Software Piracy and The South American Gaming Industry: How Independent Developers Are Fighting Back
By Dale • Feb 17th, 2008 • Category: Weekly FeatureIn the United States, when we think of software piracy on such a broad level that it might actually destroy an industry, usually our focus shifts to countries in Asia. We think of countries such as: Japan, China, India, etc. — we hardly ever consider South America. Mostly, this is simply due to our own ignorance and the limited amount of media exposure we get in this country to other areas of the world, but now, in the age of the Internet, that’s hardly an excuse not to see what’s going on.
In his most recent post, “How Piracy can Break an Industry - the Brazilian Case”, Tex Pine, a Brazilian blogger and independent game producer working at Interama Games, goes into detail about the problems associated with producing games in a country where hardly anyone buys legitimate copies of games. Pine starts with a brief history of gaming in Brazil and how Nintendo came to identify the South American country, specifically, as a lost cause in terms of battling piracy.
The reason Nintendo makes such dire claims, he states, is due to the impunity of a government that simply does not enforce the law. “We also have good laws regarding homicide, but just 1% of murderers are solved in Brazil. One percent! If Justice doesn’t reach murderers,” he says, “it won’t reach pirates.”
Remaining optimistic, he closes with the hope that by the end of 2020, the rising economic and education rates will vastly improve the status of the gaming industry in Brazil. In the interim, however, Brazilian developers have shifted their priorities and have focused on local markets through free and subscription-based online games. According to Pine in comments on his blog, “Some sell game developing services like advergames production for the local advertising market (Brazilian advertising is considered one of the best in the world!). Others are focused on mobile gaming, trying to export as well as selling here in the main carriers.”
As for how Interama is handling the situation, Pine replies that, “Interama and I are focused on exporting our own titles, not only to North America. Maybe we could do some outsource as well, but the idea now is to create original IP. Just a couple of other developers are doing the same though - one of them is Insolita Studios. After all, it’s very hard not having an internal market.”
As the industry grows in South America, and certainly abroad, it is easy to see how digital distribution can be extremely important to helping the industry thrive. It may even be worthwhile for North American publishers to look at what South American developers are offering and the multiple ways they are working to beat the odds in such a hostile market. As we’ve seen with “Crysis” and the PC version of “Unreal Tournament 3″, piracy is now beginning to threaten even larger developers. With DICE’s next effort, “Battlefield Heroes” turning towards a subscription-based model and offering the game for free, perhaps it’s not too late for the PC gaming industry? Perhaps it’s not too late for Brazil, either.
Dale is a video game blogger who has been writing about video games on various blogs and sites for the past several years.
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I’m glad I wrote this article, I feel developers should be aware of what happened here. Many people discuss on the Internet if piracy can really kill the market, if pirates “wouldn’t buy anyway”, etc. “Could piracy be that bad?” people ask.
Unlike China and India, Brazil once had a prosperous console games industry. Because of that the Brazilian case states a clear answer: YES, it can kill the market. And it WILL if the subject doesn’t get proper attention.
Online gaming presents an opportunity like you said, in fact one of the main portals here, UOL, is successful selling subscription-based MMO games (http://jogos.uol.com.br/loja/). The problem of MMO games for me is that, as the Wii attests, there is a whole world of opportunities on the casual market, which doesn’t cares too much about multiplayer gaming.
So I guess we need a business models like Pogo.com but opened to third-party developers.
Tex, thanks again for answering those questions; I really appreciated your insight on this.
I definitely wanted to bring more attention to the issue of piracy and I think a big part of the solution will be to create a lot of discussion about what’s going on and what to do about it. Obviously, treating it like it doesn’t exist isn’t going to do anything but encourage it. Raising awareness, on the other hand, should help persuade people to buy a legitimate copy — simply because they’ll understand WHY it is the right thing to do. I mean, sure, we’d all love free games, but when you get to know the people you are hurting by deliberately stealing their product, suddenly it becomes a personal issue.
Yeah, more awareness is needed. I would say we must discuss things like Torrent, peer-to-peer networks, share sites and things like that. It’s obviously right now that the vast majority of its content is pirated products - games, books, software, etc etc - to the point that I question myself how much valid they still are one the freedom of information perspective.
Bruce Everiss just posted a history of how piracy killed the developer of Severance: Blade of Darkness, and how it is destroying the PSP and the DS platforms. Another very good example of how piracy destroys value and developers:
http://www.bruceongames.com/2008/02/19/92-piracy/
I’m really fucking sick of this sort of story, after investigating piracy for one of my own. It’s like you dipshit bloggers are so hungry for attention that you’ll fawn over any claim of piracy without question.
So, yeah, the Playstation experienced piracy when the games were too expensive and the console was not officially launched there? Big fuckin’ surprise. Clearly, the problem there is piracy and not, you know, the fact that the Playstation games were too expensive and the console was not officially launched there. The true solution is that people in Brazil need to be “educated” on the benefits of purchasing overpriced, unsupported software! Newsflash: markets collapse and seek to fill a need on their own when no one else provides for it! GOOD CALL!
Hooray for the Blogosphere! Truly it is the new avenue of critical analysis!
Jon R.:
Well, I totally agree with you. Markets collapse, games are pretty darn expensive, and I believe that piracy is going to continue to be a growing issue, but my article was written to highlight what developers are doing to make money despite these problems. Clearly, developers need to find a new business model — that’s what this is about.