Live in Argentina, want a PS3? That may be illegal
by Nick Doerr 
{ Aug 2nd 2007 at 11:30AM }
Federico Augspach, marketing manager for Sony in Argentina, explained the situation. Sony needs to certify the console to local regulations agent, the CNC. Sony hadn't initiated certification for the PS3's bluetooth capabilities, so that aspect of the system is currently waiting for approval. Until that approval comes, it's illegal to sell the PS3. But some retailers simply won't have that and continue to press the public for sales, despite Augspach's recommendation to them not to sell it. Sounds like a big, confusing case to us! Even when the PS3's is given the green light, who would pay upwards US $2000 for one?
[via Digg]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Andy @ Aug 2nd 2007 11:34AM
"Sony needs to certify the console to local regulations agent"
Shouldn't they have done that before they wanted to release the console?
Jason B. @ Aug 2nd 2007 12:27PM
Andy, it hasn't been released in Argentina. The companies selling the systems are importing them from other countries or selling the stock that Sony gave them for the real release of the system.
linton @ Aug 2nd 2007 11:47AM
er have you noticed argentina is a little messed up - oooh for the past 200 years!?
Nuge32 @ Aug 2nd 2007 12:10PM
This subject is not even worth bringing up. Who cares haha.
3cubedminus3squared @ Aug 2nd 2007 12:39PM
Linton, do you live in Argentina? No?
I thought so, so just shut the hell up.
TioSolid @ Aug 2nd 2007 5:50PM
LOL. here in Brazil we have to pay 800+ dollars for a PS3. At last they are legal here..
http://www.newsinside.org
ale @ Aug 2nd 2007 5:47PM
I live in Uruguay; ( next to Argentina ) and all the consoles selling in the area are US/NTSC consoles, probably "imported" from Miami.
The price ranges from 900 to 1200 US dollars, they are cheaper in Chile, and way more expensive in Argentina, probably due to higher import taxed and more demand.
Games cost over 100 for any system.
The Wii is selling quite well also for around $500/600 US.
I have yet to see an Xbox360 for sale. I don't know if the Live service will work in south america.
naruto007 @ Aug 2nd 2007 1:04PM
it will be a dream if sony could state a common price for latin america retail stores all around latin america rape customers with the price you wont find a country with a ps3 less thant $1000 if sony could make this am sure ps3 sales on LA will rise.
derrickgott007 @ Aug 2nd 2007 2:09PM
Makes me glad that we don't live in such a stupid, uneducated, left in the past, dirty, corrupt, dangerous, lecherous, sickening country.
Lament @ Aug 2nd 2007 11:41PM
No surprise for me...I remember people selling the PS2 in Brazil for 1500!
Ninegauger @ Aug 3rd 2007 12:23PM
I´m studying in Argentina...
They sell the Playstation 2 for 1000 Pesos... that´s over 300 US Dollars.
It boggles the mind to think how much they´d charge for the Playstation 3... 4000 Pesos? It´s not even worth the $500 yet...
cristian @ Aug 2nd 2007 3:33PM
Hi, I live in Argentina, and I'm thinking to buy my PS3 in US.
It is sad to say but Sony doesn't care about latin american people.
For those that attack the latin american countries with theirs comentaries, I'm really sorry about you, you are very ignorant. En una palabra sos un nabo, no sabes y hablas al pedo.
Jigzat @ Aug 2nd 2007 3:35PM
It is the same all over South America, i live in Colombia and there are places that sell the 20 GB PS3 at almost 1200 usd. The funny thing is that we have official SONY stores but they dont sell PS3s. If you go into the playstation3 website there is no mention of Sout America, you cannot even have a playstation store account because you must have an US billing address no matter if you have a VISA MASTERCARD AMERICAN EXPRESS (yes we have those too). In my case i have to bring my own PS3 from the USA. Sony is loosing numbers arround here, even microsoft launched officially the 360 here in Colombia but for Sony we dont even exist.
mamardilla69 @ Aug 2nd 2007 4:11PM
Im from mexico and here the ps3 is selling in every store it seems it havent been launched but games are already licensed for distribution in north america and mexico (or at least thats what the games covers says)
never$$hort @ Aug 2nd 2007 4:47PM
And people complain about payin $499 and $599... cheap bastards
Ikex @ Aug 3rd 2007 10:40AM
I live in Argentina, and here we are accustomed to the fact that the consoles often are not sold officially (in fact, the PS2 is sold here officially since 2 years ago), and when they are, they are a lot more expensive than the one imported by minor sellers (which is, of course, without the approval of Sony). I dare say that, of the approx 500,000 PS2 here (read that in a newspaper), less than 10% have been purchased officially, most of them are sold in small retailers or by Internet, cheaper and almost always already chipped. The PS3 is no different. While it's true that Carrefour offers the PS3 for 5500 pesos ($1850) and Wal-mart for 5000 pesos ($1650), you can get one in MercadoLibre (Ebay Argentina)from individuals who buy it in USA and bring it here for $900, which is expensive, but taking into account the taxes and the profit for the importer, is reasonable.
@derrickgott007
Why don't you come here, to see how much of a stupid, uneducated, left in the past, dirty, corrupt, dangerous, lecherous, sickening country Argentina is? I give you the corrupt, but everything else is absolutely false. Try to inform yourself a bit more before posting something from a country you probably don't even know where it is.
cpm2k @ Aug 2nd 2007 7:45PM
Here in Brazil there are thousands of buyers, but SONY NEVER launches a system here.
I´ll by it anyway, even costing U$ 1000,00 :)
RocketMinion @ Aug 3rd 2007 9:32AM
It is true that living in Argentina complicates things for videogame fans. Being one since I can´t remember when I have seen a fare share of injustices in this country.
Nintendo, Sega (when it had consoles), Sony and Microsoft don´t even exist as companies in Argentina (well, Sony and Microsoft do... but not really in the gaming area). Most of their products were (and are) imported by third parties that charge ridiculous high taxes. You can get a PS3 from U$D 900... and this is the “cheapest” price since big chain stores like Wal-Mart or Carrefour sell them for almost U$S 2000!!! Come on! U$S 166 for a SIXAXIS? And U$S 200 for a PS3 game???
And yes, some people buy it for this outrageous prices because it is the only way to hava one (if you don’t travel abroad of course). We are gamers too and we want to play even though top notch technology (not only videogames) is expensive here... really expensive.
In the other hand, we never had to paid U$D 50 (or more!) for original games. I guess is the way of balancing against hardware high prices. All the PS and PS2 sold in Argentina have a modchip already installed (Dreamcasts and Xboxs didn´t need that) and you can buy pirate games pretty much everywhere from 2 to 7 dollars tops depending if it is a DVD/DVD9 or not.
Let me be clear about this, I am against piracy. As a software developer I know exactly what it means for the industry... BUT to be fair none of this gaming companies provides support or assistance of any kind to us Argentinians (or any other Latin America country for that matter).
I now there is no way to fix this any time soon (and I now I will keep buying consoles in the States as I have been doing since my grey PS) but it would be nice if Sony, Mircrosft and Nintendo did SOMETHING to show us that they know we exist... after all they are the ones that lost billons of dollars to piracy in the last 10 years just because they ignored a huge market like South America.
@Linton, Nuge32, derrickgott007: please refrain to speak of things you don´t know... as you clearly don't know about Argentina.
@Cristian: sos groso, sabelo! ;)
@Ikex: bien dicho, carajo!!
ZDigital @ Aug 3rd 2007 9:51AM
Until you actually visit a country, you don't really know what it's like. You should refrain from running your mouth and take the word of people who live there. Also, don't say things about the people that you really mean about the government.
My limited experience with South American countries has been that the government bureaucracies tend to heap on taxes and import duties for high tech items and as a result only the very rich can afford them. If you are from Brazil or Argentina, please confirm for me that this is true.
gfunk @ Aug 4th 2007 10:32PM
Hey don't worry about derrickgott007, linton, or Nuge32's comments... they're probably Americans so they don't even know where Argentina is in a map. (Es normal que los norteamericanos sean ignorantes, es parte de su naturaleza). Anyways, Argentina is not the only country who is having this problem, a good friend of mine who owns electronics stores in Mexico told me the ps3 hasn't been approved by the regulations agency either, but they sell it anyways.