Tectoy's Zeebo gaming console to run on 3G network in Brazil

Tectoy's announced the Zeebo, a 3G network-based gaming console that will supposedly launch in Brazil in July of 2009, then spread to other markets in the following months. The console will apparently be constantly connected to a 3G network for no cost to the gamer, with all games and content paid for and downloaded via said network (which sounds suspiciously like the never-realized Phantom). In theory, this would mean lower costs for the consumer while cutting down on piracy. Titles that are to be preloaded in the Brazil launch of the system include the mobile game Action Hero 3D, Evil Prey, and Quake... not exactly state-of-the-art, but according to its manufacturers, the Zeebo is not meant to directly compete with platforms like the Wii, Xbox 360 or Playstation 3. Instead, the system will be aimed at "emerging" gaming markets, including those which could not normally afford expensive hardware and games. Confusingly, the price mentioned for the console is a steep $599, with games set to cost between $10 and $30 -- not exactly the most affordable item we've ever heard of, but we'll keep our ears to the wall for further updates should the Zeebo ever come closer to existence. And, comparison to the Phantom aside, we hope it does.

Update: We're aware of the craziness of the $599 US price tag, but the source does specify US dollars, though we're unsure of whether it's a typo or the actual price.
Update II: Thanks to a tip from a reader, we've confirmed that the US dollar price of the Zeebo will be $258, or $599 in Brazil. Not a bad deal!
[Via Folha Online; thanks Fabio V.]

[Joe Anstine @ Nov 12th 2008 6:46PM]

for $599.00? maybe 599 in some other currency, but for $599 US., you could buy a WHOLE lot more gaming power than that thing. and what kind of name is Zeebo?

[gonintendo @ Nov 12th 2008 7:49PM]

What kind of name is Wii? What kind of name is Google? What kind of name is Joe Anstine?

[1234321 @ Nov 12th 2008 9:14PM]

what kind of name is 1234321...

[Kevin @ Nov 12th 2008 11:32PM]

Zeebo is my screen name on everything. how the f--- did they get it?

[substance90 @ Nov 13th 2008 12:26AM]

It doesn`t seem to be your screenname here at least..

[Flashpoint @ Nov 13th 2008 12:22AM]

If it runs Quake, I'll take it over a wii.

How bout Crysis: Brazilian Bubble Butt Edition?

[lowdef @ Nov 12th 2008 6:46PM]

good strategy...lets charge the price (or over the price) of a next gen console and sell it to countries that "can't afford" next gen consoles...

[dcoaster @ Nov 12th 2008 6:47PM]

It is $599 BRL... or ~$272 USD

[EdMercer @ Nov 12th 2008 7:17PM]

Exactly. The machine translation is boggled, it actually says R$ 599 or 599 Brazilian Reais, a little under US$ 300. If you ask me, it's still mighty expensive for a low-tech gaming machine, connected or otherwise, but here in Brazil a Wii costs upwards of US$ 500, so than there's that.

[JohnTitor @ Nov 12th 2008 8:11PM]

a jailbroken PSP is probably more worthwhile and cheaper

[gabriel @ Nov 12th 2008 6:48PM]

the price is probably in Reais (Brazillian Money)
wich woth about half a dolar.
even though the console may still appear expensive
but in brazil that's how things works
the iphone cost almost a thousand dollars depending
on the plan. And you don't find a 360 for less than 1k as well

[Viakenny @ Nov 12th 2008 6:50PM]

thank you, extreme taxation! now I can get a console for cellphone games for more than a Wii in the US!

[Chromana @ Nov 13th 2008 4:11AM]

Taxes high in the US? Try England. VAT is 17.5%, not including import taxes. Although over here they don't try to trick you. The tax is included in the price of goods in shops. Why is it that in the shops you see the tag which says $19.99 but it really costs something like $23.31? Craziness.

[Viakenny @ Nov 13th 2008 5:34PM]

@Chromana: I mean high taxes in Brazil. here, an Xbox 360 goes for 1899 BRL ($820 USD, at today's rate, all taxes included), but it includes a media center remote, PGR4 and Too Human.

[a666k @ Nov 12th 2008 6:52PM]

The sale price of the console is expected to be R$599 (Brazil Reais) which is a bit under $260 at today's rate.

[Fabio Vione @ Nov 12th 2008 6:55PM]

The prices are in Brazilian Reais, which would translate to US$260, $13 and $4, in order. Here you pay around US$1050 for a PS3 with no games included (http://www.americanas.com.br/AcomProd/1858/2623172) and US$880 for a Wii with Wii sports (http://www.americanas.com.br/AcomProd/1858/2625036), so if we compare both that's quite a difference. That's all thanks to our government's completely insane taxation scheme.

[lowdef @ Nov 12th 2008 7:03PM]

ahh now I see. Disregard my earlier rant

that sucks for you guys btw

[gabriel @ Nov 12th 2008 7:09PM]

the government has a huge guilt on this expensive price
but, its also fault of the stores wich try to get a huge profit
on the products. Because the tax is "only" 60%, so the price
sholudn't be 120 to 150% higher than in usa

[Fabio Vione @ Nov 12th 2008 7:08PM]

Yeah, that definetely sucks, completely... :(

[Fabio Vione @ Nov 12th 2008 7:13PM]

that's true, gabriel, but you must consider that the sellers are also are heavily taxed, as everyone else in the production and distribution chain, and someone must pay the bill in the end: us (being heavily taxed too..)

[Tony Celestino @ Nov 13th 2008 6:50AM]

Gabriel, don't forget that 60% is just the cost for the tax of importation. You should add to the final cost: the shipping, regular operating costs and the others taxes that the Brazilian government thinks that companies should pay. There is no (legal) way that an imported product can come to Brazil for less than double the original price.

[Valicore @ Nov 12th 2008 10:34PM]

I have a really good friend in Brazil and man do Brazilians get raped for electronics. They tax to make sure things made inside Brazil are way cheaper... My friend just put out like 1400 reais or some ridiculous amount for a PS3... crazy.

[Chris @ Nov 12th 2008 7:06PM]

I should start selling electronics in the Brazilian black market!

[gabriel @ Nov 12th 2008 7:13PM]

Lots of people do that, and you can get a considered amount of money by doing it

[UnixSystemsEngineer @ Nov 12th 2008 7:06PM]

3G because the wired infrastructure sucks in Brazil?

... could be wrong, just what I hear...

[gabriel @ Nov 12th 2008 7:11PM]

actually the wired infrastructre on the well devoloped part of the country is great
but the 3G REALLY SUCKS. It is just starting here. I didn't get why they are using 3g
rather than wired network it's cheaper and better than 3g in brazil

[Fabio Vione @ Nov 12th 2008 7:20PM]

The problem is that to use a wired network people would have to pay for the connection, bandwidth, what is not the case with this 3G scheme where everything is free. Anyway it creates another problem which is that it's not ubiquitous (3G is starting to get decent in bigger cities now), but anyways you can always use GPRS which is acceptably solid and relatively spread. I wonder how bit those games are, ehuaehuaeh.

[pol @ Nov 12th 2008 7:07PM]

price tag must be a typo

holy cow!! $559??!!

[Alex @ Nov 12th 2008 7:13PM]

260 dollars = not good enough. Over here in Argentina a PS2 costs less than that. And if it's really 600 dollars then WHAT ARE YOU THINKING TECTOY?!?!?!?!?! A DS or a PSP got better graphics than that and it's cheaper, and with some 30-dollar games (granted, the old ones are cheaper, but it's better than Quake). Hell, a Wii costs 730 dollars in Argentina, or 500 dollars if you go to the black market (aka MercadoLibre). And a PS3 is only 850 dollars. Yes, it's expensive, but if you can spend 600 dollars on a game console, you can save for a little longer and get something decent.

[Viakenny @ Nov 13th 2008 6:03PM]

it's not Tectoy's fault. it's the Brazilian government's.
they charge absurdly high taxes on everything, domestic or imported (even more when it's imported. still, Chinese crap remains relatively cheap.)

[Catdogburger @ Nov 12th 2008 7:20PM]

Am I the only one who thinks it looks like a PS3
console with a nintendo classic controller?

[GingerFox @ Nov 13th 2008 2:28PM]

no i kinda thought that too, but then again, im a fox so what do i know?

[Tony Celestino @ Nov 12th 2008 7:44PM]

In Brazil some old game systems are still for sale nowadays. Believe it or not if this system do come out for the price of R$ 599 (US$ 260) and the games for just R$ 30 (US$ 13) it will probably be a hit.

The average income in Brazil is lower then the American income but people here are used to finance those kinds of products, the big stores (like americanas.com) split the price up to 12 monthly payments.

[Paulo Cesar @ Nov 12th 2008 7:45PM]

Actually, a Wii in Brazil will cost approximately R$ 1500,00, or something like U$ 680,00, so if this costs R$ 500,00, it will be cheap compared to the other options, but for me, still very expensive for the small benefits, and I would never buy it..

How much a Wii costs on USA? U$250,00? that's very cheap, but here they are as expensive as hell, say 200% more expensive. This is called the "Brazil price"

But no fear! We have a neighborer called Paraguay that sell every type of gadgets for half the price, so it's better just buy a Wii there ;)

[eGGnext @ Nov 12th 2008 7:50PM]

I remember that the first time I saw the Nintendo Wii and PS3 in a store here in Uruguay, they costed U$S1500 and U$S 2500. Yes, that price is in American dollars. (of course, now they are cheaper). Electronics are reaaally overpriced in south america.

If you take into account that in my job I make U$S 260/month.... it's easy to understand why I don't have a next-gen console.....

On the other hand, almost everybody here uses pirated software, and specially games... (I don't know anyone that has a legal copy of windows, except those that come preinstalled with a new pc).

[Marcio @ Nov 12th 2008 7:54PM]

Price is wrong, check the source without the google translator!

It's 599 BRL (R$), like 260 US$, and 10 BRL (+-4,5 US$) to 30 BRL (+-14 US$) for the games!

Still expensive...

[chefgon_ign @ Nov 12th 2008 8:10PM]

Even at $250, what's the point? A $200 Xbox 360 Arcade will get you plenty of solid games even if you only stick to the XBLA, which has prices in the $5-20 range. Or at that rate, how about a Playstation 2 for $100 and hundreds of cheap games that can be pressed for less than a penny?

[Paulo Cesar @ Nov 12th 2008 9:25PM]

Again, a Wiis, Xbox360 and PS3 costs more then U$ 700,00 in Brazil, so U$ 260 is waay cheaper! (but still expensive)

[chefgon_ign @ Nov 12th 2008 9:36PM]

Wow, sucks to be Brazil. You can't get imports there either?

[Viakenny @ Nov 13th 2008 5:52PM]

we do have imports, but they're pricey as f***, thanks to our taxes.

[Ryoga Vee @ Nov 12th 2008 8:43PM]

360
PS3
Wii

and now

Zee-60... Jebus!

[htd @ Nov 12th 2008 8:57PM]

I'd like that gamepad for my PC. why do they keep reinventing the wheel?

[Valicore @ Nov 12th 2008 10:45PM]

O Zeebo, agora com 3G! Você pode pagar um pouquinho mais, e já terá o novo Zeebo 3G! "Zeebo 3G, agora ainda mais feio".

The Zeebo, now with 3G! Now you can pay a little more for a new, 3G Zeebo! "Zeebo 3G, now even uglier"

As an aside, how do you avoid customs when you come back from Paraguay? lol

[Zorque @ Nov 12th 2008 10:59PM]

I don't think anyone's posted yet about how there's a price discrepancy, maybe someone should clear that up.

[xor24 @ Nov 13th 2008 12:02AM]

Hmm $8 more than the Wii and infinitely worse looking controller I say it's a ripoff but lets wait see we'll never know till it's tested.

[Familyguyrokz @ Nov 13th 2008 12:35AM]

br?
HUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUEHUE

[Bones3D @ Nov 13th 2008 2:29AM]

Hmm... continual connectivity to a cellular network 24/7? Is this a passive one-way connection (download only) like satellite TV, or an active two-way connection? Should be interesting to see what the long-term health effects are for the user...

[Opie and Anthony @ Nov 13th 2008 3:45AM]

I just don't get the pricing if the actual unit.

#1 - At $258 in the USA, that is $100 more than I just got a XBOX 360 with 20GB drive (new) from FYE after a $100 rebate (no add-ons or bundles required, just the unit).

#2 - From the looks of what it runs, I would think a PS2 would be a better unit and they are cheaper; plus there are tons of bootlegs available at the markets for the PS2 so they can probably get games for cheaper than $13.

I sense this will never see the light of day. Plus if the company goes belly-up, you got a nice paper weight or door stopper since you don't get physical media.

[carlos @ Nov 13th 2008 6:22AM]

The high price is consequence of the importation taxes of the qualcomm processor. the console will be manufactured in the country it is being sold, so in the USA the price will fall rockbottom (i think it will be 70-100 USD)

[Tabajara Labs @ Nov 13th 2008 3:50AM]

I said the same in my blog: They are nuts. A **new** PS/2 is cheaper than this, has all these games and is compatible with all the games from the friends and relatives. Why should someone buy a different videogame? 1GB **HD**??? THEY ARE NUTS!!!