You may remember a little while ago that Australian politicians led a crusade against vendors like Adobe, Apple and Microsoft for charging Aussies too much for tech just because we’d pay it. A big fuss was made, and it was great that the Parliament came up with possible ways to fix the problem. Our problems, however, pale in comparison to the issue of pricing in Brazil. You won’t believe how much they have to pay just to get their hands on the Sony PlayStation 4, for example.
Sony recently announced the price for the PS4 in Brazil in a blog post, telling Brazilians that they’d be paying $R3999 for the system.
For those not immediately familiar with the exchange rate between Brazilian Reals and the Australian Dollar, that works out at an astronomical cost of $1926 for the PlayStation 4 console.
$1926.
By comparison, the PS4 costs just $549 in Australia. That’s $1377 less than you’d pay if you were in Brazil.
Kotaku explains why the price is so high:
Sony Brazil explained that between 60 to 70 per cent of the cost was made up of import fees and taxes. That would come out to $US1292 in fees, leaving only $US554 for the console. Sony also announced that games for the system will run a relatively reasonable R$179, around $US80.
I think I’ll start a cartel running PS4s into Brazil. How hard can it be? [Sony]