Both perhaps? I mean, there's the inhumane red tape, then there's... hideous retailers... 

Not a new car, but yep can confirm that I bought a fully-functioning used car at that time for less than that PS3.

You meant high taxes right?

We use "Custo Brasil" to talk about high cost in production taxes, labor taxes and commerce and services taxes. This makes goods here extremely expensive, even for basic things like food in grocery stores. Custo Brasil is definitely a thing and give a headache to any lower/middle class worker who spend over 80% of their income in consumer items, meaning the absolute majority of our wages are taxed from one way or another

"Lucro Brasil" is used to criticize the exploitation of some companies to elevate selling price as much as they can only for the sake of profit. In specific automotive industry is know for their infamous retail prices for subpar products

Apple does this here too, selling price for iPhone and MacBooks are unrealistic high even with all taxes involved, they used sell MacBooks for over 15k BRL even when exchange rate was 3 BRL = 1 USD, so yeah 5k USD for a freaking personal computer

Sony tried with PS4, even with exchange rates and taxes it shouldn't be priced over 3000 BRL, but retail price at launch was 4000 BRL. Didn't work that well for them and they lowered the price a bit

Took me 1 minute to find Animal Crossing for about 385 BLR on Mercado Livre. And as you said, if you spend enough time, you can find it for even cheaper.

And if you live in places like Sao Paulo, there are the Grey Market that, fi you go to such places, you can easily find Switch games that can range from 200 BLR( older titles and less popular ones) to 320 (Recently Released and Popular games).

Regarding the eshop, that's why I said "If Nintendo wants to be aggressive", which obviously implies a will by Nintendo to implement some attractive regional pricing. Having said that, it's not like the digital prices differ that much from the competitors. And considering that every now and then Nintendo do have a sale on it's biggest games(and that the person who buys a Switch isn't exactly poor) a 40% off Mario Odyssey or a 40% off XC 2 isn't that expensive.

And I think you overestimate the number of people that changes region to take advantage of that, and the overall impact on said business. Steam does that(Epic too) and they are still going strong.Don't get me wrong, Nintendo won't do that(due to numerous reasons), but it's not that big of a deal, the same way that piracy dosen't have nearly the same effect as people say it does.

Edit: Heh, just did a little more digging, and found an offer on Mercado Livre for 370 BLR.

Errr I don't think region lock will be really necessary. Considering current dollar exchange ratio we can buy PSN full titles from about 270 (49USD and there wouldn't be the 15% tax like USA that makes the game 69USD) and if you buy physical you can find for 220-250 if you wait couple days, because those grey shop buy what Sony prints and ships to Paraguay without taxes and then sell in Brazil for lower than MSRP.

Not even during NES, SNES, N64 and GC Nintendo thought about producing it here themselves, they had Gradient do it, so I think it is very unlikely that they will now.

This one for 370 also charges 40 BRL for delivery. Most retailers who uses Mercado Livre distribution delivery uses 400 price tag. Sure minor fluctuations can happen like 390 or so, but same will happen when big retailers start selling games here

I live in Recife, alternative market here is not as strong as in SP and many second-hand games are from on-hand trade only. It worked from me in late 3DS times, but definitely not happening for Switch now (and I'm personally avoiding getting out of home)

How are you sure don't impact sales revenue? I understand a case where there is a different version of the game like a Russian switch game not having french or Spanish dub/sub, but the standard game? Doesn't make sense for me as a Brazilian consumer who is used to change region every time I want some discount 

It's the same with Switch physical games, except they are sold for over 350 BRL unless they are really flop ones that just don't sell. Since they are unofficial retailers they don't have a return distribution policy and sometimes sell those games for 270-300 BRL just for the sake of get at least the cost value back, this is happening with very few games that goes on sale quite often on eshop like Ni no Kuni, but almost never happen with Nintendo AAA games like BOTW or Smash Bros Ultimate, those you will find for 350-400 BRL

Digital games are priced 250 BRL on eshop, with current exchange rates this is about 45 USD, I don't know how often american change their account region but at least europeans seems very price sensitive consumers, I don't know why the heck they just don't buy their games on br eshop 

Edit: Just about 2 hours ago euro got their highest exchange rate ever at 6,7 BRL. If a fellow european wants a nice disccount go on BR eshop you can buy any AAA Nintendo game for only 37 EUR (and we have Luigi's Mansion on sale for 170 BRL ~28 EUR)

What? No...

Have you never used Mercado Livre? Any offer that is above 120 BLR NEEDS to offer free shipping. I mean, it's not technically free because the seller puts that into the cost, but if the offer costs 370 BLR, you don't pay a cent more for the shipping.

It does affect, but not in a significant way. It's not that different from the arguments used when piracy is the topic. If piracy really stole that many sales, developers would be out of business by now(because it's easier than ever to emulate/pirate games in general, at least that's what it seems to me), but they are not. It's actually quite the opposite really.

There are several reasons that go into it, but they mostly boild down to three: Many have a moral code to not do it, meaning that it's not 100% of gamers that are going to try it(piracy or abusing the regional pricing). Second: Even if it's not complicated, it takes way too much effort somethimes than people are willing to dedicate. One of the reasons that Steam, PS4, Switch and so on are successful is because they are offer a streamlined and effortless experience which people can easily buy and play games. Havin to make new emails to change accounts, then set up those accounts, then buy foreign currency, etc. is usually too much hassle for most. And third: Even with regional pricing being put into place, games don't get THAT much cheaper. With games on sale so often(and fast, given that alot of games goes into sale 3 or 4 months after it's release), why the hell go through all that hussle I just mentioned before, to save what it ends up being 15, 20 dollars? Especially when I can wait 3 or 4 months for a sale, and play another great game currently discounted while I wait?

I buy a lot there actually. And not necessarily all products must be shipping free, it's up to the seller. Here it's charging 40,90 for delivery

https://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-1607948414-midia-fisica-animal-crossing-new-horizons-switch-lacrado-_JM