. The PS4 costs $4,000 Brazilian Real there, which currently translates to almost $1,500 US, while the Xbox One sells for R$2,200, or just over $800. It’s unclear why there’s such a big difference between the two, but both consoles’ high price tags can be attributed to the country’s high import fees and taxes.