How Brazil is accelerating games as a cultural export

• The Brazil Games Accelerator has entered its first year, welcoming 40 studios looking to build their businesses.
• Brazil Games' Patrícia Sato believes games can act as a platform to showcase a country's culture without just the stereotypes.

This week PocketGamer.biz is at Gamescom LATAM to get the inside scoop on how Brazil is growing its games industry and the challenges local developers face.

Just ahead of the show, we caught up with Brazil Games executive operations manager Patrícia Sato to discuss the Brazil Games Accelerator. The initiative is in its first year, following a couple years of research and setting up, and aims to help studios grow and ultimately launch their games and potentially get investment.

The program is one part of Brazil’s plans to build and promote its studios to the region and wider world. Gamescom LATAM, previously called BIG Festival, is another element of how the country is putting itself on the global stage.

Nascent industry

Sato says back in 2024, research found that Brazil had over 1,000 studios, a figure that's expected to grow to around 1,200 this year. The maturity pyramid, as she puts it, “mostly looks like a pin”. There are lots of talented smaller studios “doing some crazy, really fun stuff”, then there are some intermediate and international companies.

Some recognisable studios include Epic Games Brazil (formerly Aquiris), Wildlife Studios, IzyPlay, Behold Studios, Tapps Games and Clap Clap Games. Other studios like Kokku and Diorama Digital, to name just a couple, have emerged as Brazil has built an ecosystem full of co-development and outsourcing companies, partnering with developers and publishers across the globe.

The Brazil Games Accelerator was formed with the ambition to grow the plethora of small studios in the country and build original IP. For some, even aid from Brazil Games to get them to international events like GDC is still too risky. In some cases, even Gamescom LATAM is a bridge too far.

“So what can we do to foster this talent and make more sustainable decisions and to support their teams? The accelerator was one of the answers we found to this question,” says Sato.

Accelerating Brazil’s games sector

The accelerator is targeting developers looking for international investment, validation and support launching their games into the global market. It’s open to high-potential studios across Brazil looking for international consolidation or growth.

The program lasts for around nine months. The accelerator has accepted 40 studios for the business planning phase, before being whittled down to 10 companies by the final phase to support studios with resource allocation and investment fundraising, providing them with access to a network of investors and publishers, as well as participation at international events. Effectively, the scheme supports founders with the business side of game development. You can see the first cohort here.

It’s worth noting that the Brazilian Federal Government pays expenses for media and publishers to head to Gamescom LATAM to help gain industry exposure and get its developers in front of decision makers for potential deals.

“I'm sure, especially for Latin countries, that we have a lot of other countries that face this exact same issue: a lot of good talent going to waste or happy to move out of the country,” says Sato. “So this is very important to us.

She adds: “I’m also very happy to report that from our 40 companies, a lot of them are Brazilian IPs that also have a little bit of a Brazilian message to them, a little bit of Brazilian culture.”

Cultural export

Sato says that Brazilian culture is now being exported in a more complex, sensible manner to the rest of the world. 

“For every country, wouldn’t it be awesome if we have a more clear communication of our culture and have this showcased to the world in a very sensible manner. I want to know more about the UK, but I want to know more about the UK through your eyes, not the stereotypes.

“We like to say Brazil is not only football or the summer Carnival. Of course we are all those things, they are awesome and amazing, but we also have so much more.”

Sato recalls the early days of her time with Brazil Games, where she began 10 years ago, that some developers didn’t say they were Brazilian when they came to shows for fear of not being taken seriously with a perception that the country was not a games hub. But that, she says, has changed.

“It’s so nice to see developers being able to share their own culture, their own stories to their games and being just proud to be Brazilian.”

Full disclosure: Our flights and hotel were expensed by the event organisers. Our coverage remains neutral.