The US price is without VAT, and the EUR price is with VAT. The exchange is iirc actually fair if that's true.
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Cory Barlog Slams PlayStation for Charging Five Months Minimum Wage for a PS5 in Brazil
- Thread starter PS9
- Start date
PS5 is still selling out worldwide, so why should Sony sell the machine with a discount in Brazil?
Thanks! Feel free to include it in the OP, PS9.
I received messages from people from pretty much every Latin America country saying their situation is almost identical.
Not only consoles are really expensive, but games and other digital purchases usually lack good regional pricing. Subscriptions like Game Pass are literally the only way some people can afford playing videogames - and unfortunately, PS Now isn't available in most of these countries.
Pretty much every Brazilian kid from the 90s grew up with piracy being their only way to play video games ("locadoras", game rental shops were also a lifesaver back in the SNES times), so it's really sad to see gaming becoming even more inaccessible... again.
So…..the point of this thread was to try and shit on Sony even though it is plainly clear that this is a Brazil issue. Is that why you gave the thread a completely dishonest fanboy clickbait title about Corey "slamming" Sony when he's clearly not? Let me guess, your response will end with lol…
Not true
Videogames are just as popular here as in developed countries.
Regional pricing for software would already do wonders, Cory.
Regional pricing for a gaming console feels like Gravity Rush 3: I'd be all over that, but I know.
Quick googling says that it's the 12th biggest gaming market in the world, and 1st in LATAM, but those metrics account for mobile too (consoles amount to around 30% of the revenue by that article).
Regional pricing for a gaming console feels like Gravity Rush 3: I'd be all over that, but I know.
Quick googling says that it's the 12th biggest gaming market in the world, and 1st in LATAM, but those metrics account for mobile too (consoles amount to around 30% of the revenue by that article).
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Yeah this was my response. Game pricing around the world though needs to be figured out.
Definitely not the case.
Gaming market in Brazil is HUGE (~100 million gamers). The only difference is that this market has historically been developed around pirating games and non-official hardware sales. Things started to change in the Xbox360/PS3 gen with more official support from console makers (Nintendo left the market due to high tariffs in 2015 but they recently returned), but pricing is still a big issue.
Here's some data:
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I don't think Sony or anyone else can do much about the hardware situation. What Sony can do, and should do, is introduce fair, regional pricing, just like MS, Nintendo, Epic and Steam.
Edit: Just to note, the ones I mentioned, they ain't perfect either, but at least it is there, in varying degrees.
Edit: Just to note, the ones I mentioned, they ain't perfect either, but at least it is there, in varying degrees.
Lol 5 is just paltry. Try 10 in my country. But as others have said, hardware pricing is a different and really can't be regional priced.
Software on the other hand it's unacceptable. Especially from Sony and Nintendo
Software on the other hand it's unacceptable. Especially from Sony and Nintendo
How's this Sony's fault? Last I checked, Brazil is one of those places that taxes mean you are paying on average around double what it a similar product may cost in say the US.
And I don't get the whole minimum wage thing. Eg.. if looking at my native country, a PS5 is equivalent to 6 months of the monthly minimum wage. And that's if looking at the standard $499 MSRPin the states. How is that Sony's fault?
And I don't get the whole minimum wage thing. Eg.. if looking at my native country, a PS5 is equivalent to 6 months of the monthly minimum wage. And that's if looking at the standard $499 MSRPin the states. How is that Sony's fault?
Thanks for the graphic. It's pretty interesting.
I thought Microsoft was making or assembling (or whatever) Xbox Ones in Brazil at the beginning of last gen and that's why an Xbox One was so much cheaper than a PS4. Am I misremembering or... making stuff up in my head (God, I hope this isn't true or at least I don't do it often, lol)?
There is a market but for the well off which i guess they think good enough .
Brazil has over 200 million people so if only 10% can buy it guess they okay with that .
The minimum wage to get a PS5 thing does have a let them eat cake vibe about it.
Yeah this is on Brazil's government having high import taxes+tariffs (India being another notable example, but many countries in Africa & South America have this) . While the reasons for these can be debated, it's still the governments fault products manufactured outside the country are so expensive.
The ps5 also isn't a necessity, its a luxury good.People saying Sony should take the hit just aren't being reasonable.
Combine this with the hardware within the PS5 which analysts say Sony is either breaking even or selling at a loss, doesn't really allow the arguement to hold up.
Sony is a business, their aim is to make a certain level of profit at the very least, the tariffs cause this to be a much higher number for Brazil.
Economies of scale also play a factor , if only a small number of people are actually purchasing the consoles the cost to import/sell the product likely rises.
Lastly, the minimum wage being so low is a result of the current and previous governments mismanagement among other things.
Title is also misleading, Cory isn't assigning the blame to Sony, just saying the pricing is BS which as above largely isn't within Sony's control.
The ps5 also isn't a necessity, its a luxury good.People saying Sony should take the hit just aren't being reasonable.
Combine this with the hardware within the PS5 which analysts say Sony is either breaking even or selling at a loss, doesn't really allow the arguement to hold up.
Sony is a business, their aim is to make a certain level of profit at the very least, the tariffs cause this to be a much higher number for Brazil.
Economies of scale also play a factor , if only a small number of people are actually purchasing the consoles the cost to import/sell the product likely rises.
Lastly, the minimum wage being so low is a result of the current and previous governments mismanagement among other things.
Title is also misleading, Cory isn't assigning the blame to Sony, just saying the pricing is BS which as above largely isn't within Sony's control.
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The taxes argument feels so dumb for me.
Phones (which are the same tax category as video games consoles) can sell here for very accessible prices here. You can buy a flagship samsung (that MSRP's on the US for 800 dollars) for cheaper then a PS5 (not by much, but still cheaper). There are obvious scale differences that allow samsung to sell at that price here, but saying that the PS5 price is all taxes is such a dumb argument, I'm very very sure sony could do better.
Phones (which are the same tax category as video games consoles) can sell here for very accessible prices here. You can buy a flagship samsung (that MSRP's on the US for 800 dollars) for cheaper then a PS5 (not by much, but still cheaper). There are obvious scale differences that allow samsung to sell at that price here, but saying that the PS5 price is all taxes is such a dumb argument, I'm very very sure sony could do better.
For context, here are some launch prices:
As you can see, the PS5 official price is actually lower than PS4's if we compare it to the minimum wage. However, it's important to note that PS4 was available unofficially for ~2599 BRL at the time (1211 USD / 3.83x minimum wage) and Sony's ridiculous pricing at the time became a meme.
Our currencly also devalued A LOT. In November 2013, 1 USD = ~2.3 BRL while in November 2020, 1 USD = ~5.3 BRL.
So, no, this isn't purely Sony's fault. However, they still have the highest prices among all manufacturers and, to be honest, the hardware pricing is less of an issue when compared to software prices and lack of PS Now, as you can see by the graphic I shared on the last page:
The cost to maintain a Playstation is MUCH higher than Xbox's.
Nintendo, for context, officially left Brazil in 2015 and only recently returned to the country, but PS5 prices are still higher.
- Xbox One launched for 2199 BRL (~965 USD at the time / 433 USD today) (3.24x minimum wage in 2013*)
- Xbox Series X launched for 4599 BRL (~849 USD at the time / 906 USD today) (4.40x minimum wage in 2020**)
- PS4 launched for 4000 BRL (~1725 USD at the time / 788 USD today) (5.88x minimum wage in 2013*)
- PS5 launched for 4699 BRL (~881 USD at the time / 926 USD today) (4.49x minimum wage in 2020**)
As you can see, the PS5 official price is actually lower than PS4's if we compare it to the minimum wage. However, it's important to note that PS4 was available unofficially for ~2599 BRL at the time (1211 USD / 3.83x minimum wage) and Sony's ridiculous pricing at the time became a meme.
Our currencly also devalued A LOT. In November 2013, 1 USD = ~2.3 BRL while in November 2020, 1 USD = ~5.3 BRL.
So, no, this isn't purely Sony's fault. However, they still have the highest prices among all manufacturers and, to be honest, the hardware pricing is less of an issue when compared to software prices and lack of PS Now, as you can see by the graphic I shared on the last page:
The cost to maintain a Playstation is MUCH higher than Xbox's.
Nintendo, for context, officially left Brazil in 2015 and only recently returned to the country, but PS5 prices are still higher.
Honestly, it's fine if they don't want to give regional pricing since it's a hardware and they're selling it at a loss, or so they say.
But how about digital games?
Sony used to have decent regional pricing and they abandoned us. There's literally no loss in creating a new digital code.
But how about digital games?
Sony used to have decent regional pricing and they abandoned us. There's literally no loss in creating a new digital code.
More or less the same in Indonesia, 3 months worth of salary.
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Like others have said people should push for better regional pricing on games since there is precedent (steam).
You're totally right!
Xbox One was manufactured in Brazil (2199 BRL) while PS4 wasn't (4000 BRL). They actually started manufacturing Xbox consoles in Brazil back in 2011, if I'm not mistaken, with the Xbox 360. At the time, it received a price reduction of up to 38% (1299BRL to 799BRL) for the base model and 31% for the 256GB model (1599 BRL to 1099 BRL).
In 2015, Sony also started manufacturing the PS4 locally, which reduced the price by 34% (from 4000BRL to 2566 BRL).
As far as I know, both the PS5 and Xbox Series X aren't manufactured in Brazil, so there is still hope for a ~30% price cut? At least for Xbox, as Sony has officially closed its factories in Brazil and left the country (except for some very specific markets) earlier this year. They also stopped manufacturing PS4s locally back in 2017.
Geez, those Brazil taxes are rough.
Even at $500 in the US it's said to be at a loss and add in Brazil's tariffs? Woof!
Even at $500 in the US it's said to be at a loss and add in Brazil's tariffs? Woof!
Why not? The Series S is practically half the price of the Series X and it plays all the same games at a lower resolution. Or there's an even better solution...
Never say corporations can't do more to support accessibility in poorer countries, because they can.
We are talking about current Ps5, not hardware that doesn't exist. Sony certainly could develop a cheaper console, but that's not the point. The problem here is how overpriced products are in countries like brazil o Argentina. A Series S costs more than 500$ in Brazil, which is still a crazy amount for an average brazilian.
People keep pointing towards the companies instead of stupid goverments, tariffs and taxe.
An $800 Samsung phone is massively marked up though, as you can see other sellers selling phones with similar specifications for less than half the price, so they can afford to sell them at a lower price to other markets. I believe Sony is either barely making money, or making a loss on each console sold.
That response alone told me that this thread was created with a misleading title and interpretation of Balrog's statement because there was an agenda. It completely avoided the fact that the issue isn't exclusive to SONY, but hey, let's just give them shit anyways.
This thread is terrible and the kind that gives ERA and gamers a bad name.
Even worse is somehow some users think this is SONY's fault and to rectify it they should just eat losses to provide the console at a lower cost to try and get around the insanely high tariffs imposed on imported electronic goods like consoles.
As if that wouldn't just cause people in countries like the US to just buy them up at the reduced price.
The PS5 seems pretty reasonably priced here, at least considering my own expectations for the price and my current income. I'm seriously unsure what could actually be done to make these consoles cheaper than that. Even physical games are reasonably priced as well, most of them get pretty discounts even on the same month they launch.
If you can afford the extremely expensive hardware, you probably belong to the part of the population that can afford the expensive games as well. There is no point lowering the price of games to be more affordable for the poorer population because they can't afford the hardware and aren't buying the games anyway.
Yeah, it does suck. Not sure where the slamming comes in but yeah it sucks. Sony would, I presume, like to sell a PS5 to everyone in the world who wanted one. Not entirely clear on how they could achieve this as they are not a non-profit charity. As I understand it Businesses are in the business of making money. Hopefully, they become more affordable around the world. Hopefully, everything becomes more affordable to everyone around the world. It's nice to have hope.
Is there actually any fix for this? Like even them just saying fuck it and taking huge losses to even out the tax, won't it just be a scalping clusterfuck?
The true problem are the cost of games. Sony could do little to change the price of the console but they truly should do regional pricing for games like Microsoft and Nintendo.
Sony has absolutely nothing to do with it. Brazil has very closed market with insane taxes.
Minimum salary in brazil doesn't even cover the cost of rent in a major city.
To be honest, Brazil has bigger problems than luxury technology that 1% of the population can afford when HALF of the population is living in misery and hunger.
Minimum salary in brazil doesn't even cover the cost of rent in a major city.
To be honest, Brazil has bigger problems than luxury technology that 1% of the population can afford when HALF of the population is living in misery and hunger.
Also, I'm not sure what people mean with "why don't they give us regional pricing"? Like, this is the official price of the products for this region. Is regional pricing supposed to mean the converted USD price? If so, that's already true for the games, but the hardware appears to be weighed down by taxes and logistics.
While I partially agree with you, it's important to highlight that most people in Brazil buy expensive stuff they can't afford, like consoles, in 12 to 24 installments.
Hardware is really expensive, we all agree with that. But it's still a one-time purchase in ~7 years, so a lot of people will save money to buy them in installments even if they can't really afford it.
However, MAINTAINING that console by paying 350BRL on every single game is where, in my opinion, is the biggest barrier right now. I know many people who will wait many years to play a game just because they're waiting for used game prices to drop, otherwise, they can't afford it.
This is why, in my opinion, Xbox Game Pass and PS Now (not available in Brazil) are so important for our market. If you buy a Series S (2799 BRL) + 1 year of Game Pass (30 BRL/mo) or Ultimate (45 BRL/mo), you'll pay "only" ~250 BRL / month over the first year. That is still expensive and won't give access to poorer populations, but it opens the doors to so many people in the middle class.
Hardware is one time investment for the next 7-8 years. In the other hand, there are hundreds of games available on the platform. No point in lowering price? How about so that more people can buy them, which leads to more revenue?
Regional pricing for hardware would mean huge loses for Sony and other companies. It's not the same as regional pricing for games where usually it's just a disc or digital license. The tax on electronics by the Brazilian government needs to be addressed. It's not Sony or any other company job to fix the broken tax system.
And even with the current price, the PS5 is sold out on all major retailers here in Brazil. I'll often get a notification of a restock from a few retail apps only for the consoles to be sold out on the same day.
Hah, don't tell that to professional lobbyists.
Have Brazil's terrible electronics tarrifs ever paid off? I know the country is a paradise for Master System and Mega Drive fans, but I haven't heard much about modern manufacturing investment. Sony tried doing some late-gen PS3 manufacturing in the country, but the added costs were so high that the console still ended up being too expensive even without the tax.
This is a good perspective that people from richer countries should keep in mind. American minimum wages are too low, but the fact that someone here on minimum wage can still realistically afford a launch day PS5 speaks volumes to the relative prosperity of the United States.
Developing world electronics are often priced in a way that makes them less affordable for the middle class. For the truly impoverished a luxury good like the PS5 isn't even on the radar.
This is a good perspective that people from richer countries should keep in mind. American minimum wages are too low, but the fact that someone here on minimum wage can still realistically afford a launch day PS5 speaks volumes to the relative prosperity of the United States.
Developing world electronics are often priced in a way that makes them less affordable for the middle class. For the truly impoverished a luxury good like the PS5 isn't even on the radar.
Same here. People are more accepting higher price for hardwares if the softwares are affordable. It's also the reason why physical copies are still king here, since people buy, sell, and trade a lot to minimize their spendings on games.
That is not on Sony this time, our currency melted during Bolsonaro's presidency and Covid pandemic, so even with the same prices from America (500 USD) this would represent almost 2.5 x the minimum wage.
Also I'm not against taxation for foreign produced products. This was a way to incentivize local production (my Xbox One S is brazilian as an example, and I've bought it by 1500 BRL (350 USD at the time)). We are a poor country and Consoles are a luxury item. The taxes on luxury helps the country to have better services for the poor.
Also I'm not against taxation for foreign produced products. This was a way to incentivize local production (my Xbox One S is brazilian as an example, and I've bought it by 1500 BRL (350 USD at the time)). We are a poor country and Consoles are a luxury item. The taxes on luxury helps the country to have better services for the poor.
ITT: Era is now against a corporation making money at all.
The angry people are suggesting Sony should adjust its pricing in a huge market so that it is losing an enormous amount on each console, to provide it like it's a public service to which all ought to be entitled.
That's not how any of this works or ought to work.
The angry people are suggesting Sony should adjust its pricing in a huge market so that it is losing an enormous amount on each console, to provide it like it's a public service to which all ought to be entitled.
That's not how any of this works or ought to work.
Hello. Since you are from Brazil, what do you think about a monthly fee for consoles like the Xbox access program. Do you think that would be a strategy, even though we can't blame the console manufacturer for the tax?