http://www.ps3brasil.com.br/

The president of Sony Latin America, Yoshito Ezure, confirmed this Wednesday in a meeting with the media in Sao Paulo that the company is considering bringing the PS3 to Brazil. According to him, the major hurddles are produzing at least some parts of the console locally so that the price can be more feasible.

According to Ezure, piracy will not be a problem for the introduction to the console in the country, like it was for the PS2. "Idon't believe there's any software piracy for the PS3 in any place in the world", he said.

There wasn't any timeline for when this will happen. "If it was up to me, we'd start it tomorrow, but we have a lot of challenges to conquer" said Ezure. Today the PS3 is only available through import shops, and are being sold for at least 2000 Brazilian Reais (1300 US dollars).

I looked at the store site again and saw the following prices:

20GB - 3800 Brazilian Reais (The only one I saw before)
40GB - 1500 Brazilian Reais (About 1k)
80GB Motorstorm bundle - 2600 Brazilian Reais

@fila

why is the 20 GB the most expensive one?80 GB should be the most expensive one.

so will this help PS3 sales because its being expanded or will it hurt them because of piracy?

Well in my country we used to get every console at NA launch and with the NA price thanks to the Canal Zone, now that it doesn't exist we get them 2 weeks after the NA launch and US$50 above the NA price... We also have access to the Japanese gaming market thanks to the asian community (that's how i got my FAMICOM and my MegaDrive)...

Now, if the Sony Latin American shipment is going to reduce the console price (at least in NTSC territories) that will mean a possible huge market, but i think Sony already did their research ...

By the way, third world is an obsolete definition from the Cold War era... Now things are more complex...

He didn't actually say PS3 was launching in Latin America, he said Sony were going to start distributing PlayStation products in Latin America. Presumably PS2 and possibly PSP have been distributed by third parties there up until now. There are lots of developing countries where Sony distributes PS2 but not PS3, so this isn't a guarantee that PS3 will be launched there. Also, I don't think he said September, just this year. I'll search for the exact quote though.

I'm interested in whether they'll be creating a new subsidiary (maybe SCELatinAmerica?) to go with their four current ones (SCEJapan, SCEAmerica, SCEEurope, and SCEAsia), or if their Latin American operations will come under SCEA.

We'll have to wait for more info from Sony to know the answer to this, and what their release plans, if any, are for PS3. I tried searching Google News in Spanish, but couldn't find any mention of this announcement.

As for prices, they will still be crazily high in Latin America due to very high import taxes.

Well if PS3 is launched there it won't hurt PS3 software sales as PS3 can't be pirated, but seeing as PS3 can't be pirated that will hurt hardware sales in the region compared to other consoles. Still, they currently have zero official sales from Latin America, so even low sales would be more than nothing.

Wow... I would think it to be an insult to the South American people to say "Buy our console even though everyone else had it 2 years ago" and anyone can import these days.

but they were showing ps3 being droped into shipping containers in LBP,,,so that's why I assumed they will launch PS3 aswell.

Well, PS3 is on stores in most Central and South American countries, now, the import taxes increase prices, but that depends on the country (At least in mine the Colon Free Zone, being a dollarized country and the Canal means less price), and the add-price for being the intermediate is eliminated with the direct shipment, so in theory there has to be a price cut...

as for the games,,,since PS3 is region free ,,why do people pay 100 bucks for them in store instead of buying it on ebay for 40 bucks?