作者：Matthew Handrahan

独立开发者步履维艰，但拉美地区最大的市场给游戏机领域带来光明未来

Reinaldo Normand如今重返巴西，看到的是截然不同的光景。1996年作为游戏新闻工作者，Normand目睹国际发行商入驻这个国家，尝试将年均收益5000万美元的市场打造成另一蓬勃发展的“黑市”。随后，他发现这些尝试磕磕碰碰，渐渐削弱，他的职业将其带到外国海岸：墨西哥和中国，外界普遍认为这两个国家的游戏前景比巴西广阔很多。

2010年（游戏邦注：在他离开6年之后），Normand重新返回巴西，情况发生显著变化。正如许多新兴游戏行业那样，手机和社交开发的兴起彻底改变了利益关系，带来前所未有的新机会。巴西能否创造出自己的《FarmVille》或《愤怒的小鸟》无关紧要；如今我们完全能够靠制作和发行游戏谋生，Normand发现大家都这么做。

Farmville from farmvillemovie.com

他表示，“我发现很多小型开发者，他们多数毫无游戏制作经验。多数行业人士心存这样的谬论：‘这些人不知道如何制作游戏。他们最终将失败’。但有些之前鲜少接触游戏的人士（他们是银行家和咨询顾问），他们创建手机游戏的小型团队，最终相当成功。我认为2-3年后，当中某些手机团队将能够蹿升至前列位置。”

“巴西是全世界最具社交性的国家之一。他们是潜在用户。随着智能手机安装基础的扩充，这些庞大数据将持续增长。”——育碧Bertrand Chaverot

就开发和零售而言，巴西是全球发展最迅速的智能手机游戏市场。目前，在巴西的2亿人口中，共持有约2.4亿部的手机设备。其中只有10%是智能手机，但这一直处在上升趋势：据GREE拉美业务主管Naoki Yamamoto表示，到2015年这一比例将增至35%——相当于8000万部左右。

各大型手机制造商都声称要满足诸如巴西这类充斥本地组装的低成本设备的国家的需求。这类产品只要投放市场，他们的影响将超越GREE的预期，不仅支撑手机领域，还有当地蓬勃发展的社交网络社区。

育碧巴西和南美地区（游戏邦注：育碧是入驻这片市场最久的发行商之一）总经理Bertrand Chaverot表示，“巴西是全球Facebook用户数量第二多的国家，用户总计4700万，而且他们的增长速度首屈一指。”

“巴西是全世界最具社交性的国家之一。当地居民喜欢无阻碍地争辩、评论、谈论和分享。18-24岁间的巴西青年每天在Facebook投入5个小时，而15-18岁间的女性的平均水平则更高：每天6.2小时。他们是潜在用户。随着智能手机安装基础的扩充，这些庞大数据将持续增长。”

很多人认为，巴西成为社交和手机消费活动的主要市场将是必然趋势。但Normand（他于2011年同他人联合创办了社交工作室2Mundos）对于有多少巴西开发者将从中受益持怀疑态度。几年前，谷歌Orkut是当地最受欢迎的社交网络，Vostu之类的巴西开发者在此封闭市场中取得突出成就。

Normand表示，“我通过去年看到的是，Facebook摧毁了Orkut，在认知和内容方面。如今的情况是，大型巴西开发者在Facebook上步履维艰，因为他们的竞争对手是自身‘灵感’的来源，他们陷入困境中。18个月里，情况变得截然不同：Facebook的用户获取成本变得越来越高，开发成本由20万美元变成30万美元，最后是400万美元。”

“18个月里，情况变得截然不同：Facebook的用户获取成本变得越来越高，开发成本由20万美元变成30万美元，最后是400万美元”——2Mundos，Reinaldo Normand

2Mundos通过基于其他媒介的IP开发游戏抵挡这种趋势。通过选择适当的合作伙伴，工作室的作品得以迎合巴西公众的既有文化兴趣，同时充分利用合作伙伴的用户获取资金。Normand表示，这是在此Zynga最近才涉足的市场中进行竞争的唯一可行方式。

“我们创办2Mundos的宗旨是制作‘本土’社交游戏。我认为，社交游戏和电影或音乐一样属于文化现象。它们无需付费，准入门槛很低，所以我将其视作文化产品。在诸如巴西这样的人口大国中，我们可以在这些游戏中融入浓厚的本土元素。我们无法同Zynga进行国际化竞争，但我们能够锁定本土市场，取得突出成绩。”

MusiGames Americo Amorim采取类似策略。MusiGames是Daccord Music的子公司，成立2007年，主要基于iOS设备制作音乐应用和游戏。在AppStore非常拥挤的背景下，这算是非常成功，有若干作品问鼎前10榜单，其中《Drum Challenge》位居榜首。

Drum Challenge from wnews.uol.com.br

但和Normand一样，Amorim通过完善着眼点，满足巴西科技日益娴熟的学校对于教育游戏的需求——数字内容今年首次被列入教育预算当中，MusiGames意图在需求出现前预先准备好这类游戏。

他表示，“大约6年前，教育游戏的需求量很大，用户都在谈论这类游戏。问题是，当时制作这些内容的公司不是游戏公司。教育题材的游戏因此逐步消亡，因为孩子们不想要体验这些内容。”

“去年，当我们制作自己的音乐教育游戏时（游戏邦注：这些是真正的游戏，包含社交元素，排名等内容），我们尝试将其呈现给当地的学校，他们表示，我们应制作葡萄牙语版本，融入数学和科学元素。目前需求开始逐步增长，因为学校和教育发行商们发现，他们过去接触的不是真正的游戏。未来1-2年来，这将变成一个绝佳的市场。”

“对于传统实体业务公司来说，这些国家将变成下个真正的庞大市场，下个市场是巴西，是中国”——前EA员工Bertrand Caudron

更重要的是，通过缩小领域，MusiGames得以在2010年筹得150万美元的风投资本，这对巴西的初创游戏公司来说几乎是首创。

Amorim表示，“在巴西，融资是个问题。这里没有什么风投团体或是天使投资人，但去年很多美国风投公司开始进军巴西市场，目前对于想要获取融资的开发者来说，局面好转很多。但依然没有想象中的那么完美。处境依然颇为艰难。但2009年，当我初次接洽投资公司时，只有6-7家公司，但目前有超过20家投资公司愿意投资初期阶段的公司。”

此外，数字平台让本土和国际公司得以避开巴西的进口保护主义法。在巴西，政府将游戏和赌博归为一类，这促使进口游戏机和游戏的价位高到连发达国家都觉得难以接受（游戏邦注：例如，Xbox 360售价600英镑，一份《使命的召唤》售价100英镑）。由于盗版在当地依然个显著问题，因此官方游戏机市场规模依然很小显然不足为奇，虽然Riot Games和Zynga之类的数字领域公司积极入驻这片市场。

Xbox 360 from theoriginof.com

EA 1999年-2007年期间的拉美地区主管Bertrand Caudron表示，“当地政府有严重的贸易保护主义倾向，注重保护民族企业，积极抵制跨国公司。他们有非常浓厚的民族意识。”他非常清楚巴西政府的政策将会带来的影响——Caudron如今负责管理Digital Sherpa，这是和拉美地区存在密切联系的业务拓展中介。

“原因有两层：他们想要确保本土企业获得发展，他们希望意图在巴西市场出售商品的企业能够在当地制造商品，带来就业机会。许多其他行业因此消失了。所有大型电子公司都在巴西开设工厂，生产电视和电脑，但这些属于更大型的市场，所以这么做非常值得。”

“电子游戏行业的运作方式并非如此——它更加集中，但它效力于其他的电子行业，因此政府表示，‘为什么我要在电子游戏领域转变我的思维方式？’”

育碧Chaverot表示，官僚主义如今开始有所缓和。经过多年游说及提高意识后，国际发行商和本土公司设法说明，巴西对于这一全球最具活力的行业有多么“不友善”。变革已经开始，但步伐过于缓慢。

“所有大型电子公司都在巴西开设工厂，生产电视和电脑，但这些属于更大型的市场，所以这么做非常值得”——前EA雇员Bertrand Caudron

“他们尝试通过提供某些税收减免和税收激励减轻负担——例如由电影扩展至软件开发的‘Rouanet’法——但没有明确税收改革，我们将继续看到无法刺激巨额投资的有限解决方案。”

“关于DVD和游戏机平台的游戏，早期公司团结一致，企图说服巴西利亚政府，减免的税收将因市场的发展而带来高出很多倍的收益。讨论始于很早以前，政府已做出若干决策，目前我们正在等待官方消息。我们十指交叉，希望事情能够得到解决。这将进一步推动复杂但充满希望的巴西市场的发展，更不必说是促进经济发展，进而顺利开展2014年的世界杯及2016年的奥运会。”

由于得到政府更多激励，Caudron坚信，巴西能够带来AAA游戏机领域早已放弃的强劲发展势头。PlayStation和PlayStation 2时代的合法市场收入也许很少，但有位受访者将黑市描述成“像是个聚会”，Caudron回忆起自己的当时惊讶之情，当他1999年到达这一地区时，这里没有官方的PlayStation 2业务。

“这怎么可能？PS2在各个地方都蓬勃发展，这是一个居于支配地位的平台。有很多设备在此取得突出成绩，但它们都是通过走私、平行进口，索尼显然没有计划，甚至是没有兴趣在此开拓正式业务。”

Caudron预估，约有5-10%的北美硬件设备被引入拉美，然后再次进行销售，给当地带来“数百万”的PlayStation 2设备。这些设备以美国或欧洲地区的合法零售价格转手。但在巴西，几乎所有人都无法成为合法的掌机消费者——合法没有任何意义。

“我发现自己陷入一个困难处境：我有汽车，有汽车发动机，但我只能在一个活塞上运行它，所以我推销PC市场的机遇。PC市场当时非常健康，因为我们很容易进行本土复制。EA一直在语言和内容的本土化上持开放态度，但我所做的改变是，我开始向自己的竞争对手提供推广服务。”

“EA是首家进军此地区的国际发行商，所以其他发行商可以选择通过授权模式和本土公司合作推广PC产品。但这是个非常不稳定的市场：有些公司一夜之间出现又消失，他们的诚信度遭到质疑。”

“目前，Xbox是墨西哥的主导平台。我碰巧获悉墨西哥是全球第三大Xbox市场，仅次于北美和加拿大”——前EA员工Bertrand Caudron

“我采用这样的方式：和本土公司合作，在此你不清楚自己能否得到报酬，他们是否会为自己所制作的内容掏钱，或者你可以和我们合作，你的竞争对手，但我们是家美国公司，非常可靠。现今这听起来有些滑稽，我在巴西协助动视、LucasArts和育碧推广产品。在1999年-2004年间，EA占据65%或70%的PC市场。”

游戏机业务继续在临爆点周围晃荡，直到2003年，全球游戏领域的焦点开始发生改变。通过加入北美自由贸易协定，墨西哥能够提供育碧和EA等公司积极在巴西创建的环境。由于两个国家都属于‘拉美’地区，因此多数发行商被迫做出优先选择，巴西被暂且搁置。

Caudron回忆表示，“忽然间，你可以零关税进口软件，硬件设备只需非常低的关税。微软随后跳过反对派，强势发行Xbox——进行大量营销活动，完善运作策略。他们占领市场。这就是为什么现今Xbox是墨西哥的主导平台。我碰巧获悉墨西哥是全球第三大Xbox市场，仅次于北美和加拿大。”

巴西也是如此（游戏邦注：即便没有政府支持）。育碧预估巴西的新兴中产阶级约占总人口的70%。用户消费能力的提高促使微软开始本土安装Xbox 360。这令游戏机的零售价格降低40%，在Konami和育碧等公司的支持下，Xbox深入到庞大的目标市场。

Caudron表示，“这将成为一个参照点，就如‘在此之前’和‘在此之后’。我认为当前市场将急剧扩展。他们将公共零售价格减半，因此销量大幅上涨。这就是他们所带来的影响，包括硬件和软件方面。”

“这正朝正确方向迈进。现阶段，微软已经做到，有谣言称，索尼和任天堂正在认真考虑这片市场，因为他们知道如果自己不迎头赶上，将丧失这片市场。至于传统游戏机和盒装商品市场，我认为巴西将维持3-4年的强劲发展势头。”

在Caudron看来，着眼点已发生改变。5年前，所有国际发行商都会将目光锁定在墨西哥，但现在他们会着眼于巴西。当我们坐等下代游戏机时，忽略微软启动巴西Xbox 360装配线的决策将是错误之举。随着Xbox Live添加越来越多数字内容及零售价格持续下跌，下代掌机将被巴西等国家纳入战略范围内。

Caudron表示，“他们需要将此纳入考虑范围内。对于传统实体业务公司来说，这些国家将成为下个真正的庞大市场，下个市场是巴西，是中国。在我看来，微软做出这一决策毫无疑问。”（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Emerging Markets: Brazil

By Matthew Handrahan

Independent developers are struggling, but Latin America’s biggest market holds a strong future for consoles

Reinaldo Normand left one Brazil and returned to another. As a games journalist in 1996, Normand saw international publishers arrive in the country, attempting to mould a $50 million a year legitimate industry into something resembling the booming black market. Later, he saw those efforts stumble and recede, and his career took him to foreign shores: Mexico and China, both countries widely believed to have a stronger future for gaming than Brazil.

In 2010, after six years away, Normand returned. Much had changed. As in many emerging games industries, the rise of mobile and social development had radically altered the stakes, presenting new opportunities where none existed before. Whether Brazil was able to create its own FarmVille or Angry Birds was basically irrelevant; it was now feasible to create, publish and make a living from games, and, everywhere Normand looked, people were doing exactly that.

“I found a lot of small developers, most of them with no experience making games,” he says. “That’s a fallacy that most people in the industry have in their minds: ‘These people don’t know how to make games. They will fail.’ But there are people who have rarely touched games before – people that were bankers, consultants – and they are building small teams for mobile games and being reasonably successful. I think it’s a matter of two or three years for some of these mobile teams to be getting into the top spots.”

“Brazil is the one of the most social countries in the world. They are the consumers of tomorrow. And those overwhelming numbers will continue to grow with the development of the smartphone installed base” ——Bertrand Chaverot, Ubisoft

In terms of both development and retail, Brazil is one of the world’s fastest growing markets for smartphone gaming. At present, there are an estimated 240 million mobile devices among the country’s 200 million citizens. Only 10 per cent of that number are smartphones, but that’s rising all the time: according to Naoki Yamamoto, head of GREE’s Latin American business, it will reach 35 per cent by 2015 – around 80 million devices.

Every major mobile manufacturer is clamouring to meet demand in countries like Brazil with locally assembled, low-cost hardware. Once these product’s hit the market their impact may even exceed GREE’s projections, bolstering not only mobile but also the country’s thriving social network community.

“Brazil is the second-largest country in the world for Facebook, in terms of users. They already have 47 million members here, and their growth rate is second to none,” says Bertrand Chaverot, managing director of Brazil and South America for Ubisoft, one of the longest serving publishers in the region.

“Brazil is the one of the most social countries in the world. People like to argue, comment, talk and share without any restraint or inhibition. Young Brazilian people between 18 and 24 years-old spend 5 hours per day on Facebook, and if you look at girls between 15 and 18 years the average is even higher: 6.2 hours per day. They are the consumers of tomorrow. And those overwhelming numbers will continue to grow with the development of the smartphone installed base.”

That Brazil will become one of the leading markets for both social and mobile spending is regarded by those contributing to this article as an inevitability. However, Normand, who co-founded the social studio 2Mundos in 2011, has significant doubts as to how much Brazilian developers will benefit as a result. A few years ago, the Google-owned Orkut was by far the most popular social network in the country, and Brazilian developers like Vostu enjoyed great success in what was effectively a closed market.

“What I’ve seen in the last year is Facebook has destroyed Orkut, in terms of perception and in terms of content,” says Normand. “What’s happening now is the big Brazilian developers are struggling on Facebook, because they’re competing against the games they were ‘inspired’ by – which is the nice way to say it – and they’re having trouble. In 18 months, everything has changed: the cost of user acquisition on Facebook is much higher, and developments costs went from $200,000 to $300,000 to $4 million.”

“In 18 months, everything has changed: the cost of user acquisition on Facebook is much higher, and developments costs went from $200,000 to $300,000 to $4 million” ——Reinaldo Normand, 2Mundos

2Mundos is fighting this trend by developing games based on IP from other media. By choosing the right partners, its products can tap into the Brazilian public’s existing cultural interests, as well as leverage its partners’ user acquisition funds. According to Normand, it’s one of the only feasible ways of competing in a market that, until relatively recently, didn’t include Zynga.

“We started 2Mundos with the goal of making ‘local’ social games. I believe that social games are a cultural phenomenon, like movies or music. They are free, the barriers of entry are very low, so I treat them as a cultural product. And in big countries in terms of population, like Brazil, these games can have a very strong local component. It’s impossible to compete with Zynga internationally, but it’s possible to focus on the local market and do a good job.”

MusiGames’ Americo Amorim has adopted a similar strategy – in philosophy, if not the details. A subsidiary of Daccord Music Software, MusiGames was established in 2007 to create music apps and games for iOS devices. In the context of the crowded AppStore, it has been a success, with several top 10 hits and, in Drum Challenge, a genuine chart-topper.

However, like Normand, Amorim is building success by refining focus, addressing the need for educational games in Brasil’s increasingly tech-savvy schools – digital content was included in the educational budget for the first time this year, and MusiGames intends to have the products ready in advance of demand.

“About six years ago there was huge demand for games in education, and people were talking about it,” he says. “The problem was that the companies that made them at that time was not a games company… Games in education as a subject died, because the kids didn’t want to play them.

“Last year, as we were developing our games for music education – and they are real games, with social integration, rankings, and everything – and we started to show them to the schools here, they said we should do them for Portugese, for maths, for sciences. The demand is really starting to grow right now, because the schools and the educational publishers are seeing that what they tried in the past weren’t really games. This is going to be a good market in one or two years.”

“For the bricks-and-mortar business these countries are going to be the next really big markets – it’s going to be Brasil, it’s going to be China” ——Bertrand Caudron, formerly Electronic Arts

More importantly, by narrowing its field, MusiGames was able to raise $1.5 million in VC funding in 2010, which is virtually unheard of for an early-stage games company in Brazil.

“In Brazil, funding in general is a problem,” Amorim says. “There was no community of VCs or Angel investors, but last year a lot of VC companies from the US started to come over to Brazil, and right now we’re seeing a far better scenario for developers looking for funding. It’s still not as good as it should be. It’s still tough. But in 2009, when we started to speak with investors, there were maybe 6 or 7, but now there’s more like 20 willing to invest in early-stage companies.”

Digital platforms have also allowed both local and international companies to sidestep the country’s protectionist import laws. In Brazil, the government places gaming in the same category as gambling, which has pushed the price of imported consoles and games to levels that even wealthier countries would find unacceptable – £600 for an Xbox 360 and £100 for a copy of Call of Duty, just to give you an idea. With piracy still a significant problem, it’s small wonder that the official console market has remained so small, while companies in digital markets like Riot Games and Zynga have moved into the area so aggressively.

“The government is very protectionist in protecting national companies against multi-nationals. It’s a really, really strong state-of-mind,” says Bertrand Caudron, who, as EA’s manager of Latin America from 1999 to 2007, understands the effects of the Brazilian government’s policies all too well – Caudron now runs Digital Sherpa, a business development agency with strong ties to Latin America.

“The reason is two-fold: they want to make sure local business can grow, and they want to make sure that companies wanting to sell products on the Brazilian market also produce them in the country and create employment. Many other industries have gone for that… All of the major electronics companies have opened factories in Brazil, producing TVs, computers, but these are bigger markets so it’s probably worth it.

“The video game industry doesn’t work in exactly the same way – it’s much more centralised – but because it worked for the other electronic industries the government just said, ‘Why should I change my mind for video games?’”

According to Ubisoft’s Chaverot, the bureaucracy has only now begun to ease. After many years of lobbying and raising awareness, international publishers and local companies have managed to communicate how “unfriendly” Brazil had become to the one of the world’s more dynamic industries. Change is coming, but the wheels turn slowly.

“All of the major electronics companies have opened factories in Brazil, producing TVs, computers, but these are bigger markets so it’s probably worth it” ——Bertrand Caudron, formerly Electronic Arts

“They have tried to alleviate the burden by offering some tax reductions and tax incentives – like the “Rouanet” law being extended from Cinema to Software development – but without definitive tax reform we’ll continue to see limited solutions that do not incentivise major investments.

“For games on DVD and consoles, the first parties are aligned and working hard together to convince the government in Brasilia that a tax reduction would be paid for many times over by the growth of the market. Discussions started a long time ago, some decisions already have been made, and now we are waiting for the official announcements. We’re crossing our fingers things will work out. It would be another boost for the growth of our complex but promising Brazilian market, not to mention a help for the economy leading into the World Cup in 2014 and the 2016 Olympic Games.”

With more encouragement from the government, Caudron strongly believes that Brazil could provide the sort of strong growth on which the AAA console industry has all but given up. Revenue from the legitimate market in the PlayStation and PlayStation 2 era may have been small, but one interviewee described the black-market as “like a party,” and Caudron recalls his surprise at discovering there was no official PlayStation 2 business when he arrived in the region in 1999.

“How was that even possible? PS2 was booming everywhere, it was such a dominant platform. And there were a lot of machines coming through, but all of them through smuggling, parallel imports, and Sony had absolutely no plan, and even no interest, in doing anything in the region officially.”

Caudron estimates that anywhere between 5 and 10 per cent of North American hardware sales were being taken to Latin America for re-sale, amounting to “millions and millions” of PlayStation 2′s in the region. And these machines were changing hands for prices similar to legal retail elsewhere in the US or Europe. In Brazil, however, the cost of being a legitimate console consumer excluded almost the entire population – legality simply didn’t make sense.

“I found myself in a difficult position: I had a car, I had an engine in the car, but I could only run it on one piston, so I sold the opportunity on the PC market. The PC market was really healthy at the time because it was easy to replicate locally. EA has always been open to localisation in language and in content… but the one difference I made is I started offering our distribution capacity to our competitors.

“EA was the first international publisher installed in the region, so the other publishers had a choice of distributing PC products with local companies under a licensing model. But it was a very unstable market: some of these companies were appearing and disappearing overnight, and a lot of questions were being raised over how honest [they were].

“Today, the Xbox is the leading platform in Mexico. I happen to know that Mexico is the third worldwide market for Xbox, after North America and Canada” ——Bertrand Caudron, formerly Electronic Arts

“I used that: work with local companies where you don’t know if you’re going to get paid, if they are actually paying for what they produce, or you can work with us, your competitor, but we’re an American company, and credible, and blah, blah, blah. As funny as it sounds nowadays, we were distributing in Brazil for Activision, LucasArts, Ubisoft. Between 1999 and around 2004, EA had something like 65 or 70 per cent of the PC market.”

The console business continued to teeter on the precipice of its tipping point, until, in 2003, the attention of the global games industry shifted. By entering the North American Trade Agreement, Mexico could now provide the sort of environment that companies like Ubisoft and EA been struggling to create in Brazil. With both countries falling under the broad ‘Latin America’ region, the majority of publishers were forced to prioritise, and Brazil was put on hold.

“All of a sudden you could import software with absolutely no import duties, and hardware with very low import duties,” Caudron recalls. “Microsoft then jumped the opposition and launched the Xbox very, very strongly – lots of marketing, a perfect operation. And they took the market. That’s why, today, the Xbox is the leading platform in Mexico. I happen to know that Mexico is the third worldwide market for Xbox, after North America and Canada.”

The same may well be true of Brazil, even without assistance from the government. Ubisoft puts the country’s emerging middle-class at nearly 70 per cent of the population, and the boost in consumer power has prompted Microsoft to start local assembly of the Xbox 360. This has reduced the retail price of the console by more than 40 per cent, and, with the assistance of companies like Konami and Ubisoft, has opened the Xbox to a huge addressable market.

“It’s going to become a reference point, as in ‘before that’ and ‘after that’,” says Caudron. “I think the market is now really, really going to explode. They divided the public retail price by two, and their sales have sky-rocketed. That’s the kind of difference it makes, and they’ve done it for hardware and software.

“All of that is going in the right direction. At this stage, Microsoft has done it, and there are strong rumours that Sony and Nintendo looking hard at it, because they know that if they don’t jump on that train they’ll lose the market. For the traditional console and packaged goods market, I believe that Brasil is going to enjoy three or four years of really strong growth.

For Caudron, the focus has shifted again. Where five years ago any international publisher would have set its sights on Mexico, now it would locate in Brazil. As we patiently wait for the next run of consoles, it would be a mistake to disregard Microsoft’s decision to begin assembly of the Brazilian Xbox 360 now. With Xbox Live adding more digital content all the time and the retal price tumbling, the next generation of consoles will have countries like Brazil built into their strategies.

“They have to take them into consideration,” Caudron says. “For the bricks-and-mortar business these countries are going to be the next really big markets – it’s going to be Brasil, it’s going to be China. For me, there’s no doubt about why Microsoft made that decision.”（Source：gamesindustry）