| SpokenTruth said: Most gamers do not realize that Sony and MS have long established distribution channels around the world. Sony because they've been a global consumer electronics giant since the 1950s. Distribution, or even regional manufacture, of TV's, radios, etc...has given Sony an inroad to any other device they market which includes game consoles. MS opened channels in the 1980s because businesses needed office software and operating systems. That opened up the channel for other products such as game consoles. Nintendo has never had that kind of pre-existing distribution channel in the smaller markets when it came time to launch games consoles there. They've had to rely on local distributors which is rarely ever as good as direct distribution for any product (not just game consoles). |
Finally someone that understands what's going on, instead of shouting "Nintendo doesn't cares about us!".
It's the same here in Mexico, Microsoft have a MUCH easier time here than Nintendo because they handle their own distribution, and therefore they can offer their product at a competitive price without having to give a cut from the profit to a third party. Combine that to the fact that the minimum wage here is about .47 USD per hour, and the average monthly wage is about $600USD, and that Nintendo is a small company... Not worth it for Nintendo and it's understandable. Microsoft can do it even if it's not worth it thanks to their sheer size, in the hope that it becomes a profitable market one day.
Also, it's part of the reason Steam has gained steam (heh) here: Their business model lets (most of) their prices bypass all the stone age regulations and asshole distributors that we have in this shithole of a country. Even if computer hardware prices here are insane too, the prices of the games makes up for it. Nintendo's eShop mexican prices, for example, have to be around the same as in retail, maybe negotiated (or forced) by their physical distributor so that it doesn't cannibalizes their business.
