Author Topic: When Nintendo came to Brazil.  (Read 2831 times)

TALUIGI

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When Nintendo came to Brazil.
« on: March 13, 2015, 08:54:26 AM »
1993 - The official launch

Now everybody gonna like him

Nintendo has officially arrived in Brazil in 1993 by Playtronic Industrial Ltda., A joint venture between the companies and Gradient Star. The Playtronic even was the first and only company to assemble Nintendo products outside Japan. In its year of arrival, the company launched the NES and the SNES, just before Christmas. In 1994 came the Game Boy.

Eugenio Staub, gradient (left), and Mario Adler, Star, (right)
announce the creation of Playtronic, which will be headed by Eduardo Lara (center).


Tec Toy, Sega's official representative in Brazil, was a very strong marketing campaign around their consoles Master System and Mega Drive. The company came to launch games translated into Portuguese, and many other American securities be modified to meet the Brazilian public (as in the case of games based on Monica, for example). This brilliant series of ideas Tec Toy quickly forced Playtronic to react. To boost its arrival, the Playtronic made up a story with Fantastic, weekly program of Rede Globo, and several advertisements in newspapers and magazines.


The Brazilian NES is the same or as good as the American NES? Of course it does. Your A / C adapter, for example, is advantageous over and American. The casing of the source, comes out a wire with a small plug, thus facilitating its application in the making. Another advantage as the source, is the ability to change it to 110/220 volts. And the national console, comes in the Brazilian colors default, PAL-M, eliminating transcoding device. Your Nintendo also had a large network of authorized warranty service throughout Brazil


The back of the national NES cartridge

Interestingly, the original NES Playtronic not done much success in Brazil and did not get good sales. This was because the official launch was well late. Fever NES in Brazil began with the dynavision in 1989 with the arrival of the first 'clone', and continued until about 1993 and 1994, just as the fourth generation of consoles (16-bit) already boiled the country.

The idea of ​​officially enter the Nintendo Brazil broke both Gradient / Star as Nintendo. On the one hand, the Gradient / Star could expand their business with Playtronic. On the other hand, Nintendo would be officially represented in Brazil and could also carry out his plans in the country Carnival.

In a country like this, sales of consoles / video-game cartridges were considered very high. In 1991, Brazil was to move about 100 million dollars with the video game industry. Since the market only tended to grow, the official Nintendo in Brazil was not, in any way a bad idea.

From 1993 to 1996, Playtronic put on the market the NES, the portable Game Boy, SNES and the Virtual Boy. In 1996, for some reason, the Star have abandoned the company, which was renamed then Gradient Entertainment Ltda. By December 2000 combined sales totaled 2 million hardware and software 2.5 million. This means that the gaming market in Brazil stirred R $ 200 million with Nintendo.

However, in early 2003, the Gradient ceased to manufacture and market, at its option, the video-games line in the country, ending the partnership with Nintendo in Brazil. According to Gradient, the decision was due, among other factors, the sharp rise in the dollar rate since 1998, reducing the average income of the population and the high piracy of products from this line, which helped to limit the potential for growth in this category and significantly reduce the profitability of this business for the Gradient in recent years. It is sad to see such a thing happen and the overall decline of the market in Brazil. Remember that since the Playtronic would be 10 years of Nintendo in the country. However, it is still expected that Nintendo is made in respect of what will be done in the Brazilian market.

Clones of the NES

It is important to know also that emerged in Brazil 'clones' of the NES to the mountains. These clones were consoles produced by national companies that were compatible with Famicom / NES cartridges. Nintendo gave no license to companies launch consoles compatible with the NES in the country. That is, everything was piracy. But for some reason, Nintendo / Playtronic not opened any case against the manufacturers. However, there is no denying that these clones helped popularize the NES, and much, here. CLICK HERE! ! !

In Brazil, NES clones arrived in the American standard by Dismac companies (Bit System), Milmar (Hi-Top Game), Gradient (Phantom System) and CCE (Top Game VG 8000 and VG9000, which in turn supported both standards ). But the Japanese standard was represented by Dynacom, with Dynavision II, which also was the first third-generation video game to arrive in the country in May 1989. Other consoles compatible with the NES were the Super Charger, Dynavision III and the HandyVision also the Dynacom, it was portable. Some of the manufacturers came to also launch cartridges for consoles.

The Phantom System, the gradient, the clone NES most popular in Brazil. This is just one of many launched clones.