Nintendo shuts down operations in Brazil

The year started off sad for Brazilian fans of Nintendo. The company Brazil Gaming, a subsidiary of Latin America Video Games and responsible for the national distribution of game consoles, has just announced the end of these activities in January. According to bill van zyll, director and general manager for Latin America at Nintendo of America, "O Brazil is an important market for Nintendo and home to many passionate fans, but unfortunately challenges in the local business environment have made our current distribution model in the country unsustainable.”

He adds that “these challenges include the high tariffs on imports that apply to our sector and our decision not to have a local manufacturing operation. Working together with Latin America Video Games, we will monitor the evolution of the business environment and evaluate the best way to serve our Brazilian fans in the future”.

problematic relationship

For more than a year, the relationship between the Brazil and Nintendo nothing is going well. For many people, it is impossible to buy content from the online store eShop from the laptop Nintendo 3DS. And the reason for this is precisely because the company failed to comply with banking regulations that make it impossible for bank credit cards, such as Bradesco, Itaú e Santander carry out operations in online stores that have prices in reais, but charge in dollars.

Also, there is no console online store either. Wii U, an issue that prevents players from purchasing exclusive content online, such as classic Virtual Console, and generates other embarrassing situations for the brand and the customer. The game Mario barth 8 received extra free content that Brazilians cannot download, because they have to access the online store. But if you don't have a store, you don't have a purchase, right?

And, to top it off, the company is also far from the current trend of offering titles with translation into Portuguese, frustrating loyal fans of the company's consoles and games. Nintendo.

However, the Latin America Video Games remains as a distributor of Nintendo for Latin America. “We are partners with Nintendo distributing its products in Latin America for 14 years and we remain committed to the brand. And while no other changes happen for other markets in the region, we are in a position where we need to re-evaluate our approach to distribution in the region. Brazil”, commented bernard josephsCEO of Latin America Video Games.