BKK2 said:
I agree that Sony should be doing more than just distribution, but before investing in local studios and local content I think they need to bring prices down to a reasonable level on existing products. These thoughts are primarily aimed at PS2. The first thing they need to do is bring down the price of software by eliminating import duty and start replicating games in South America. Sony have started doing this in India which is probably currently much a smaller market than Latin America. My guess is Sony already plan to do this for PS2, but for PS3 it may not be so easy due to BD replication facilities not being widespread. The size of the market probably doesn't warrant investment in this. That will take care of import duty, but even US prices are prohibitiely high for most people, especially when compared to a pirated version, so Sony need sell their PS2 games a lot cheaper than they do in developed nations. In India PS2 games start from Rs. 499 ($12), they need a similar pricing scheme in Latin America. It's not so easy to manufacture hardware there, but it's been done before. Tectoy, a Brazilian company who used to be Sega's distributor obtained the licensing from Sega to manufacture Master Systems in Brazil. It ended up selling over 2 million, and actually still sell a version which comes with the games built in. PS2 should be simple enough by now that it's feasible to start production in Brazil for the domestic market, and if not now, it should be feasible at some point in the future. As for local content, I'm sure a Brazilian version of Singstar would be a cheap low risk way to start. I think Sony probably has at least some of this planned, as Kaz Hirai had this to say at the last TGS: Further Expansion of the PlayStation®2 business
In the 8th year from launch, PlayStation 2 still sees steady demands particularly in North America and Europe. Reaching the remarkable milestone of the 120 millionth shipment in the 7th year from launch, PlayStation 2 will have longer-tail business compared to its predecessor, the original PlayStation. Targeting at further expanding the business into the emerging markets, SCEI will continue to vigorously promote PlayStation 2, by introducing more and more exciting new games. Clearly the Latin American distribution announcement is the start of Sony's future plans for PS2 mentioned at TGS.
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That is extremely important, I'm sure that if PS2 games were being sold for $20-$30 Brazilian Reais, there would be a lot more sales of (legit) games there. I read somewhere that they are trying to manufacture some of the PS3's (or possibly PS2) part in Brazil as to cut down on the import taxes (60%+).
However I don't see that happening, DVDs in general are still 40 Reais in Brazil and you can get 5 movies for 10 reais pirated. I'm sure some people would buy DVDs if the price were similar to the US (10-20 bucks), but at that price, it's really a no brainer. Also everything that's cars and electronic costs an arm and a leg in Brazil, Brazil is the worst country in terms of taxing the fuck out of people and making that collected money dissapear.
