In Brazil, gaming is growing considerably in the last few years. The most popular games are Fifa, GTA, CoD, you know.
Here's the thing: what defines the most popular console here is piracy. The PS2 had rampant piracy, so it DOMINATED here (I never even heard of someone with GC or Xbox). Then the 360 had piracy, so it won over the PS3 (not sure about the Wii though). But in recent years, the prices for games and consoles are getting better. Back in the PS2 days, a game would cost something like 100+ dollars or something. Today, you can find more reasonable prices (and the PS3 has gained a considerable surge of popularity thanks to that. And piracy. Oh well), but it's FAR from the convenience of going to a store nearby and grabbing a used copy for 5 bucks or something. Something like that is INCONCEIVABLE around here.
Also, Steam has a brazilian version, with some seriously awesome prices, so there's that.
HOWEVER. With minimum wage at about 290-300 US dollars and consoles costing about 550-600 dollars (and that's on the grey market. Official stores can be even more expensive), gaming can be a pretty expensive hobby and it's extremely rare to find people with the latest console. To give you an idea, a brand new PS2 would cost around 200 dollars. A brand new Wii, hum, about 300-350. And I repeat: MINIMUM WAGE IS ABOUT $290-300! So we are always one generation behind the more developed countries. In 2006-07 and even beyond there were still people getting their first PS2. And when people do buy a next-gen console, they mostly stick to the popular franchises (GTA, Fifa, CoD, you know). Most people only seem to worry about other, less popular games after years.
And as far as I know, handhelds are not very popular around here.
