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 created by Renato Degiovani and released in 1983. The game was distributed in the MicroSistemas magazine, with printed lines of code for the user to type in and play. 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, won the competition against Gradiente for the official representation of Sega in Brazil, becoming the importer of the Master System. Tectoy's marketing efforts included television commercials, magazines, and a daily program called Master Dicas (later Sega Dicas) on Rede Globo. The Master System in Brazil dominated 85% of the market over its competitors (mostly Famiclones) to the extent that it became the only country where the Master System outsold the NES.[6]
Notable titles: Amazonia (TILT Online, 1983), Aeroporto 83 (TILT Online, 1983).
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 (2002) and No Limite (2002).
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.
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Notable titles: Enigma da Esfinge (44 Bico Largo, 1996); Guimo (Southlogic Studios, 1997); Incidente em Varginha (Perceptum Informática, 1998); Outlive (Continuum Entertainment, 2000); Show do Milhão (SBT Multimídia, 2000).
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 (2003); Technologist degree in Digital Games at Cruzeiro do Sul University (2005); Technologist degree in Digital Games at PUC-SP (2006) in São Paulo, SP; and Technologist degree in Digital Games at PUC Minas (2006). This was a thriving time for the development of national games on social platforms (Orkut) and mobile platforms (due to the emergence of the App Store business model, which facilitated and made game publishing more transparent), as well as the use of Flash, which was later discontinued. Many small advergames were developed during this period.
Notable titles: Trophy Hunter 2003 (Southlogic Studios, 2002); Futsim (Jynx Playware, 2003); Erinia (Ignis Games, 2004); Taikodom (Hoplon, 2008).
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 (which later became Wildlife), 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 (MDIC), 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 (BNDES), 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 (BIG 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.
Notable titles: Knights of Pen and Paper +1 Edition (Behold, 2013); Dungeonland (Critical Studio, 2013); Oniken (JoyMasher, 2014); Toren (Swordtales, 2015); Starlit Adventures (Rockhead, 2015); Momodora: Reverie Under The Moonlight (Bombservice, 2016); Horizon Chase (Aquiris, 2016).
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 (Movile Group), 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 (Long Hat House, 2018); Celeste (Extremely OK Games/ MiniBoss, 2018); Wonderbox (Aquiris, 2021); "PK XD" (Afterverse, 2020); Suspects (Wildlife, 2020); Relic Hunters Rebels (2021).
