Nintendo Pulls Out Of Brazilian Market Due To 'High Taxes'

Nintendo is officially removing its products from Brazil, citing the South American country’s high taxes.

“Brazil is an important market for Nintendo and home to many passionate fans, but unfortunately challenges in the business local environment have made our current distribution model in the country unsustainable," said Bill van Zyll, director and gm for Latin America of Nintendo of America, on Friday in a statement translated from Portuguese. “These challenges include high tariffs on imports that apply to our industry and our decision not to have a local manufacturing operation… We will monitor the evolution of our business environment and evaluate the best way to serve our Brazilian fans in the future.”

Are taxes really that high in Brazil? When Sony’s PlayStation 4 launched in 2013 in the country, its price tag was $3,000 Brazilian reals (BRL), or the equivalent of $1,800. The Xbox One was priced at $2,199 BRL, or $1,005. For comparison, the PS4 is $400 in the U.S. and the Xbox One is available for $500 with the Kinect and $400 without.

However, many Brazilian Nintendo fans will still have access to the franchise-exclusive games they love. The Wii U and Wii consoles aren’t locked to Latin America or Brazil, and are in the same region as North America. But purchasing more content may become more difficult as time goes on.