Nintendo Switch will be (officially) “Coming Soon” to Brazil

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - Though it certainly hasn't stopped Mario from making appearances in Brazil. Or unofficial Nintendo Switch consoles.

A long time ago, back in January 2015, I was going to write an article called “Custo Brasil Strikes Nintendo”, with Custo Brasil referring to the crazy cost of doing business in Brazil as a foreign company, thanks to import taxes (tariffs) that were well over 50%. There's a draft that's been sitting around but I never finished or published it that was going to make the point that government policy has a direct impact on people's ability to play videogames, since Brazil's taxes were the direct reason why Nintendo pulled out of directly selling Nintendo products Brazil in 2015.

But, hey, now it doesn't matter. The Nintendo Switch is officially coming to Brazil... “soon”, thanks to Brazil lowering their tariffs. Remember, tariffs hurt consumers (such as gamers), and in this case, they existed solely for Brazilian economic protectionism, without even a benefit of sticking it to hostile countries like China.

Source: The Nintendo Brazil Instagram account.
It's unclear why there is a Nintendo Brazil Instagram account that's been actively messaging about Switch news
when they haven't been directly selling the Nintendo Switch.

Now, there are definitely Nintendo Switch owners in Brazil already. I know and am friends with some of them, because you can import them from other countries. And if you go to Nintendo's Brazil site right now, it's not really about getting Nintendo hardware, but it is focused on getting digital software like Nintendo Switch Online and building a digital games collection, which you could do during the past few years. You know, if you happen to be enough of a Nintendo fan to acquire a Nintendo Switch already through other means.

Anyway, this is good news. Let's just hope that Nintendo's official presence puts an end to the post-2015 unauthorised visits by Mario into Brazil, doing things like burning turtles and capturing visiting heads of state. Personally, I don't want to go to Brazil ever again.


Ludwig wonders if he can get an interview with one of his Switch-owning Brazilian friends and if that would even be interesting content. He'll show this article around and see if it'll spark some interest from that. That Custo Brasil article is never going to see the light of day.