Zeebo lands in Brazil, inspires revolutionary fervor in the hearts of gamers worldwide
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted May 26th 2009 1:39PM
posted May 26th 2009 1:39PM
According to UOL Tecnologia, Tectoy's Zeebo game console is on sale now in the city of Rio de Janeiro, with availability to spread across the Brazilian countryside later this year. As expected, the system is going for a MSRP of R$499 (that's about $299) and ships with three games in memory: FIFA 2009, Need For Speed Carbon, and Brain Training, all in Portuguese. Additionally, the device ships with credit for three free downloads: Prey Evil, Quake, and Quake II. And as expected, this bad boy includes a free 3G connection via Claro, enabling additional game downloads in the R$7-30 ($3-13) range. Video after the break.
lol i want one!!
why dont we have these here??
I'd suspect the "all in Portuguese" might have something to do with it.
This is probably more reliable than the Xbox 360 so a thumbs up from me.
Desperate to insult the 360 today eh?
Oh yeah, I just saw some of your other troll posts where you say that you aren't a gamer unless you own a PS3 - so you're always desperate to find an anti-MS point to make.
trolls should learn how to masturbate instead.
Come on now, nobody can deny the 360 has the worst failure rate of (just about?) any console, though it was out of left field Jakko.
(sidenote, the term troll gets thrown around too much now.)
Anyways, this looks pretty cool, and I'm down with some *free* 3G game downloads, but it's gonna be sweet when we all have networked gaming over LTE.. Someday...
NoAndThen, read his post history and then come back to lecture us on the use of troll.
I'm sorry but that thing looks ugly, cheap and its price is high for what it does.
It sure is cheap for its price. but its competition are NES-clones and expensive Wiis (which cost here just under a thousand dollars!!!) and Xbox 360s (just under $1200 USD!!!), while the PS2 and PS3 are still not officially sold here (I got my PS2 through less-than-official ways)
Oh my god, Viakenny killed someone to get his ps2!
Too bad it's just a cellphone hardware wrapped as a game console - for the same price as a PS2.
I LOVED the idea about downloadable games and such, but it seems an uphill battle to me.
it's $299, not $99.
@mirakutea: not here in Brazil:
PS2: R$500 (unlocked, bought by importers) or R$550 (through normal retail stores, locked)
Zeebo: R$499
Ooooh, that explains why on EARTH anybody would pay $300 for something that can't hold a candle to a 360 or PS3. Btw, why not just buy your consoles online from another country? I know shipping to Brazil can't be over $100. It's not like they have to be smuggled in via human caravan, like North Korea.
@ Max: anything imported from outside the country (except books) have 50-90% of its total (item price+shipping) in taxes. I believe game consoles are around 60%-80%.
That's why people buy lots of unlocked consoles from Paraguay and such. But the smugglers know that the demand is high, that's why a Wii reaches R$ 800-1000 here, against R$1200-1500 at the legal channels.
And US$ 1 is R$ 2.02 right now. The Zeebo costs around R$ 200, actually
@MaxSMoke: Importation tariffs and taxes, jerkass. Makes everything hella ton more expensive. Not to mention that Brazil is not exactly made of money like America or Japan.
Currently it is not like America and Japan are made of money either.
Is this even a legal product? do they have the rights to have those games on this console?
Yes, it's an international joint venture. This thing is supposed to be released in several BRIC-level countries until 2011.
Here in Brazil an XBOX 360 or PS3 is US$700+...theres definetly a gap for cheaper consoles...
Hell yes, people need to realize that not everyone is in the USA.
Cheaper? Ok... Shitty? No...
cheaper.... =)
The price might be expensive for you guys that live outside Brazil, BUT, we can't buy a PS3 or XBOX360 for less then US$900 (legal way... I mean). Taxes, currency... everything "helps" to make imported electronics more expensive here. So, it's a affordable price for us, and the real price in dollar is $250, and not $300. It's a good product for the reality of our market.. let's see. ;)
I'm for incentives for local manufacturing, not punishments for imports.
I know, but we don't have technology to compete with Microsoft and Sony. This console has a 5 year old technology (or more). Not talking about the 3G and downloadable games. ;)
2006 cellphone technology, to be more exact. But you point is still 100% valid ;)
It does not mean that it is a smart thing to pay USD$250,00 in a videogame that plays Playstation 1 games. It's what the masses can afford? Probably. It's an option to Wii/PS3/360? Hell no.
I think this is a videogame targeted at very poor people on very poor markets... That's the most of the BRIC market alright, but then the price is just out... Here in Brazil you can find a PS2 with a mod chip for the same price, and buy pirated games for R$10,00 each. I don't think people would change a PS2 for the Zeebo just to be on the legal side.
just a disclaimer: I do not support pirated games, as a matter of fact I own a PS2 and never had a mod chip on it...
@Persio: WOW, there is NFS:Carbon on the PS1? OMFG, I'M GONNA BUY ONE.
@Sewer: Well... just wait and see a video of this NFS port running on Zeebo and then you tell me... :) What I meant was PS1 quality... or PS1.5, but not PS2 definitely.
thank you, obscene Brazilian taxes. now I can get "that" for the price of a Wii in the US.
BTW: the current USD/BRL rate is 2.02 BRL
Damn, I remember when I first started learning Portuguese (early 2000s) it was 3 reais to a dollar.
he downloads quake 2... but then it loads quake 1... :x
that might be a beta.
For non brazilians: THIS is why we brazilians don't take seriously the brazilian game industry.Please don't misunderstand us, we are ashamed of this. I would prefer that brazilian industry had never ever created any game console at all, instead of creating this piece of shit. PS: i own a wii and a xbox 360, and i'm never ever going to buy anything like THIS. it is NOT cheap at all, here in brazil you can buy a ps2 for cheaper. Tec toy probably think we're dumb...
Hey man! talk for yourself! I'm a Brazilian and support very much this project! What did you expect? Did you want the FIRST national game console to be a PS3/X360 killer??!!!! And if I'm not mistaken, this is the first game console to have factory built-in 3G!
Tomas, I'd agree with you if this costed like R$199,00 or less... R$499,00 you are just asking to compete with modded PS2s...
Well...yeah. Maybe they'll cook up a cheaper version with no 3G. But we do have to remember that we a not talking about Sony or Microsoft here, we're talking about TecToy or whatever - they can't afford to subsidize the console (expecting people to buy the games for it) like Sony does, plus they probably have to pay a nice fee to Qualcomm. Plus the games seem to be reasonable priced at least! And on the publisher side, from what I see, this is pretty much pirate software proof. But I do agree with your point of view, they should make it cheaper.
Tectoy isn't dumb. the Brazilian government is for charging us high taxes on nearly everything. for example, gas goes for R$2,49/liter (that's $4,66 USD/gallon) and many cities held protests against our taxes and charged the tax-free price: R$1,27/liter ($2,38 USD/gallon)
@Tomas: Tectoy doens't need to pay nothing to Qualcomm: Qualcomm owns 47% of Tectoy USA (aka Zeebo Inc), the console manufacturer. Tectoy Brasil owns the remaining 53%
@Verythrax : Did not know that. Hum...interesting fact. Thx
If you remember, Sega Master System STILL SELL on Brazil... VERY MUCH...
for this public, zeebo is a killer machine ;)
Good luck even trying to compete with the PS2 dudes. Meanwhile we're still waiting for a console at least as powerful as a 360 and with the same games but at a lower price. And 299 USD is very cheap for a console in Latin America. I live in Argentina and even in the black market the consoles cost twice as much in the US. If you go to the legal market, you'll find gems such as a Wii for 700 dollars or a PS3 for nearly 1000 dollars. All of this thanks to import taxes for "luxury items" such as videogames, computers, and anything that was invented in the last 30 years.
Agree with booth of the other Brazilians - $900 is when you can find it cheap! And that’s because the Xbox is the only one that "really" sells here, because all the PS3's are imported by third parties and that make it even more expensive. And at today currency the price is around $250 ($246.78 to be exact), not $299. And it's great to see the national tech market actually going somewhere!
And since we have all this "Brazil news" today, I thought I would bring it up once more: when’s Engadget Brazil coming?????? Gizmodo already has theirs - but no pressure!
since Gizmodo Brazil looks worse than Giz US, better stay with Engadget US (and after all, AOL left Brazil many years ago)
Don't worry, I agree - Engadget is still much better! And even when the Engadget Brazil comes out I'll continue reading both!
A reminder that poor leadership is responsible for much of the worlds problems.
A reminder that much of the worlds problems are inadequate access to current generation video game systems at affordable prices.