Summary

• Brazil's gaming industry hosts Gamescom LATAM, drawing developers from all over Latin America due to its convenience and accessibility.
• Latin American countries like Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay offer experienced gaming studios, helping the region grow in the industry.
• Collaboration among Latin American countries is essential to showcase their products globally and lift each other in the gaming industry.

The first Gamescom LATAM recently took place at the São Paulo Expo Exhibition & Convention Center in São Paulo, Brazil. With over 100,000 attendees from almost 70 countries, the event brought developers from all over the world together and had an especially strong presence of Latin American developers. At the convention, I spoke with several industry figures in an attempt to figure o😼ut what draws the Latam gaming industry to Brazil, and why it was the best choice to host the first-ever Gamescom LATAM.

Florencia Fole, President of the Asociación de Desarrolladores de Videojuegos Argentinos (ADVA), thinks it comes, at least in part, from the unique position the Latam gaming workforce finds itself in. “ADVA represents 140 associates from Argentina, from independent developers to big companies, offering services that go from developing to marketing, localization, a﷽nd more,” she explains. “We meet with big companies and investors of all kinds to understand why they’re here, and events like Gamescom Latam are immensely beneficial for the region as a whole because, even though Brazil has the biggest consumer base, the remainder of Latin America provides the muscle”.

“Brazil has a lot of talent, but there are a lot of development studios that are quite new, while places like Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, or Argenti🔯na have smaller player communities, but more experienced studios,” she adds. Juan De Urraza, from Paraguayan studio Posibillian Tech, echoes this sentiment. “We’re currently doing work for hire for games like Fortnite and Roblox, which in turn helps us develop our original projects,” he says. “As the region grows and studios keep learning and training under work-for-hire projects, we gain seniority, and gaming companies in the region become bigger.”

As a region that has remained untouched by the broad industry layoffs across North America and Europe, there’s also an incentive for bigger companies to invest in it. “Since the costs are relatively cheaper here, and fully remote workplaces are becoming common practice [in software development], we’re becoming more noticeable, little by little,” he explains. “We’re providing good work quality at a reasonable price; that’s working toౠ our advantage, and people are noticing the region because of that as well.

However, there’s one undeniable truth at the end of the day: convenience makes Brazil a beacon for the Latin American gaming industry, as flights to the USA or Europe can be quite expensive, especially for smaller developers. “You can comꦡe for two days, get in touch with several potential business partners, and be back at home in less than a day without spending 5,000 US dollars in airplane tickets and hotels”, Fole adds. “Besides, as the region grows and local companies start working on bigger projects, many potential investors are coming here to know more about the whole regional ecosystem”.

There’s another element that’s helping this country rise in the gaming industry, and that’s the players. Brazil is known for having a huge gaming p🌊opulation, and in particular, its love for MMOs he🌺lps bring attention to the country. As Stephan Vogler and Benjamin Zuckerer from Tibia developer Cipsoft explain, Brazilian players represent the largest part of the game’s player base. “The Brazilian community grew to the largest part of the game, and even after 27 years, a bit more than 40 percent of our players are from Brazil, which is a lot”, they explain. “And 45 percent of the wishlists for our upcoming game Persist Online come from Latam; it is by far the largest region where the wishlists are coming from.”

No matter who you ask, everybody feels well-received by the audience in Latin America; we’re known for being passionate about the things we like, and that translates 𝕴into gaming as well. “From our experience, the Brazilian audience is very welcoming and warm-hearted, and they love to communicate with 💟each other. At the same time, they’re passionate and demanding, and they’re constantly trying to push the limits of the game,” Zuckerer explains.

While the entire Latam game industry is still evolving, Brazil currently has a huge advantage over the rest of the region, with its bigger audience and higher number of gaming studios, the latter of which are 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:now suppo🍃rted by the government moreও explicitly. However, because Brazi♑l is the only Portuguese-speaking country in Latam, this can create a few communication issues with other countries.

Collaboration is key, and Paula Bentancur from Uruguayan studio Ironhide Game Studio thinks there’s still some work to be done within other Latam countries. “Brazil is, symbolically, a continent by itself; it’s a country that has a huge local entertainment industry with an immense market, and the rest of us should work with each other to try to pick up the pace,” she says. &l꧑dquo;We have great products, an♈d we need to work a bit more on how we show them to the world. In an industry as collaborative as this, we need to get closer so we can lift each other.”

Brazil is a hospitable country, with a passionate gaming community that welcomes folks from all over the Latin American region, a trait reflected in almost every aspect of Gamescom Latam. Events like this can only be done ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚin a location where all the countries of the region can converge in an accessible and logistically safe way, and even though there’s still work to be done, Brazil is the only country at the moment that can excel at showing publishers the effort of the independent developers from Latin America.