For Nintendo, the Brazilian market is turning out to be harder to win than the pirate-ship level in "Super Mario Bros. 3."

Reggie Fils-Aime, president of the Japanese company's American unit, singled out Brazil as a potentially important growth area for Nintendo's business in the future. While Mexico is the game maker's biggest market in Latin America, "Brazil has huge potential," Fils-Aime said in an interview at Bloomberg's office in San Francisco yesterday.

But Nintendo keeps stumbling over the same hurdle as many other consumer-electronics companies trying to crack the world's second-biggest emerging economy. Brazilian import fees are very expensive, and that drives the prices way up. For example, Brazil is the most expensive country in the world to buy an iPhone 5 at 2,299 real ($1,045), according to Bloomberg Rankings. Nintendo's consoles, too, typically sell for more than $1,000 each in Brazil, which is more than three times the price in the U.S.

The high duties in Brazil don't exist to discourage global tech companies from selling their products there. The fees are designed to encourage local fabrication. Nintendo uses the Taiwan-based Foxconn Technology Group to put together its game consoles. (The pair came under fire a year ago for using underage assembly-line workers.) Nintendo has explored the prospect of manufacturing some of its hardware in Brazil, Fils-Aime said.

"For complicated products, that's not always easy to do," he said. "We've looked at it a number of times."

According to Fils-Aime, Brazil's manufacturing industry lacks the technical capabilities to produce a Nintendo game system. The other issue is piracy. In a submission to the U.S. Trade Representative earlier this year, Nintendo listed Brazil as a country to watch for distribution of counterfeit goods.

There's no power-up to solve these challenges.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-24/nintendo-s-unbeatable-level-brazil.html

"The high duties in Brazil don't exist to discourage global tech companies from selling their products there. The fees are designed to encourage local fabrication. "

LIE

I see a lot of outside sites posting that MS or Sony manufacture/produce consoles here... it is not the case... both assemble consoles here, so all the console parts are imported (except the box and manuals).

About your question... MS and Sony have plant here in Manaus. Nintendo don't.

Yeah... this is a big LIE.

Sony consoles make much more success in Brasil than Nintendo ones. Combined with the fact that in the NES/SNES days SEGA won over the market, it's easy to see why it's hard for Nintendo to create a following in Brazil, since it never had one to begin with.

Ethomaz, is Nintendo correct in stating piracy is a huge problem there?

Yeah... Sony says they need the R$billions to change the actual PS3 assemble plant to PS4 assemble here... this is a bit bull because I'm sure the won't will manufacture anything here... just assemble... at the same side MS is using the same 360 assemble plant to Xbone assemble.

Now of course if you think in create a plat to produce/manufacture a console here then you need R$billions... it is not like the Reggie is a full... just that he say the hardest and expensive scenario possible (create a plat to produce/manufacture consoles here)... they can do what MS and Sony did... just assemble.

I'm sure Sony will be assembling PS4 here early 2014... they are just trying to create excuses because they worked realy slow and dumb here while MS are smart and fast.

Sony Brasil is the only guilty for the actual price.

it is the same in all L.A for some reason video games are perceived like a sony only thing, thanks god usa and japan love nintendo, to some degree mexico too.

I attest what he says. I myself use R4 in my ds.

You see, almost every place where you go, you can find piracy selling ps2 games. There is not one place selling console here that don't have ps2. Almost every time is a hacked one. In mercado livre(brazilian ebay), every wii(and wiiu) areadly have a sayng: hacked for wii games.

PC games a are popular around here, not because they are better, but because they are cheaper(our laws don't onerate virtual sales, not yet). I'm almost free from piracy in my computer games because of that, but the rest its hard yet.

Yet, nintendo its not guitly free. They never localised their games here, thing that almost every major publisher is doing for some years now. WiiU still hadn't it's launch around here, and we have only a promisse: this year ending. Not a date, or a price. They don't have a "nintendo brasil", like sony, microsoft, ubisoft and capcom have. They a have a subside company to sell and do events around here(events are getting better, its true). We don't have club nintendo. Wii came around here bigger priced than 360, and its not that good yet, a bare minimum difference.

The thing i hate: we used to have snes been produced around here(by gradient, not nintendo itself), but the company stoped this in production in game cube era( we still have 360 and ps3 been produced around here). Nintendo never had a monopoly around here, sega did very well in this country, and ps1 and 2 dominate the others. Still, nintendo is lacking competence. It's hard, i know, but you are older, should be knowing this things areadly. It really sad be like me: a brazillian nintendo fan living near the amazon rani forest.

It seems everyone from Brazil complain about the cost of gaming there but yet Sony and MS seem to be putting a lot of effort into maintaining a market there. I assume they must be getting some reward.

In many ways I respect the Brazilian idea of trying to create your own industries and manufacturing by heaving a huge tax on imports, if it does work in the long term remains to be seen.

Sounds like Reggie is talking from the wrong organ in his body.