DX Gameworks faces obstacles for a Brazilian game publisher – 02/14/2023 – Tech

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After two years of structuring itself and attracting investments, DX Gameworks sees 2023 as a decisive year. The Brazilian publisher has the ambitious goal of becoming a reference for publishing indie games in Latin America.

“The first year was this push and pull thing, where do we go, where do we get [financiamento], what are the games… The second year was who will make these games with us. And now is the year of releases,” says Daniel Monastero, Founding Partner and Executive Director of Creative and Publishing at DX Gameworks.

The company emerged in 2021 from a partnership between Monastero, founder of the Garage 227 studio, and executive André Freitas. After a first survey of the sector, they came to the conclusion that opening a publisher would be the best way to help the Brazilian games market grow sustainably and, of course, earn money from it.

“What we found was a market that was still very fragmented in terms of talent. A market with many creators, but few entrepreneurs. Where you had almost no investment. And the consequence is a market where you don’t have great success stories” , says Freitas, also a founding partner and who today holds the position of CEO of the company.

Market: only 2% of national games have the participation of Brazilian publishers, according to the 2022 Brazilian Games Industry Production Capacity Survey. In a sector dominated by multinational giants, Brazilian indie studios tend to seek medium and small foreign publishers to publish their games, such as Team17 (UK), Humble Games (US) and Paradox Interactive (Sweden), or do it on their own.

With initial funding from Bertha Capital, the company went to the market in search of labor and games to launch. Today, DX has around 150 employees, both in Brazil and in Europe, some of them coming from the 14 studios incorporated by the company, such as Bad Minions from Brasilia, owned by DX publishing director Leonardo Batelli, and Imgnation, from Rio Grande do Sul, from development director Orlando Fonseca.

With a game publishing market still in its infancy in Brazil, the search for funding and the competition for qualified workers are identified as the main difficulties faced by the company in this structuring period.

“Attracting technology people is very difficult, because you compete with a C6, a Nubank. You will offer a software engineer: ‘come work at my indie games company’. You will pay a third of what the guy earns” , says Monastero.

“Or else the guy comes to work at your company and soon after gets a job at Microsoft. He’s a software engineer, has experience in games… You have to deal with this thing of finding people.”

In its new phase, the company is also starting to face setbacks inherent to the activity, such as the relationship with developers. Angelo Parodi, developer of “Eternal Hope”, one of the first titles released by DX for Xbox and PlayStation consoles, says that six months after the game’s release he still hasn’t received his share of sales.

“We get in touch, try to talk, send an email… But it’s always one blaming the other. Either saying they’ll see, or that they thought the payment had already been made”, he says.

In a note, DX acknowledged that it had problems with one of the companies contracted to process its payments, but said that it is transparent with the developers and that the payment to the studio has already been made.

“We have an extended payment period due to tax procedures, which are bureaucratic, but we always communicate our partner studios”, he said.

In addition to “Eternal Hope”, the company took the game “Akane”, by Ludic Studios, to consoles, and published “Alchemist Adventure”, by Bad Minions. This year, DX intends to considerably expand its portfolio and publish at least another 7 titles by the end of the year –and could reach 9, depending on other negotiations– from a total of 17 projects in progress.

Among the games due to hit stores later this year are the cute party game “Toy Sports”, the educational puzzle game “Amazon Quest” –both presented to the public at last year’s BIG Festival– and the title “Tameless” hack-and-slash action.

Despite all the obstacles, DX remains optimistic about the future. “There are 25 games in the queue that we don’t have the money or capacity to bring to this one of ours”, says Freitas, who hopes to get that queue moving when the releases reach the public and start to pay off.

“We are very well positioned. You can choose which are the best games, bring them in and help take these games to a level that will delight Xbox, Nintendo and Sony.”

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play

game tip, new or old, for you to test

Back Scratching Simulator 2023

(PC, browsers)

Coming from the mind of the creative designer Luis Díaz Peralta, known as Ludipe, “Back Scratching Simulator 2023” is a back scratching simulator, as the name implies. It is a cooperative game, in which a player must hold the keyboard on the partner’s back, which is accompanied by keys on the monitor that need to be pressed to “scratch” his back. The objective is to press all the keys in the shortest possible time without the player who is “scratching” his friend’s back looking at the screen. It’s a simple game, but it serves as an example to show how, with creativity, it’s possible to make fun games even with minimal resources.

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update

news, launches, business and what matters most

• After the CMA (UK competition regulator) released a preliminary report warning that Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard could result in “higher prices, fewer options and less innovation”, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick said he was confident that the deal will be approved. The CMA’s final decision is expected to be released on April 26.

• Even after presenting negative results in the last quarter, Nintendo announced a 10% increase in salaries for all its employees in Japan, according to Reuters information. Nintendo president Shuntaro Furukawa said the measure is aimed at keeping the workforce at the company for long-term growth.

• In a virtual event held last Wednesday (9), Nintendo also gave good news to fans by announcing the surprise release of a remastered version of “Metroid Prime” for Switch and the inclusion of Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games in its Nintendo Switch Online subscription service.

• On the other hand, it revealed that “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom”, its main release of the year, will hit stores with a higher price. The digital version of the game will be sold in the United States for US$70, a new standard in the gaming industry, and in Brazil for R$357.99.

• The award for best soundtrack for video games, which debuted this year at the Grammys, went to Stephanie Economou, for her work on the “Dawn of Ragnarok” expansion of “Assassin’s Creed Valhalla”.

• Multiplayer first-person shooter “CrossfireX”, exclusive to Xbox consoles, will go offline on May 18, just over a year after its launch. With the closure of the servers, players will not even have access to the solo campaigns they have purchased.

• Rovio, developer of “Angry Birds”, announced that it has started talking to potential buyers of the company. The move comes days after an attempted purchase by Israeli developer Playtika.

• Last Thursday (9), Nuuvem launched a crowdfunding campaign to make “Bagdéx: The Game” viable. The project was created by illustrator Wagner “Bág” as a series of memes with Brazilian retellings inspired by Pokémon monsters and gained fame on social networks.

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Download

games that will be released in the next few days and promotions that are worthwhile

14.feb

“white”: BRL 53.99 (PC), BRL 74.90 (Switch)

“Souls of Chronos”: R$ 99.99 (Switch), price not available (PC, PS 5)

“Tomb Raider Reloaded”: free* (Android, iOS)

“Wanted: Dead”: price not available (PC, PS 4/5, Xbox One/X/S)

Feb 15

“Pharaoh: A New Era”: price not available (PC)

“Return”: BRL 249.90 (PC)

Feb 16

“Theatrhythm Final Bar Line”: BRL 249.50 (Switch, PS 4)

Feb 17

“Gigantosaurus: Dino Kart”: BRL 147.45 (Xbox One/X/S), BRL 203.95 (Switch), price not available (PC, PS 4/5)

“Tales Of Symphonia Remastered”: price not available (Switch, PS 4, Xbox One)

“The Settlers: New Allies”: BRL 199.99 (PC)

“Wild Hearts”: R$299 (PC), R$339 (PS 5, Xbox X/S)

*Netflix subscribers can download version without ads and microtransactions

promotions of the week

• During Carnival, Steam will carry out the “Made in Brazil” promotion, only with games from Brazilian developers. From February 18th to 23rd, dozens of national games will appear in the virtual store at a discount. The list is long and has “Vengeful Guardian: Moonrider”, “Unsighted”, “Dodgeball Academia”, “Phobia – St. Dinfna Hotel”, “The Legend of the Hero”, and “Horizon Chase Turbo”.

• Perhaps as a way to stifle criticism over the “Tears of the Kingdom” price hike, Nintendo put “The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild” on sale on its webshop. Until next Sunday (19), the game can be purchased for R$ 200.33 (-32%).