I live in Brazil as well, and the guy's right. Here, one Dollar is +- 2BR$, however, the stores don't ask for 100BR$ (50$), they ask for 150/200/250BR$ depending on the game (150BR$ as he said are usually the cheaper, a PS3 game is easily on 250/300), so you have most games costing 75/100/125$. It's conversion, taxes, and a NEED to profit. To me this is almost as criminal as piracy itself. For comparison, a DVD (movie) here, costs 50BR$ (25$). Yes, since the government is willing to do things right with the movie industry, we probably pay less for movie DVDs than in NA, however games are not so fortunate (I am not making an excuse for piracy since there's also heavy piracy on movies as well, even though they're cheaper, however, most people CAN buy them if they want, it's reasonable).
A "ok" salary on Brazil is somewhat my compatriot said: 1200BR$ (600$), so, if he spends up to 250BR$ in a game, it's not a quarter, but it's costy as hell. Oh, of course, and most people here do not receive 1200BR$/month (and I'm not talking abou teenagers, and yes about familiy fathers), and that's why a good number of people buy the systems (I bet there's a percentage of NA system sales that comes here), but don't/can't pay the games. Oh, right, about the systems, I paid 600BR$ (300$) on a PSP3000 last month, and I paid CHEAP, I got on our own eBay, most were 700/800BR$ (350/400$).
So, yeah, not making an apology or a excuse for piracy, but while I can pay a game or two, no way I can spend that much. Yeah, "you should not play if you can't pay. I'd drive a Ferrari if I could, but I can't", but I don't think it's that simple.
(Oh an extra: I just remembered, the full package of Beatles Rock Band came for 3000 BR$ (1500$), nice.)
(another comparison, 10 years ago, there was a time 1BR$ = 1$, but a N64 game costed 90 BR$, Ocarina of Time was BR$120 a year later, Majora's Mask BR$150, Pokémon Stadium 2 BR$200, that was also the time when piracy started and grew strong since a pirated PS game costed 10BR$ each CD)