Brazilian devs and fans are making their own unofficial Nintendo Direct

[Heruderu]

Some years ago, Nintendo dropped almost all support of their devices from Brazil due to piracy, taxes, and problems with their former local partner (Gaming do Brasil). Their games are not officialy in the country, as well as their consoles. They have customer support by email and an authorized technical support in São Paulo (HG Digital), and a limited Switch Web Store, as well as the 3DS eShop that launched before they left, but that's it.

Brazilians have been waiting for years for the day Nintendo would come back, in hopes they would normalize the price of the games (at least having an MSRP), or localize their games to Portuguese, or even make it easier for brazilian devs to launch their games on their consoles. In fact, every news of Nintendo hiring for translation or localization positions in Brazilian Portuguese would spark speculation of Nintendo preparing to "enter the games market" in Brazil again.

Now, devs, influencers and fans are hoping to attract attention from Nintendo with an Unofficial Nintendo Direct. They made a petition in Change.org (now with more than 30k signatures), a hashtag #QueremosNintendo ("We want Nintendo", in Portuguese), and even launched a website.

They are going to present games with brazilian devs currently on Nintendo Switch, with participation from studios like Bitten Toast Games, Long Hat House and Chucklefish. You can check more information on the sources below:

Nintendo Life
Change.org

The "Nintendo Direct" is going to be tomorrow (July 16th, 8pm BRT / 7pm ET / 4pm PT), and you can watch it here: QueremosNintendo


EDIT: I forgot to mention that the event will be subtitled in 9 languages.

 

[The Living Tribunal]

Incoming cease and desist in 3... 2...1...

Good luck.

 

[mael]

It's downright insane that there are devs out there selling games on Switch from countries that can't even easily get the system they're releasing their games on!
After Dandarra, I'm all for supporting more Brazilian devs.

 

[KoolAid]

The only attention they are gonna get is likely an C&D, but hope they succeed.

 

[Xavi]

This is a very cool initiative, I'll watch. Also curious about Chucklefish

 

[JustALurker]

That's incredible initiative from those involved and I'll definitely check it out.

For those interested, it'll have subtitles in 9 different languages, including English.

 

[Nanashrew]

I'll definitely give it a watch.

 

[Alucrid]

will fan's passion win out against high tariffs?

 

[Heruderu]

Incoming cease and desist in 3... 2...1...

Good luck.

Click to shrink...

The only attention they are gonna get is likely an C&D, but hope they succeed.

Click to shrink...

I hope Nintendo doesn't do anything against them, as I think it's admirable that these devs and fans are showing their love and promoting something like this to show Nintendo how much interest there is in Brazil.



Also, this is my first thread in Resetera, so I'm sorry if it's not very good. Hopefully I get better lol

 

[Deleted member 1476]

will fan's passion win out against high tariffs?

Click to shrink...

Microsoft and Sony do just fine (with Sony making some blunders now and then while MS is pretty much spot on).

Nintendo just doesn't care.

 

[Kthulhu]

Is there any logic behind Brazil's tariffs or is it for a stupid reason?

 

[Nanashrew]

Microsoft and Sony do just fine (with Sony making some blunders now and then while MS is pretty much spot on).

Nintendo just doesn't care.

Click to shrink...

Sony and MS have factories in Brazil which certainly makes things a little easier.

 

[Menx64]

That is awesome! I wish all Latam devs would gather and bring Nintendo to to talk about the lack of investment in latinomaerica as a whole.
For so many years we have had to purchase products that are way to overpriced for a market to even exist.
$100us per game, $500 switch systems...
The only good thing they did was to enable anyone use any eShop store, and now we can buy games with their normal MSRP or even a discounted prices, otherwise the brand would be none existant.

 

[Heruderu]

Is there any logic behind Brazil's tariffs or is it for a stupid reason?

Click to shrink...

I believe we have tariffs for the type of item (in this case, games, and they are considered superfluous so they're high), for importing, and state taxes. One stacked on the other. PS4 and XOne games at least avoid the importing tariffs (60% I believe) because they're produced here. But the consoles aren't.

 

[Platy]

Is there any logic behind Brazil's tariffs or is it for a stupid reason?

Click to shrink...

A mix of lots of protection for the (nonexistent) inside industry and grouping it with cassino machines

 

[Tarot Deck]

shout out to horizon chase turbo, spiritual sequel to Top Gear. One of the best arcade racing games on the Swtitch

 

[justiceiro]

Oh, here we go again doing bootleg of Nintendo stuff. I don't think will be so lenient this time like they were in the 90's.

But question: since Nintendo don't even exist on Brazil, can they even threat legal action?

Anyway, I don't get this complaint when most games made by Brazilian already have a switch version announced. PS4 and Xbox one, in the other hand...

But by now we all should already have learned that Nintendo don't do stuff out of good will or empathy. These devs are risking too much what they already have in exchange of absolutely nothing. C'mon guys, we are smarter than that.

 

[Brazil]

Oh, here we go again doing bootleg of Nintendo stuff. I don't think will be so lenient this time like they were in the 90's.

But question: since Nintendo don't even exist on Brazil, can they even threat legal action?

Anyway, I don't get this complaint when most games made by Brazilian already have a switch version announced. PS4 and Xbox one, in the other hand...

But by now we all should already have learned that Nintendo don't do stuff out of good will or empathy. These devs are risking too much what they already have in exchange of absolutely nothing. C'mon guys, we are smarter than that.

Click to shrink...

What are you even talking about? They're making a video highlighting Brazilian games available or soon to be available on Switch. That's it. What are the devs "risking"?

 

[Kthulhu]

Edit: nevermind I missread something.

 

[Tarot Deck]

The only attention they are gonna get is likely an C&D, but hope they succeed.

Click to shrink...

why? They can't reunite a bunch of fans and devs of one country and promote it?

Its literally free marketing.

 

[NHarmonic.]

That is awesome! I wish all Latam devs would gather and bring Nintendo to to talk about the lack of investment in latinomaerica as a whole.
For so many years we have had to purchase products that are way to overpriced for a market to even exist.
$100us per game, $500 switch systems...
The only good thing they did was to enable anyone use any eShop store, and now we can buy games with their normal MSRP or even a discounted prices, otherwise the brand would be none existant.

Click to shrink...

Agreed here.

All companies treat Latinoamerica like shit, tbh. Sony and microsoft aren't that better tbh.

It's tiring having to buy overpriced shit.

 

[Guaraná]

The funny thing is that for a while PlayStation was all over the place with piracy but now PlayStation 4 dominates the market here in Brazil and there is no piracy at all.

Nintendo on the other hand never had too many problems with piracy here due to their proprietary media, and yet they gave up on the market and let Sony dominate everything. Even Microsoft cannot compete with Sony on here in Brazil.

 

[FormatCompatible]

Sony and MS have factories in Brazil which certainly makes things a little easier.

Click to shrink...

Playtronic (and later just Gradiente) used to have a factory that produced Nintendo's systems locally, sadly that stopped some time after the Gamecube came out.

It was great, I still remember stuff like buying the (kinda funny in retrospect) big boxed Ocarina of Time on release.

Anyway, I don't get this complaint when most games made by Brazilian already have a switch version announced. PS4 and Xbox one, in the other hand...

Click to shrink...

What? What they want is official support from Nintendo in the country, they have close to zero presence here unlike the competition.

 

[Razgriz417]

Incoming cease and desist in 3... 2...1...

Good luck.

Click to shrink...

this

 

[LunaSerena]

It's not only Brazil, it's all of Latin America that doesn't have an official representation of Nintendo.
It doesn't matter what fans do, it's probably not worth to them to have an office here.

Plus, I may be remembering wrong, but isn't one of the reasons they left Brazil is that your tax system is quite complicated and basically requires a local accountant?

 

[Deleted member 721]

After they left the country they only do the bare minimum, and i dont believe they care, even more with the country in economic recession.

 

[Heruderu]

Oh, here we go again doing bootleg of Nintendo stuff. I don't think will be so lenient this time like they were in the 90's.

But question: since Nintendo don't even exist on Brazil, can they even threat legal action?

Anyway, I don't get this complaint when most games made by Brazilian already have a switch version announced. PS4 and Xbox one, in the other hand...

But by now we all should already have learned that Nintendo don't do stuff out of good will or empathy. These devs are risking too much what they already have in exchange of absolutely nothing. C'mon guys, we are smarter than that.

Click to shrink...

I'm sorry, but I think this is an overreaction. It's not a bootleg Direct, they're literally trying to promote their games on Switch while asking for Nintendo to look into localizing (or at least having some presence) games to Brazil. This is a good thing. They aren't trying to make money by skipping Nintendo as a middleman, they are showing support for Nintendo and asking the same in return.

For brazilian devs to launch games on Switch they need american or european addresses. Which most of them don't have, so they resort to publishers in the US. This hinders small brazilian devs who can't launch their games on Switch as easily as devs in North America, Europe and Asia.

Give these devs a shot. This "direct" is the best attempt we've ever had on trying to get Nintendo's attention.

I think it's awesome.

 

[Deleted member 1476]

Agreed here.

All companies treat Latinoamerica like shit, tbh. Sony and microsoft aren't that better tbh.

It's tiring having to buy overpriced shit.

Click to shrink...

Gonna have to disagree, hard (at least in Brazil).

Microsoft is on another level of prices, they are actually reasonable. Saying that Microsoft and Nintendo are the same here is insane.

One could argue that Sony sometimes pulls a Nintendo and fucks up the prices, but Microsoft? Nah.

 

[GuEiMiRrIRoW]

why? They can't reunite a bunch of fans and devs of one country and promote it?

Its literally free marketing.

Click to shrink...

They are using the name "Nintendo Direct"

 

[GuEiMiRrIRoW]

I'm from Brazil and I support these guys. During the Wii days, we had a really good support but since the Wii U failure, they totally gave up on us. Such a shame.

 

[justiceiro]

What are you even talking about? They're making a video highlighting Brazilian games available or soon to be available on Switch. That's it. What are the devs "risking"?

Click to shrink...

Using the Nintendo direct brand without prior permission is a risk. A lot of fake directs at least fall in the parody thing, but this doesn't really seems to be going that way. But I guess it's up to Nintendo to decide.

What? What they want is official support from Nintendo in the country, they have close to zero presence here unlike the competition.

Click to shrink...

How this goes against what I said? Sucks for the consumer, but for the devs, it doesn't really matter.

 

[FormatCompatible]

How this goes against what I said? Sucks for the consumer, but for the devs, it doesn't really matter.

Click to shrink...

Except it does? As it has been said in the thread because Nintendo doesn't have a presence here they require brazilian devs to have a office in the US, which means the devs have to look for a american publisher to be able to have their games on the platform. And from what I seen (someone correct me if I'm wrong here) Nintendo don't normally tend to send dev kits over to Brazil which creates even more problems. Do you honestly think this isn't a issue for the devs?

And also do you really think think these devs don't want their games to reach a bigger audience in their native country? Because that's one of the main reasons they state for making this direct.

 

[Deleted member 10737]

awesome move, will watch

 

[Heruderu]

Except it does? As it has been said in the thread because Nintendo doesn't have a presence here they require brazilian devs to have a office in the US, which means the devs have to look for a american publisher to be able to have their games on the platform. And from what I seen (someone correct me if I'm wrong here) Nintendo don't normally tend to send dev kits over to Brazil which creates even more problems. Do you honestly think this isn't a issue for the devs?

And also do you really think think these devs don't want their games to reach a bigger audience in their native country? Because that's one of the main reasons they state for making this direct.

Click to shrink...

I believe I heard the same thing about Nintendo not sending devkits to devs in Brazil. It really is an issue, and I'm sure developers here would launch even more games on Switch if Nintendo gave them more opportunities.

Also, when I saw how Nintendo decided to make localized events, like Nindies Showcase in North America, Indie Highlights in Europe, and Indie World in Japan, I thought it would be awesome if we could have something directed from brazilian devs to fans. This ain't it yet, as it isn't official, but it's nice to see.

PS: Does anyone know how can i put a countdown on the OP?

 

[Drakhyrr]

I wouldn't count on Nintendo returning to Brazil any time soon. They overprice their games and never drop prices. Brazillians hardly pay launch price for anything that's not a FIFA game, or eventually a Call of Duty. Now that there are lots of free to play games, maybe not even those anymore.

We need to at least recover from the current economic crisis in order to even have a big enough consumer market able to pay for Nintendo games, I believe. Not to mention safety concerns makes portable gaming highly unattractive.

With that said, they shouldn't underestimate Brazilian brand loyalty. A PS4 slim here, from official channels, costs as much as an Xbox One X, and the PS4 still vastly outsells the Xbox. The price alone was just not enough for Brazilians to jump over to Microsoft, so Nintendo does have a chance, as they are still highly regarded.

 

[Platy]

just one thing that is not clear : THE ACTUAL PETITION does not mention Nintendo selling consoles here

Esta petição é para pedir que mais games da Nintendo sejam traduzidos para o Português do Brasil.

Queremos 3 coisas:
1- Jogos da Nintendo em Português! Como Zelda, Pokémon entre outros.
2- Um Canal de Youtube Brasileiro da Nintendo, assim como Nintendo Portugal.
3- Apresentações em Português do Brasil e Eventos oficiais no Brasil.

Click to shrink...

They want 3 things :
1- Nintendo games with PT-BR text like Zelda, Pokémon and others
2- A brazilian official youtube channel like Nintendo Portugal
3- Marketing presence like presentations with subtitles and official release parties.

their MAIN FOCUS appears to just be brazilian portuguese text on the games.

 

[Heruderu]

just one thing that is not clear : THE ACTUAL PETITION does not mention Nintendo selling consoles here



They want 3 things :
1- Nintendo games with PT-BR text like Zelda, Pokémon and others
2- A brazilian official youtube channel like Nintendo Portugal
3- Marketing presence like presentations with subtitles and official release parties.

their MAIN FOCUS appears to just be brazilian portuguese text on the games.

Click to shrink...

You're correct. This would be a step in the right direction, as it would show goodwill and attract more consumers for Nintendo games.

Right now, just the acknowledgement of Brazil as a part of Nintendo's plans would help the market grow here. I'm sure Nintendo took a step back from Brazil because Sony just dominates the market, but it's a huge country with lots of gamers (surely more than Portugal), so fans want to get NoA's attention as they sure are missing customers here.

 

[Crackhead_Bob]

For any Brazilians on Era, what Nintendo Switch games are Brazilians who have a Switch playing with ease vs. the Switch games they can't play because of language restrictions? I find it crazy that Nintendo has no presence in what is the world's 16th prominent nation on earth. It would be like Walt Disney no longer having a presence in the U.S..

And how comparable are the language barriers for Brazilians playing in English / Spanish as opposed to North Americans who try to play Japanese RPGS?

 

[mutantmagnet]

Just found out about it this morning. This direct being planned is a really healthy sign that Nintendo fixed some of their issues with South American indie developers. I remember year 1 being a total shit show for them.

[edit]

Except it does? As it has been said in the thread because Nintendo doesn't have a presence here they require brazilian devs to have a office in the US, which means the devs have to look for a american publisher to be able to have their games on the platform. And from what I seen (someone correct me if I'm wrong here) Nintendo don't normally tend to send dev kits over to Brazil which creates even more problems. Do you honestly think this isn't a issue for the devs?

And also do you really think think these devs don't want their games to reach a bigger audience in their native country? Because that's one of the main reasons they state for making this direct.

Click to shrink...

Well never mind then. It still is a shit show instead of simply a display of enthusiasm.

 

[data]

Just found out about it this morning. This direct being planned is a really healthy sign that Nintendo fixed some of their issues with South American indie developers. I remember year 1 being a total shit show for them.

[edit]


Well never mind then. It still is a shit show instead of simply a display of enthusiasm.

Click to shrink...

This is not an official direct so I don't see how this is a healthy sign at all. Its a fan made direct to try to get more games that they can access without needing fansubs or likewise.

 

[Heruderu]

The event starts in less than an hour at www.queremosnintendo.com.br and will be subtitled in several languages.

Or you can check here:

 

[Fart Master]

Oh, here we go again doing bootleg of Nintendo stuff. I don't think will be so lenient this time like they were in the 90's.

But question: since Nintendo don't even exist on Brazil, can they even threat legal action?

Anyway, I don't get this complaint when most games made by Brazilian already have a switch version announced. PS4 and Xbox one, in the other hand...

But by now we all should already have learned that Nintendo don't do stuff out of good will or empathy. These devs are risking too much what they already have in exchange of absolutely nothing. C'mon guys, we are smarter than that.

Click to shrink...

Wtf are you on about

 

[BDGAME]

The event starts in less than an hour at www.queremosnintendo.com.br and will be subtitled in several languages.

Or you can check here:

Click to shrink...

Thanks. I will wash it. Hope for good announcements.

 

[JohnTH]

I remember, back in the 3DS and Wii U days, when Nintendo would localise most of their games to European Portuguese. The catch was, this localisation was included only in the European editions, and those systems were region locked.

Now that the Switch is region-free, they also decided to drop European Portuguese from most games, including Mario. -_-

This is also why Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is in Portuguese: It's a port from the Wii U.

Best of luck to our Brazilians brothers, may their situation improve and bring back Portuguese to Nintendo games.

 

[Timexy]

PS4 and XOne games at least avoid the importing tariffs (60% I believe) because they're produced here. But the consoles aren't.

Click to shrink...

Sony assembles the PS4 Slim here, can't recall about the Pro. Microsoft assembles both S and X here and it has the lowest MSRP, but Sony dominates the market because the gray marketed PS4 sells.fpr basically the same price, so it's a branding problem (although the 360 dominated the market on its era, mainly because of piracy).

Plus, I may be remembering wrong, but isn't one of the reasons they left Brazil is that your tax system is quite complicated and basically requires a local accountant?

Click to shrink...

Yes but the real problem is that either you manufacture/assemble the consoles/games here or it'll cost a lot because of high tarrifs.

For any Brazilians on Era, what Nintendo Switch games are Brazilians who have a Switch playing with ease vs. the Switch games they can't play because of language restrictions? I find it crazy that Nintendo has no presence in what is the world's 16th prominent nation on earth. It would be like Walt Disney no longer having a presence in the U.S..

And how comparable are the language barriers for Brazilians playing in English / Spanish as opposed to North Americans who try to play Japanese RPGS?

Click to shrink...

The language barrier is high enough that most big games from both Sony and Microsoft are localized, but it used to be way worse. Also I can't understand a thing in Spanish.

Nintendo just doesn't care.

 

[Miopia]

It's really sad that we had a perfectly fine Nintendo distributor at the beginning of the WiiU life here in Brazil, but not with the immensely more successful Switch. Oh, Brazil....

 

[ZeDorguinh]

Pirated Direct, how sad...

 

[Lelouch0612]

Pirated Direct, how sad...

Click to shrink...

What ?

 

[ShiningBash]

This is wild. Also, I'm curious about the threat of a C&D. Unlike fangames and video of Nintendo games, the only thing happening here is the use of the name "Nintendo Direct".

If Nintendo could block them from that name, then the Nintendo Power Cast probably wouldn't exist.

 

[riq]

For any Brazilians on Era, what Nintendo Switch games are Brazilians who have a Switch playing with ease vs. the Switch games they can't play because of language restrictions? I find it crazy that Nintendo has no presence in what is the world's 16th prominent nation on earth. It would be like Walt Disney no longer having a presence in the U.S..

And how comparable are the language barriers for Brazilians playing in English / Spanish as opposed to North Americans who try to play Japanese RPGS?

Click to shrink...

The language barrier is awful for children. I learned english while playing Pokemon Crystal, but before that I relegated plenty of games because I couldn't figure them out, especially A Link to the Past, Chrono Trigger and all Final Fantasy games.

That influenced my preferences deeply: with the exception of Pokemon, I learned to only enjoy action packed, few dialogue games, and while I adore sidescrollers, I usually have a lot of trouble with non turn based over head games, like 2D Zeldas, like I never learned to play them properly.