In recent years, there has been a movement towards the inclusion of games in the categories of works that can receive incentives in the form of public funding in Brazil.
Here are some recent examples:
• The Rouanet Law (Brazilian federal law) now includes electronic games in the cultural segments that could be benefited. The law encourages indirect financing through sponsorship, by allowing individuals and companies to allocate part of the funds that would be paid as income tax to finance artistic projects.
• The National Bank for Economic and Social Development (BNDES) has the Finem financing line, which includes the development of Brazilian audiovisual works, (this includes electronic games), as well as game distribution and publication activities.
• At local level, the government of São Paulo recently announced the project “Seed Money”, launched in 2020 by Spcine, a state-owned company that aims to promote the development of the São Paulo’s audiovisual industry. The program provided 400,000 Brazilian Reals in funding to recipients and included project mentoring.
• Still in São Paulo, at the state level, there is the Cultural Action Program – ProAC. In 2020, a specific public notice was launched for the development and creation of electronic games, which allocated a total amount of 1 million Brazilian Reals to the winning bidder of the contest. New announcements specifically for games are expected in 2021.
• The city of Belo Horizonte has an audiovisual development program, which includes the line “BH nas Telas FIQ Games” (translated as “BH on FIQ Game Screens”), with the objective of encouraging the production of electronic games for mobile devices based on comic book creations of people from Belo Horizonte.
• Between 2017 and 2018, the Audiovisual Sectorial Fund – FSA offered lines of investment aimed at the games sector. In August 2020, the FSA Steering Committee approved a new investment cycle with an emphasis on animation and electronic games projects.
The above examples show the efforts of public entities in the last decade to include the electronic games sector among the activities that may receive public funding, signaling a clear move to leverage this industry through the necessary financial support.