But as Einstein and others said, every problem in fact presents a hidden opportunity. The fact that most business practices of major global market players can’t succeed on a hostile, piracy-filled environment, doesn’t mean the market itself can’t be successfully explored using new approaches.
So this article is all about how Brazilian companies are fighting back where Edge Online once called the Lost Continent.
Brazil
Brazilians do play games (a lot)!
Brazilians do play a lot. In fact, Brazilians are amongst the more enthusiastic video-game players and web surfers. Even without official distribution of all consoles but XBOX 360, Tectoy estimates more than 2 millions Playstation 2 on Brazilian homes, and Microsoft estimates 500,000 console units of various brands are sold every year.
Consoles are popular considering their high price tags and have growing sales, even if nearly all units are black-marketed or gray-marketed. Tectoy still successfully sells SEGA’s vintage consoles Master System and Genesis with tons of games bundled.
Round 1: Multiplayer Games + Micropayments
Social networks are incredibly popular in Brazil. Nearly 54% of Orkut users are Brazilians, the share of web time dedicated to networks and blogs is the highest of all countries, and the invasion of Brazilians in other social networks like Fotolog originated the term “Brazilian Internet Phenomenon“.
Community Sites visitation across countries
Hence the success of LevelUp!. LevelUp! has been consistently offering new and classic massive multiplayer games over the last years, successfully monetizing with pre-paid credits system. Each credit grants a player an amount of gameplay time in any massive game.
A big launching during 2008 was Taikodom. A top level MMO project, Taikodom understands the public and the shifting market practices across the world, offering free accounts and monetizing the user base by selling premium accounts and credits to buy in-game stuff.
Round 2: Outsourcing & Exporting
Many game studios in Brazil sell game development as outsourced services to other companies and publishers. While some have broad spectrum, with projects for many platforms and markets, others are strictly focused and specialized. For example, Webcore Games on advergaming, Gestum for serious games and e-learning, and Interama for casual games.
Exporting is also very important for many studios. In fact, according to Abragames, the national association of game developers, 43% of all game production is exported. Southlogic was a major exporter of products and services - such a good one that in January 2009 it was bought by Ubisoft.
Round 3: Zeebo
Zeebo
Zeebo was announced at GDC 2009 with mixed reactions. Of course criticism is always welcomed, but I think some bloguers miss the point, as some missed the point of Wii and its “terrible non-HD graphics” back in 2005. The point of Wii, and I believe also the point of Zeebo, is reaching untapped markets.
The platform have support from main publishers and their studios, and Tectoy Digital is one of the most important Zeebo developer.
Round 4 (Extra Round): Government support
Last, but not least, the official government support for the game industry through the Department of Culture and its BR-Games contest is key to trigger new studios and new products. Specially in a country where venture/angel investment money is a relatively new concept. Interama itself was founded with a sponsorphip from the first edition of the BR Games contest.
K.O.
2008 and those first few months of 2009 had good news for the Brazilian game industry. The Lost Continent has chances to develop and grow from now on. Many Brazilian game developers, including myself, have turned from pessimists to believers. I hope many more will follow.
Posted by Tex Pine 
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