Should you consider breaking into the Brazilian games industry?

When considering the territories to localize your games for, have you considered Brazil? A panel of notable figures who have experience in the Brazilian video game industry discussed at length the pros and cons of breaking into Brazil at Develop Conference this week. Brazil has a population of 197 million, the fifth largest in the world, and a $2.5 trillion GDP, the sixth largest. According to the Brazil National Gamers Society, there are 40 million gamers in Brazil across all platforms. Notably, the group were in agreement that there are plenty of issues to contend with. Shum Singh of Agnito Capital explained that there are high taxes on games, to the point where games consoles can cost 50 percent more than in other Western markets. And he says that problems with payment streamlining are a real killer. Games are unable to bill for digital downloads through a credit card, which means that most items in games must be paid for through cast on delivery. This leads to an incredible amount of piracy, as players would rather take the fastest approach to receive their game experiences. Hence, the Brazilian game industry is still in dire need of maturity -- and yet, Singh says that this in itself presents an incredible opportunity for devs. In particular, he reckons that for UK developers, "This should be one of the first markets you're thinking about expanding to." Christian Borneman of the UOL Group told the audience of another problem for video games in Brazil -- internet speeds. However, while slow speeds in many areas in still an issue, he said that the situation is "dramatically improving." He noted that the game downloads that work best are those that feature smaller file sizes -- that way, your game is more likely to reach more people. And there's another very specific way to reach Brazilian audiences: Build specific content into your game that speaks directly to Brazilian people. "Brazil is a very proud country, and loves to be recognised," he explained. Having special Brazil-specific maps and uniforms in your game, for example, can really make a Brazilian audience fall in love with your game. "If you recognize them, they will recognise you too," he added. And along these lines, he noted that most Brazilians do not speak great English, and therefore supporting Portugese as a language in your game is a great move for breaking Brazil.