| NightDragon83 said: Makes sense. I always wondered why the videogame industry's presence in areas such as Latin and South America has been lagging far behind most of the rest of the world. Is it due to piracy? Trade laws / agreements? Something else? |
For the most part I thought it was simply a matter of money ...
From my understanding, South American countries tend to have far lower GDP per capita with a far less equitable distribution of income than most of the regions console manufacturers focus on. As a result of this in many of these countries a videogame console costs as much as 2 weeks to 1 month of income for the typical family.
Nintendo has tried something similar in the past with their iQue Player in China, and I wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo announced a modified Wii in the future that was re-designed to lower costs and reduce piracy and was going to be released in developing markets for $50 to $75 with games delivered through digital distribution that cost between $5 and $10. Basically, if they removed the DVD player, Gamecube controller ports, SD card slot and USB ports, and put in 32GB of flash memory they could probably sell it for a price many people in the developing world could afford while developing a legitimate market through limiting piracy.
