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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
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 