Video games in Brazil
Brazil is the 9th-largest video game market in the world as of 2023, and the largest in Latin America, with a revenue of 2.6 billion US dollars. Video games were not permitted for import into Brazil until the 1990s, and were then heavily taxed as non-essential goods. As a result, a grey market developed around pirating games, driven by the lack of official channels for purchasing games. Many game companies avoided expansion into the country for these reasons until 2009. An exception was Sega, which retained a strong foothold in the country with the Master System and Mega Drive. Blaming high tariffs, Nintendo officially left the market in 2015, but returned in 2017, though Nintendo actually returned in 2020 with Nintendo Switch. In a three-episode series named Red Bull Parallels, Red Bull explored the country's relation with gaming.
History
The first consoles manufactured in Brazil were in the style of Pong, in the late 1970s, with TVBol being the first one completely manufactured and distributed in the country, launched in Rio de Janeiro in 1976. Following that, other Pong clones entered the market, such as the well-known Telejogo and Telejogo II by Philco/Ford, and later the TvJogo3 and TVjogo4 by Superkit, and the Videorama.Starting in the 1980s, the production of national original games began. The 2022 Brazilian Game Industry booklet by Abragames divides this history into four segments:
1983 to 1992 - The Pioneers
The first known commercial Brazilian game was Amazônia, a text adventure developed by Renato Degiovani in January 1983 and published later that year by Micro Sistemas in its August 1983 edition. In this initial phase of the industry, individual developers and small groups were part of a rich community of game creators for MSX, ZX Spectrum, and Apple II, and later for PCs with MS-DOS, distributed in magazines, cassette tapes, and floppy disks.During this time, the protectionist policies created by the military governments in Brazil prevented the official importation of microcomputers and video games. It was an era marked by various global console clones and official software piracy, as there were no means for importing and exporting games. There was also smuggling of game cartridges for clone consoles developed in the Manaus Free Trade Zone. This first phase of the industry could not withstand the successive economic plans and hyperinflation of the 1980s and early 1990s.
In 1987, Tectoy was founded and, despite being a young company, eventually struck up a licensing agreement with Sega to become the official distributor of the Master System in Brazil. Tectoy's marketing efforts included television commercials, magazines, and a daily program called Master Dicas on Rede Globo. The Master System in Brazil dominated 85% of the market over its competitors to the extent that it became the only country where the Master System outsold the NES.
In 1991, Tectoy published Sega's Phantasy Star, which gained widespread media attention in Brazil due to it being one of the first console games localized into Brazilian Portuguese. This translation, in addition to the extensive marketing campaign by Tectoy, helped establish role-playing games' place in the Brazilian video game market.
Notable titles: Amazonia, Aeroporto 83.
1993 to 2001 - CD-ROM Era
While games in the first phase of the industry were primarily developed by individual developers, development groups and companies focused on the emerging CD-ROM game distribution market started to appear. In 1997, the game Guimo by Southlogic became the first documented Brazilian game to be internationally distributed by Airsoft in Germany. Outlive by Continuum was the first Brazilian game to be distributed in 2001 by a major publisher, Take-Two Interactive.The first Brazilian game publisher was Brasoft, which started its activities in 1990, licensing and distributing international games in Brazil from producers such as LucasArts and Sierra Entertainment. It was sold to Pi Editora in 1998 and became known for publishing games based on TV Globo properties, such as Big Brother Brasil and No Limite.
In the console market, in 1993, Gradiente, together with Estrela, created Playtronic, which represented Nintendo in Brazil to compete with Tectoy, which represented its competitor, Sega.
Notable titles: Enigma da Esfinge ; Guimo ; Incidente em Varginha ; Outlive ; Show do Milhão.
2002 to 2010 – Industry Organization
This phase was mostly characterized by industry coordination efforts. In 2002, GameNet – Paraná Network of Entertainment Game Companies, started organizing In2Game – International Congress of Technology and Innovation in Computer Games, the first major gathering of industry companies.In the same year, the SBC – Brazilian Computing Society organized WJogos – Brazilian Workshop on Games and Digital Entertainment, an event for researchers, programmers, and game developers focused on computer science. In 2004, the events joined forces and organized the first SBGames – Brazilian Symposium on Games and Digital Entertainment, which also launched the 1st Independent Games Festival of Brazil. Finally, in 2004, the Abragames – Brazilian Association of Electronic Game Developers was founded, and its first sector mapping, promoted by the association that year, identified the existence of 55 companies in Brazil.
Returning to 2003, this year marked the first time that electronic games became a specific agenda item in Brazilian politics, with the sector being recognized by the Ministry of Culture, under the leadership of then Minister Gilberto Gil. It was in this context that the first call for projects specifically for the electronic game sector was launched in 2004, named JogosBR. This call had a new edition in 2005 and was reissued in 2008 under the name BRGames.
Notable games from this period include Trophy Hunter 2003, released by Southlogic in 2002, the first national custom-made game for the international market, commissioned by Infogames in the US. With the high costs and difficulties of distributing games on CD-ROM and the expansion of internet access, the first decade of the 21st century was also marked by a series of Brazilian games that focused on multiplayer online experiences. The first registered Brazilian MMO was Futsim by Jynx Playware in 2003. In the following year, the MMORPG Erinia by Ignis Games was released. Another notable Brazilian game in the genre was Taikodom by Hoplon, launched in 2008. In 2009, the first acquisition of a Brazilian studio by an international publisher took place, with Southlogic being purchased by Ubisoft. However, Ubisoft Brazil Studio would close in less than two years. During this decade, Brazil won a Bronze Lion at Cannes with the game WeAther, developed by game developer Fabiano Onça for Greenpeace Brazil.
The first higher education courses in the field in Brazil emerged during this time, such as the bachelor's degree in Game Design at Anhembi Morumbi University ; Technologist degree in Digital Games at Cruzeiro do Sul University ; Technologist degree in Digital Games at PUC-SP in São Paulo, SP; and Technologist degree in Digital Games at PUC Minas. This was a thriving time for the development of national games on social platforms and mobile platforms, as well as the use of Flash, which was later discontinued. Many small advergames were developed during this period.
Notable titles: Trophy Hunter 2003 ; Futsim ; Erinia ; Taikodom.
2011 to 2017 – Opening the Doors to the Global Industry
During this decade, the industry saw its revenue double in size. The popularization of game development engines like Unity, increased internet access among the population, the advent of digital game distribution, the arrival of the first wave of professionals trained in the field, and the emergence of smartphones were factors that created a new paradigm in the industry. The phenomenon of independent game development, or indie, brought new and talented game creators into the market. However, many ventures in the industry did not survive, as their operations either changed completely or simply became economically unviable.In this process of renewal, the Brazilian industry finally began to break down barriers that hindered the success of domestic games on a global scale. Games like Knights of Pen and Paper by Behold Studios, Oniken by Joymasher, and Momodora by Bombservice took advantage of the rise of indies and became successful internationally. The emergence of the App Store in 2007 with the iPhone gave rise to companies that would become market leaders by exploring the growing and untapped segment of smartphone games, such as Tapps Games, TFG, and Fanatee.
In 2011, the Socioenvironmental Institute won 3rd place in the Digital and Interactive category at the 5th comKids Festival - Prix Jeunesse Iberoamericano with the MMORPG Aldeia Virtual, developed by 8D Games. In the structuring of the industry's relationship with the government, the decade also began with a historic milestone: the realization of the 1st Workshop for the Creation of Projects for the Development of a Digital Games Industry in Brazil. Organized by the then Ministry of Development, Industry, Foreign Trade, and Services, the event brought together key stakeholders from civil society, businesses, universities, and policymakers to discuss steps for sectoral development. This event led to the establishment of the FEP-Games - Project Structuring Fund, created by the National Bank for Economic and Social Development, to conduct the first large-scale study mapping the global and Brazilian industry and proposing public policies for the sector. The report was launched in 2014, including the 1st Census of the Brazilian Digital Games Industry.
In 2012, the first edition of the Brazilian Independent Games Festival took place, becoming the main business arena and a platform for interaction between the industry and the government, with the periodic establishment of a Working Group to discuss sectoral actions. In 2013, the sector gained its own game export program in partnership with the ApexBrasil, and since then, it has been conducting activities at various international events. The BGD - Brazilian Game Developers program, later renamed Brazil Games, became the main gateway for domestic companies to enter the export market.
For foreign video game console manufacturers, the Brazilian government's protectionist policies play a major role in consumer preferences in the country. An example of this was seen in 2013, when negative reactions followed the announcement of the price of Sony's then-upcoming PlayStation 4 being roughly being $1,845 in Brazil compared to $400 in the United States, which was a result of Brazil's heavy taxes and import fees on foreign electronics. By contrast, rival Xbox One was sold at just over $1,000 in Brazil due to its manufacturer, Microsoft, having a factory to produce it in the country.
Notable titles: Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition ; Dungeonland ; Oniken ; Toren ; Starlit Adventures ; Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight ; Horizon Chase.
2018 to Present – Pandemic and Consolidation
In 2018, the Ministry of Culture conducted the 2nd Census of Digital Games, which indicated the sector's growth, with 375 companies participating in the survey. Additionally, in 2019, Wildlife received a $60 million investment led by the American venture capital fund Benchmark, making it a Brazilian "unicorn" valued at $1.3 billion. In the same year, the ARVORE studio, specialized in virtual reality, received the first Venice Lion at the Film Festival for a Brazilian production. Independent games Dandara and Celeste, the latter developed in partnership with an international studio, were among the top 10 games of the year in the ranking of the American magazine Time.In the years 2020/2021, the COVID-19 pandemic brought various transformations to the game industry and market, with game consumption significantly increasing during this period. With this boost, in 2020, Wildlife was valued at $3 billion. Another change was the widespread adoption of remote work and the rise of companies that operate entirely remotely, such as Afterverse. The company is a spin-off of Play Kids, which reached 50 million monthly active users within a year with the game "PK XD," available in 11 languages and with a strong presence in Latin America, the United States, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. PlayKids, which also develops games, provided the foundation for Afterverse's expansion.
In 2020, the ARVORE developer received the Extraordinary Innovation Primetime Emmy from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for an interactive short film. In 2021, Gazeus had the first Brazilian game distributed by Netflix. The year 2022 was marked by major acquisitions and international partnerships. Aquiris Studio received an investment from Epic Games, forming an agreement for the publication of multiple multi-platform games that have yet to be announced. London-based Oktagon was acquired by Fortis, a multinational game developer newly created as part of the Las Vegas Sands resorts and casinos group. The 100% remote Rogue Snail studio had its game Relic Hunters Rebels exclusively distributed by Netflix.
Notable titles: Dandara, Celeste, Wonderbox, PK XD, Suspects, and Relic Hunters Rebels.
In 2023, the Brazilian developer Quasares Game Studio, based in Ribeirão Preto, presented at the Brasil Game Show event its historical game project Pedro of Brazil, one of the first national games to use the Unreal Engine 5 graphics engine from Epic Games.
Censorship
In January 2008, the marketing of Counter-Strike was prohibited in Brazil by judicial decision. The judge argued that Counter-Strike and EverQuest games subvert social order.It has since been lifted, although EverQuest is still illegal in physical form in Minas Gerais.
Video game development
Video game development exists in Brazil since as early as 1983, when Renato Degiovani developed the first computer games in Portuguese called "Aventuras na Selva" and "Aeroporto 83" for a computer specialized magazine called "Micro Sistemas". Several years have passed with little to no significant development until the 2000s, when several companies started creating advergames and/or MMORPGs, and universities started offering game development degrees. Hoplon was one of the first to be successful in the industry with Taikodom.The 2010s have been marked by a growing number of studios getting bigger relevance with proprietary indie game titles. The BIG Festival was conceived in 2012 and is held every year in São Paulo, gathering game industry professionals from the country and abroad and promoting indie titles for the Brazilian market.
The biggest game dev scenes are from São Paulo, Porto Alegre and Brasília.
Localization
is often critical to any video game's success in many parts of the world, and this is the case in Brazil. Despite beginning in the 1980s, the practice started to show immense success during the 1990s, which was seen in Tectoy's translations of some games into Brazilian Portuguese resulting in the Master System gaining a massive share of the video game console market in the country.Demand for Brazilian Portuguese translations remains high for video games, as the language is the fourth highest language in-demand among developers according to LocalizeDirect. One of the biggest reasons for this is Latin America's above average growth in the global video game market, with Brazil being the largest singular player market in the region as of 2022.
Game developers from Brazil
| Company | Location | Founded |
| 1M Bits Horde | São Paulo | 2020 |
| Abdução | São Paulo | 2003 |
| Aoca Game Lab | Bahia | 2016 |
| Aquiris | Porto Alegre | 2007 |
| Asantee Games | Campo Grande | 2012 |
| Bad Minions | Brasília | 2012 |
| BEHEMUTT | Barueri | 2015 |
| Behold Studios | Brasília | 2009 |
| Coffeenauts | São Paulo | 2017 |
| Double Dash Studios | Rio de Janeiro | 2013 |
| Duaik Entretenimento | São Paulo | 2009 |
| Fira Soft | Brasília | 2012 |
| Flux Games | São Paulo | 2012 |
| Garage 227 Studios | São Paulo | 2014 |
| Glitch Factory | Brasília | 2012 |
| Hoplon Infotainment | Florianópolis | 2000 |
| Infinite Hole | São Paulo | 2017 |
| Insolita Studios / Webcore Games | São Paulo | 2004 |
| Invent4 Entertainment | Porto Alegre | 2008 |
| JoyMasher | Curitiba | 2012 |
| Jynx Playware | Recife | 2000 |
| Loomiarts | São Leopoldo | 2017 |
| Ludact | São Paulo | 2005 |
| Mad Mimic Interactive | São Paulo | 2017 |
| Mito Games | Vitória | 2016 |
| Moonana | Curitiba | 2017 |
| MTI Studios | Botafogo | 2011 |
| Oktagon Games | Londrina | 2004 |
| Orbit Studio | São Paulo | 2016 |
| Pocket Trap | São Paulo | 2013 |
| Pulsatrix Studios | São Paulo | 2018 |
| QUARTZO Game Studio | Porto Alegre | 2020 |
| Quasares Game Studio | Ribeirão Preto | 2019 |
| Regular Studio | Brazil | 2018 |
| Reiza Studios | Maringá | 2009 |
| Rogue Snail | Brazil | 2013 |
| Rumbora Party Games | Bahia | 2018 |
| Sad Socket | São Paulo | 2021 |
| Skullfish Studios | São Paulo | 2016 |
| Smash Mountain Studio | Rio de Janeiro | 2016 |
| Studio Pixel Punk | São Paulo | 2017 |
| Sue The Real Studio | São Paulo | 2018 |
| Swordtales | Porto Alegre | 2011 |
| Team Zeroth | Bahia | 2014 |
| Tectoy | Campinas | 1987 |
| Webcore Games | São Paulo | 1999 |
| Wondernaut Studio | Porto Alegre | 2020 |
| Yellow Panda Games | Balneário Camboriú | 2017 |
| Company | Location | Founded |
| INSANE Game Studio | São Paulo | 2009 |
| Company | Location | Founded |
| Afterverse Games | Campinas | 2021 |
| Fanatee | São Paulo | 2013 |
| Gazeus Games | Rio de Janeiro | 2006 |
| Izyplay Game Studio | Rio Grande do Sul | 2010 |
| Javary Studios | São Paulo | 2018 |
| Monomyto Studio | Campo Grande | 2017 |
| Pandora Game Studio | Rio de Janeiro | 2012 |
| Pipa Studios | São Paulo | 2012 |
| Pixodust Games | São Paulo | 2018 |
| Space Sheep Games | São Paulo | 2020 |
| Tapps Games | São Paulo | 2011 |
| Wildlife Studios | São Paulo | 2011 |
| Company | Location | Founded |
| Aiyra | Niterói | 2006 |
| BitCake Studio | Rio de Janeiro | 2013 |
| Diorama Digital | Recife | 2013 |
| Kokku | Recife | 2011 |
| Lumen Games | Aracaju | 2004 |
| Manifesto Games | Recife | 2005 |
| VRMonkey | Brazil | 2014 |
| PUGA Studios | Recife | 2013 |
| PushStart Studio | São Paulo | 2014 |
| Studio ZYX | São Paulo | 2013 |
| Umbu Games | Belo Horizonte | 2015 |
| VRMonkey | São Paulo | 2015 |
| Yupi Studios | João Pessoa | 2015 |
| Company | Location | Founded | Type |
| Eludica | São Paulo | 2005 | Game-based solutions for education, training and health |
| Flying Saci Game Studio | Manaus | 2015 | Edutainment, media projects, AR/VR apps |
| Gaz Games | Belo Horizonte | 2011 | development of games, digital marketing actions, applications, augmented reality, 3D modeling and animations |
Defunct game developers from Brazil
Game publishers from Brazil
Defunct game publishers from Brazil
Media
Print Media- EGM Brasil, since 2002
- Nintendo World, since 1998
- Revista Xbox 360, since 2008
Brazilian video game rating