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Mobile Studios Taking Off in Brazil
For nearly 4 years many mobile studios in Brazil have been investing in games or apps for the smartphone era. Early games such as PoChickenPo (Tectoy Studios) and Drums Challenge (MusiGames) earned good results but in the last couple years between 2011 and 2012 more companies in Brazil are getting significant traction in Apple’s App Store.
MobJoy was founded in the city of Campinas around 2009. Early success with an iPad-exclusive title Undead Attack! Pinball enabled the company to raise investments and make more iOS games. Road Warrior was launched in November 2011 and topped #18 position at Top Free downloads and #13 in Free Games, but consistently held positions on Top 200 Free Games charts for over an year now. On revenue, Road Warrior topped #97 Grossing among all apps but held positions on Top 200 Grossing for several months.
Top Free Games is another mobile games studio from São Paulo, developer of Bike Race, a major iOS hit with consistent performance. Launched in April 2012 the game took off and held the #1 position in Top Free for several days. Henceforward it consistently held positions in Top 100 Free but climbing to Top 50 Free in several occasions. On revenue, Bike Race held in Top 200 Grossing for over 8 months, peeking on #16 Grossing in November 2012.
Top Free Games is also developer of Penguim Race and Mouse Maze. Launched mid-2011 and an immediate Top 25 Free hit for 2 months, Penguim Race held positions among Top 200 Grossing apps for several months. Mouse Maze was also a quick hit, topping #4 Free downloads upon launch and #19 Grossing couple months after.
Unlike the examples above, Movile is a traditional mobile company in Brazil with a huge history at the feature-phone apps market and solutions for carriers. In the last couple years Movile started to invest in smartphone publishing, focusing first on entertainment apps instead of games. In the last 3 months alone, n Photo and Video category ZeeweTV topped #10 in Photo and Video apps and PhotoFun topped #7.
As the user base for smartphones and tablets rapidly expands in Brazil several game studios are finding new opportunities in work-for-hire and advergames. WebCore and Jynx Playwere, the best known advergames studios in the country, have been steadily expanding the portfolio of sponsored tablet and smartphone games. Such is also the case for Tectoy Studios.
Blood & Glory
In November 2011 Glu Mobile launched Blood & Glory worldwide to be the fastest-grossing game of the company in Q4 2011, quickly climbing to #6 Free downloads and #8 Grossing. Marketing campaigns and item promotions in the months ahead made the game top at #3 Free downloads and #6 Grossing.
Blood & Glory was developed by the studio in São Paulo, which I was proudly part of. Public statements accounts for a first-month revenue of roughly US$ 2.4 million plus US$ 2.7 million more across the first quarter of 2012, making it one of the most successful Brazilian games ever.
A sequel, Blood & Glory Legend, was launched 9 months after in August 2012. Albeit not as big of a hit as the first installment, the game still topped at #4 Free downloads and #52 Grossing, making nearly US$ 800,000 in the first month after launch according to public statements. However, unlike the first game, Legend has a lot more features for Live and promotions teams to explore in the months ahead.
Unfortunately last week Glu decided to shut down its São Paulo studio. It was very sad for all of us, but it’s not necessarily a terrible thing for Brazilian mobile games in the long run, as I’ll discuss in a future blog post.
Keep hungry!
References
https://itunes.apple.com/app/pochickenpo/id317220802?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/drums-challenge/id317080099?mt=8
https://itunes.apple.com/br/app/blood-glory-2-legend/id496748308?mt=8
http://deixadenerdice.com/2010/11/12/jogos-made-in-brazil-entrevista-com-a-mobjoy/
http://www.pocketgamer.co.uk/r/iPhone/Road+Warrior/news.asp?c=35783
http://www.movile.com/pt/mobile-marketing/
http://www.webcoregames.com.br/cases.html
http://www.jynx.com.br/wordpress/?page_id=15&cat=advergames
http://www2.portodigital.org/portodigital/imprensa/entrevistas/40529;46573;0802;4693;18290.asp
Why Casual Games Can Also Sell Virtual Goods
Virtual goods buyers are of all genres and ages, not only teens & tweens as many people think. Of course there are tweens-centric sites, but there is also a large chunk of 35 and older customers buying at other sites.
Since casual games are oriented towards a broad variety of customers, this is great for developers and publishers inasmuch as many kinds of audiences can be monetized.
How To Fight Back At The Lost Continent – The Brazilian Case
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.
The Zeebo Console
Today Tectoy is announcing a major breakthrough for the Brazilian game industry: the Zeebo game console. Zeebo is one of those rare systems released outside USA or Japan. This is exactly why it has a high chance of success.
Introduction to Zeebo
Zeebo is a game console based on Qualcomm technologies for high-end mobile devices. It has a nominal processing power somewhat equivalent to a PSP, OpenGL|ES 1.0 hardware compatibility over a dedicated GPU and is capable of 3G mobile network connection (HSUPA), scaling back at 2.5G (EDGE) or 2G (GPRS) where necessary. It features BREW 4.0 as the operational system, three USB ports for joysticks and accessories, one SD card port, and composite video output along with stereo audio. There is no media – games are downloaded through ZeeboNet network, making Zeebo the first of the forthcoming download-centric generation of game consoles.
Clearly the specs of the system aren’t designed to match the technology of the current seventh-generation. But this is not the point. The goal is rather to implement viable solutions for two major problems of the console business on developing countries – price and distribution -, while presenting good value for players.
The Problem on Price
As I once wrote Brazilian game market suffers greatly from piracy. The first major reason is price.
Due to heavy taxes and high logistical costs, an official console game costs around US$ 110 and PC games around US$ 70. Considering the per capita income is US$ 9k against US’ US$ 47k, one could argue that buying official games is not only 2-3 times more expensive in absolute price, but also 19 times more expensive when income is factored in!
But Zeebo games are downloaded using 3G networks. As a mobile service instead of physical units, taxes are much lower and logistical / manufacturing costs are non-existent. Therefore, games can be priced from US$ 4.45 to US$13.10.
Digital Distribution Is The Key
The other major reason for widespread piracy is the distribution aspect itself. In a country where logistics are expensive due to infrastructural problems and illegal street vendors are commonplace, one just can’t compete on regular terms. Black-market reselers nowadays can get new releases way faster and way cheaper than any regular, tax-payer CD reseler will ever be able to.
But a solid digital distribution model is a viable way to fight back for two reasons. First, new game offerings will be instantly available from ZeeboNet to all players of the country, which is faster than even the fastest black-market reseler. Second, the library available online will eventually feature much more game variety than a street vendor can carry on backpacks. (Also enabling a Long Tail-based strategy.)
Think Global, Act Local
Brazilians do like video-games and play a lot. Despite the fact PS2 never had any official representation in the country, Brazil alone accounts for 2% of all PS2 units in the world. Microsoft estimates over 500 k units of various game consoles are imported every year, and over 300k 3D video cards for PCs are sold every month. But strategies and models of traditional cardboard-and-plastic distribution of global actors have proved again and again to be completely inadequate for the country’s peculiarities.
The game industry needs products and strategies that adapt to local behaviors instead of ignoring them. It needs strategies that treat pirates as the competitors they truly are today and offer sound advantages for buyers of official products.
I firmly believe the Zeebo proposal is a viable business model option that can finally start to monetize and legalize a game market that already exists but is dominated by mafias. No doubt this is a brave move in a country Edge Online once defined as a member of The Lost Continent.
I’ve been working on Zeebo games production for 5 months now and it’s pretty exciting to be a part of this innovation.
UPDATE: also check out my latest post on Zeebo, How To Fight Back at The Lost Continent
Speaking of Super Granny!
I’ve posted about Super Granny 4 and keyboard controlling for casual games some days ago, and today I found at GameZebo the game’s creator Daniel Bernstein discussing the game’s success and the keyboard dynamics. The article is truly inspiring for casual games developers!
Speaking of cloning…
I was just reading a great GameZebo’s article about the year of 2007 for the casual industry, and I’d like to echo Joel Brodie statement of “2007 can be defined as the year in casual games where innovation took a back seat to sequels and uninspired me-too products” with the following:
I present you the best-seller Burger Rush, released on middle-2007, which I love!
And then here goes Pizza Chef, released a few days ago:
Take your own conclusions. As for me, I’m sure the industry can do better.
PC OS for 2008 and beyond
For the casual game developers, I think it is insightful to have a look on these articles:
Why choosing XP over Vista? and 2008: Linux’s year on desktop
They state two trends on the PC OS market for 2008 and beyond:
- The faster spreading Vista distribution is Home Premium Edition, not Ultimate nor Home Basic. For game developers, the main difference between Basic and Premium editions I believe to be the Aero interface and the XBOX integration on Windows Media Center;
- Linux computers are coming for good with the spreading of cheap laptops. The main impact will be on 2009, but we should think on preparing our games to have Linux versions (and use Linux-friendly frameworks);
Would Lode Runner clones mean arrow keys are now “in”?
I juts posted about cloning, and I received two interesting links do download two games: Snowy Treasure Hunter 3 and Super Granny 4. They are both clones of the classic Lode Runner games. Very well made games, apparently focused on casual/kids market.
What pitches me about those is the arrow keys control for the user. We know the PopCap maximum: where if the game doesn’t have a simple enough mechanics to be played entirely with the mouse and its left button, so the game design is not simple enough. But, like those two games, people taking chances on different control schema.
I agree with PopCap, but I don’t see it as a dogma – I believe that arrow keys could be used on casual games, as well as SPACE key. Even considering the average casual player demographics are not core computer users, people are not stupid – they can get used to simple controls on keyboard. However, to do use keyboard control on casual titles, you must:
- Be sure game needs arrows – Make the game worthy of the extra time players not used to keyboard control will have to spend until getting it. Have absolutely sure the keyboard control really adds up to the game overall experience, and the same could not be accomplished with any mouse control workaround
- Teach players – Explains it right in the first game screen – casual players are all too used to use mouse, so you must make it clear it won’t be used.
- Beware the down arrow – Try to focus on the left and right arrow, with some function for the up arrow. Know that the down arrow is the most difficult to use when your middle finger is naturally resting near the up key when using left and right arrow keys. Just ask someone you know that doesn’t use computer too much to play with all arrow keys and watch closely.
To clone or not to clone?
Jake from Grey Alien Games arouse a subject on their blog, regarding the differences on cloners vs. idealists on casual game design. To clone or not to clone, that’s the question! I think it worths to make a post on this subject.
I think the Cloners vs. Idealists subject for casual game market can be evaluated from another perspective: cloning is less risky. Of course you will have a smaller piece of the pie, since there are so many clones like your game, and the game will sell well for just a couple of months. But cloning IS less risky also, after all you are selling something that is already proven successful. For no other reason EA releases the same games every year.
The risks
Innovation is way more risky, and much more costly – it will take more time to get to a both innovative and salable gameplay. Maybe years: consider Bookworm Adventures and The Sims. Producers will have to throw away many prototypes, and can’t be sure when exactly will have that design that will nail when implemented on a final form.
Since casual games focus on gameplay experimentations can really postpone milestones and delivery dates, and that means more months maintaining infrastructure and salaries – the final cost may skyrocket from first predictions. Even more risky, the public might not like it at all! Consumers do like more of the same, and tend towards concepts they already know and are familiar with.
The benefits
However, the final game, for its uniqueness, can outsell any ultra-polished clone and have a trully extended lifespan. Consider Peggle, Chuzzle and Diner Dash – titles that have been selling (and will sell) for many years. Hell, Bejeweled is five years old and still sells so much!
Even better, it might create new consumers who aren’t used to play much games, but for some reason got atracted by a new concept. Juan Gril exposes here how innovation on gameplay can create genres/markets by turning non-game-consumers into new players.
The important decision
Deciding on cloning or innovating could end on a clear economical choice:
– Will I take the safer path and sell a fair number of units for one or two months, but with a somewhat already built fan base?
– Or will I invest time and money on a more innovative and potentially more profitable project, but risking on ending up with something not fun enough (poor sales) or that will demand more money and time than predicted?
I've been making games since 2005, started a new game company and worked at bigger and older ones. This is my (randomly updated) blog. More about me at:
Tex Pine 
