If you live in Brazil, I’ve some bad news for you. Unless you’ve more money than you know what to do with, you probably aren’t going to be picking up a PS4 for yourself anytime soon. See, while Sony’s console only costs around $400 overseas, for some reason, Sony’s slapped a price tag of $1,845.00 on it in the region. That works out to roughly 3,999 Brazilian Real; more than most people in the country even come close to making in a year.
What is Sony thinking?
That this is bad for the PlayStation brand, actually. See, the price gouging isn’t Sony’s fault. Not entirely, anyway. According to Sony Latin American General Manager Mark Stanley, around 63% of the rather exorbitant price on the console is being put solely towards paying import taxes imposed by the country on electronics.
As for the rest of the price disparity, Stanley explained that the rest of the funds go towards the profit margin for Sony and its retailers (22%), and towards importing the console (21.5%). Sony has explained that it may be able to reduce the cost of the console if it can shift some of its manufacturing to Brazil. For now, however…
Well, if you’re dead-set on a PS4, it might be cheaper to just fly to the States for one.
This apparently isn’t anything new in Brazil, sadly. Apparently, the country has a long history of pasting ludicrous taxes onto imported electronics – the Xbox One, while significantly cheaper than the PS4, is still going to be retailing at almost $1,000.
