Sony selling "pirate quality" GT5 game in Brazil

[speedgear]

There is none, only at the box and manual, that's it.
The rest come from Portugal, we speak the same Portuguese but it's not the same as we speak here in Brazil.

It's like English from UK and US or Canada, it's all English right?
Wrong, same here.

looks like the same to me , dont need subtitles when watchin brasilian movies.

 

[Caliente]

850 for the G27?
Wow, we have the same price then.

Yeah, and cross the border to Norway and it is around 435 USD? I find it hard to believe it goes cheaper over here than in Sweeden.

But on topic. I totally understand your frustration, but you should really be glad you got a legit copy. Who cares about the print on front, as long as the Disc is working and "as good as new" (no scratches and such. Fingerprints does not hurt the disc). A pirate is not safe, probably used and you have no idea how long you are able to use it.

 

[tibiquera]

It goes to show the state of the videogame industry in Brazil. Last generation, as far as I remember, there was no console officially launched in the country. This time around, they were released years after the rest of the world. It's true taxes are prohibitive, but there are a lot of people willing to pay the money to have a legitimate console. It seems gaming companies are wasting money by not investing properly in Brazil, and all South America for that matter.

 

[storm8ring3r]

did you try and contact sony brazil yet? I would like to hear how they defend themselves? you should write them a polite email and ask them to explain the deficiencies in their product

 

[fasj6418]

I got GT5 two days after launch from MercadoLivre.com.br. Paid 30% less than what they are selling here also.

I don´t believe any fan of the series was waiting to buy the brazilian version only to find out later that we will be locked out some online/DLC features. Plus, the game got here two weeks later, it´s like we´re still in the 1800´s.

Until the law 300/2007 doesn´t pass, local industry will be useless on the gaming department. Sony pretends they´re interested on our market, and game companies pretend they are lobbying to pass that law.

While they pretend to take care of this business, we should keep buying from those independent importers.

 

[speedgear]

It goes to show the state of the videogame industry in Brazil. Last generation, as far as I remember, there was no console officially launched in the country. This time around, they were released years after the rest of the world. It's true taxes are prohibitive, but there are a lot of people willing to pay the money to have a legitimate console. It seems gaming companies are wasting money by not investing properly in Brazil, and all South America for that matter.

behold the brasilian effort in video gaming .

http://www.zeeboinc.com/

 

[fasj6418]

It goes to show the state of the videogame industry in Brazil. Last generation, as far as I remember, there was no console officially launched in the country. This time around, they were released years after the rest of the world. It's true taxes are prohibitive, but there are a lot of people willing to pay the money to have a legitimate console. It seems gaming companies are wasting money by not investing properly in Brazil, and all South America for that matter.

Current law taxes videogames like they are gambling machines, it´adds up something like 170% on the price, that´s why official products are almost non existant here. It´s from 1991, when Gradiente was representing Nintendo and Tec Toy was representing Sega.

There a law in the congress to change and tax videogames like computer software, but there´s absolutely no lobby to make this law go on vote. I believe many are shortsighted, since we would be at least the 8th-7th biggest videogame market (We´re the 4th in cell phones, 6th in cars).

Sony and other are trully doing a pathetic job in the lobby to improve the industry here. The congressman that proposed the law is now a mayor in a big city, so the project is abandoned.

 

[Stradivis]

behold the brasilian effort in video gaming .

http://www.zeeboinc.com/

The Zeebo was an attempt to counter-strike piracy, since you can only download games (it doesn't use physical media).

But piracy has grown here because of the absurd cost of games. For instance, if we look at Assassin's Creed 2, at launch, it cost R$ 99,00 (PC version), and R$ 250,00 the PS3 and Xbox360 versions. Why is that?

Also, I haven't yet seen any piracy for PS3 games. So, people are buying legit games. That makes the market wheel spin, vendors lower their prices because of competition, and nowadays we are seeing cheaper games overall. (side note: it's even a bit ridiculous, because lots of PS3 games are found cheaper than PS2 games)

Oh, and mate, please drop the ironic tone. This won't help anything in the discussion. Please people, chill out and be cool. Let's keep things civilized.

 

[Ramosis]

I don´t believe any fan of the series was waiting to buy the brazilian version only to find out later that we will be locked out some online/DLC features. Plus, the game got here two weeks later, it´s like we´re still in the 1800´s.

What? Online/DLC features locked in GT5 BR? Where did you heard that? These locks aren't related to PSN account?

 

[speedgear]

The Zeebo was an attempt to counter-strike piracy, since you can only download games (it doesn't use physical media).

But piracy has grown here because of the absurd cost of games. For instance, if we look at Assassin's Creed 2, at launch, it cost R$ 99,00 (PC version), and R$ 250,00 the PS3 and Xbox360 versions. Why is that?

Also, I haven't yet seen any piracy for PS3 games. So, people are buying legit games. That makes the market wheel spin, vendors lower their prices because of competition, and nowadays we are seeing cheaper games overall. (side note: it's even a bit ridiculous, because lots of PS3 games are found cheaper than PS2 games)

Oh, and mate, please drop the ironic tone. This won't help anything in the discussion. Please people, chill out and be cool. Let's keep things civilized.

i was kidding friend , i like your country and consider brasil the far away brother of portugal. remind me a joke...

a friend to another friend -
f1- "all that comes from brasil are prostitutes and football players!"
f2 - "easy on that , my wife is from brasil!!"
f1 -" wich club does she play?"

 

[GTP_BR_Octane]

@wuemura

I got mine from Santa Efigênia 2 days after the release date in EUA. The game is working fine but I noticed something suspicious as I bought it before the official release date: the package had an inprint "Industria Brasileira" (Brazilian Industry).

I have two hipotesis for this:

1 - they smuggled the cds from EUA and packaged it in Brazil for seeling it into the "black market"
2 - Sony had the copies ready in Brazil just waiting for the official release date and someone "stole" lots from Sony's warehouses to sell it before.

 

[pLiDeX]

WOA! Im sorry Brazil. Im in South Africa, we got the exact same copies (even sig editions) as Europe. Is it the same in Brazil? Does Argentina, Uruguay etc get the same copy?

In Uruguay we don't get any copy of GT5, there is no official presence of playstation, i got my GT5 in the black market one week after the US release at USD 82

prices here in retail stores:

PS3 120GB - USD 650
G27 - USD 430

 

[FlyWire]

Here in Chile, we get a strange combination from US's NTCS and PAL versions, pretty strange.

But we have no support, that's why my PSN is Spanish.

 

[Eswin17]

quit complaining, you guys get all the hot babes.

+1

 

[rossellini]

Quit complaining, you guys get all the hot babes.

 

[diegovega]

I'm from Uruguay but I live in Ecuador, and over here a PS3 in the official Sony store might be around $800-900 last time I checked. On mercado libre (ebay thing) it is between $450-600 depending on the model.

My GT5 Collector's Edition I bought from Amazon.com and got it 6 days after US release and only payed $17 for shipping (no taxes since there's a law if it weighs less than 4kg and less than $400 you pay nothing).

Piracy is a huge problem over here, you can go to shopping malls and buy pirated Wii and PS2 games and movies. There are many many stores, piracy is practically accepted and the government does nothing. But Sony should be smarter and lower prices of consoles and games since you can't pirate PS3 games! Instead they sell you one game for $100-120.

Also import taxes are very high depending on the product here, so it is also a problem with the government policies not just greed or stupidity on Sony's part. Cars over here cost 2-2.5 times the price in the US!!

 

[Gaiajohan]

I just took my EU disc out of the drive for the first time since Nov 23rd and it's perfectly clean (logical since I only touched it on the side for 2 secs or so lol). No finger prints anywhere. How is it possible for Sony to degrade the quality so much... Also the print on the disc is different;.. Mine was -NOT- sealed when I bought it..
Just since everyone is comparing prices... I bought my new sealed 80GB fat PS3 last year for €180


My disc after 2 weeks and 2 days in the PS3 drive

And as you can see a 'standard' non-special GT5.

 

[tibiquera]

Current law taxes videogames like they are gambling machines, it´adds up something like 170% on the price, that´s why official products are almost non existant here. It´s from 1991, when Gradiente was representing Nintendo and Tec Toy was representing Sega.

There a law in the congress to change and tax videogames like computer software, but there´s absolutely no lobby to make this law go on vote. I believe many are shortsighted, since we would be at least the 8th-7th biggest videogame market (We´re the 4th in cell phones, 6th in cars).

Sony and other are trully doing a pathetic job in the lobby to improve the industry here. The congressman that proposed the law is now a mayor in a big city, so the project is abandoned.

I lived in Brazil until 2003 and I know that at least where I lived, it was simply impossible to get an original copy at a store, while pirated copies were sold openly everywhere. Also back in the day no console had been officially released. What I think is: even if it's super expensive, the market there is still large enough for console makers to invest. Even if a small percentage of the population has the money and motivation to buy, that's still a lot of people simply because of the country's large population. It amazes me how Sony, Nintendo and MS don't seem to be putting too much effort into it.

 

[Gaiajohan]

Or maybe Sony should build a factory in brazil to avoid a lot of the taxes and maybe talk with the Brazilian leaders about changing the taxes on games. Like:
If the government lowers the taxes on games, Sony will build a factory in Brazil. That way Sony would have two things at once.
1. Cheaper and legal games in Brazil (Income!)
2. more consoles being sold (income!)

And Brazil has:
1. A factory where people will have work
2. The people who're working there can spend money and are good for the economy
3. Possibly even more taxes in the end, because many more games are being sold legally, just like consoles.

I believe Volkswagen does the same with the VW Gol and the VW Fox.

 

[wuemura]

did you try and contact sony brazil yet? I would like to hear how they defend themselves? you should write them a polite email and ask them to explain the deficiencies in their product

Yeah, no response.

 

[fasj6418]

Or maybe Sony should build a factory in brazil to avoid a lot of the taxes and maybe talk with the Brazilian leaders about changing the taxes on games. Like:
If the government lowers the taxes on games, Sony will build a factory in Brazil. That way Sony would have two things at once.
1. Cheaper and legal games in Brazil (Income!)
2. more consoles being sold (income!)

And Brazil has:
1. A factory where people will have work
2. The people who're working there can spend money and are good for the economy
3. Possibly even more taxes in the end, because many more games are being sold legally, just like consoles.

I believe Volkswagen does the same with the VW Gol and the VW Fox.

When deputy Carlito Merss proposed the new law, it was because Nintendo was seriously considering byuilding a factory in Joinville, in the state of Santa Catarina.

That´s why he proposed the law, it was a condition to get the factory.

Looks like Nintendo dropped those plans, Merss is now the mayor of Joinville and i believe if the factory was going to happen he would of kept lobbying for the project.

Right now it doesn´t seem like there´s anyone working towards that law.

---------------

As for a brazilian copy being locked out of DLC, of course there´s a possibility. We don´t know how they will handle DLC for GT5.

If i buy a DLC from the USA store, it could only work on the NTSC version of the game.

Brazil doesn´t even have a PSN store, and once it does, it will likely get limited and delayed content like it happens with some other PSN stores.

I thought it was a double risk. One, we would get the game later, and two, we could be locked out of some online components.Three, the US version is cheaper than buying in one of those official stores.

I still think it´s a smart choice to avoid this "brazilian" version.

 

[wuemura]

Or maybe Sony should build a factory in brazil to avoid a lot of the taxes and maybe talk with the Brazilian leaders about changing the taxes on games. Like:
If the government lowers the taxes on games, Sony will build a factory in Brazil. That way Sony would have two things at once.
1. Cheaper and legal games in Brazil (Income!)
2. more consoles being sold (income!)

And Brazil has:
1. A factory where people will have work
2. The people who're working there can spend money and are good for the economy
3. Possibly even more taxes in the end, because many more games are being sold legally, just like consoles.

I believe Volkswagen does the same with the VW Gol and the VW Fox.

Sony already has a factory here, they build anything from small devices to the top 3D TV's. The factory are builded at a "free trade zone".
http://www.sony.com.br/manaus/

Again, they have no excuse to do what they do.

 

[Gaiajohan]

Sony already has a factory here, they build anything from small devices to the top 3D TV's. The factory are builded at a "free trade zone".
http://www.sony.com.br/manaus/

Again, they have no excuse to do what they do.

Hmm I see.. There doesn't seem to be a reason why the PS3's are so expensive then.. Except when it's seen as a gambling machine.. I'm pretty certain a big company as Sony, and maybe Nintendo and MS as well should be able to exchange such taxes with some job offers..

But, to those with the US 'standard' version..
Does your disc look like the EU-disc, or like the Brazilian disc?

EU

Brazil

The disc just bothers me, I don't understand the simply fugly and low quality artwork.. Also the Blu-ray case seems weird to me, but it may be normal in Brazil..
Also why is the inside of the paper in the case white? While in the EU-version it's black..

 

[Robin]

No one answered as to why the Brazilian games come in a non official PS3 Blu Ray cases??

 

[AGNT009]

Quit complaining, you guys get all the hot babes.

Good point

 

[Arklight]

every one of these games were handmade in a sweat shop by a five year old. They spent over 20 hours detailing and encrypted each copy and hand painting every label for $.50 an hour LOL

And they probably still have a better healthcare system than you do in Canada.

 

[khain]

This is the official release of the GranTurismo 5 game on Brazil, game code BCUS-98114SA:

This is the box:

1. Dirt and finger prints found in a brand new game.

2. This is the disk artwork, no the camera it's not out of focus, it's that blurry

3. A close up of the print, it's so low quality that looks like a pirate copy of the original.

The art in the disc has washed out colors, the Sony logo is blurry and out of center, etc.

This is how Sony treat us over here, we pay more than double the retail price in US and they give us a pirate quality product. I've tried to change to game to another one at the store, but for my surprise and for the store sellers, a brand new, sealed, game have the exact same print problems AND FINGER PRINTS ALL OVER. We had the option to buy, a much cheaper, US version. But we want to support Sony Brazil game market, by doing the right thing instead of buying from the "black market" and that is what we get.

Many of us tried to talk to Sony Brazil, Sonystyle Brazil, Sony DADC Brazil, local news papers and Sony aren't taking any position about this.

Shame on you Sony to sell us this garbage, and same on me to believe in Sony Brazil.

Brazilian here, that's a shame. Furtunatally I got the US version. It has the label printed inside and no fingerprints.

Like most of things here. I'll will got to nothing. Sadly.

 

[wuemura]

No one answered as to why the Brazilian games come in a non official PS3 Blu Ray cases??

Ask then.

 

[Gaiajohan]

Brazilian here, that's a shame. Furtunatally I got the US version. It has the label printed inside and no fingerprints.

But what does you disc look like, since you got the US version. Does it look like the almost full black EU-version, or does it have the same artwork as the case..

 

[arrowp]

A few years ago I had to press a few thousand dvds in Brazil, and I used a company called Sonopress. By that time, they were the only ones that could handle pressing and printing of large quantities (industrial scale) of dvds etc. Long story short, quality of the printing is pretty much what you see here. I don't remember if discs had fingerprints, though. But I can say they sent a batch of faulty discs (with a completely different content, like some kind of institutional video). Anyway, they sucked big time. I truly hope Sony didn't use them, but seeing those pictures, I wonder...

For the prices of, let's say, EVERYTHING in Brazil, the problem is: TAX, MORE TAX, EXTRA TAX. Oh, and also: violence/theft (insurance costs are incredibly high to transport high-tech stuff like videogames.). Corruption: you can't get anything without paying kickbacks to politicians and public workers. need a license? get ready to empty your wallet. Tax laws are chaotic, every state have different laws, and every city have its own taxes too. So here comes: Extortion: if your accountant screw and forget to deduct some incredibly obscure tax in an incredibly obscure state, the local IRS will hunt you down and some IRS worker will threaten you with HUGE fines. So you give him, let's say, a new car, and everything is going to be ok. and did I say tax? when you hire someone, you pay double: one wage for your employee and one in tax for the government.

Yes, it's that bad. Add a populist-socialist-post-communist anti-american, anti free trade government that lie, lie and lie and it's almost hell on earth, business wise.

I'm a brazilian myself, living in Europe for 2 years now. I own a consultancy business, all my customers are either in North America or Europe. I gave up Brazil after being extorted for the third time (see if you can find ANY regulation on consultancy commissions accrued overseas, sent inbound, with local and foreign free lancers. they simply don't know how to tax it and i was the one being screwed). Then, after being anally raped by my socialist government, me and my wife got kidnapped and I had to live with security personel and CCTV/Electric fences/Dogs. So i moved out, now I go there to visit my parents and friends 3 or 4 times/year and it's fine by me.

Anyway, i'm going pretty much off topic here. Check if your bluray have Sonopress in the inside (dá uma olhada no holograma, no meio do disco). That explains the ****** quality.

PS: My wife started posting in a blog the incredible price differences between BR and EU. I'm not even going to compare with the Us... here it is: http://brasilecaro.tumblr.com/