Videogame Industry in Chile

Chile betting on value added exports through its videogame industry

• It sounds incredible, but for more than a decade, Chile has been creating, producing and exporting videogames. Within the Latin American context, the Chilean industry is recognized both as a pioneer and as a highly creative hub.
• Chilean game developers have managed to level the ground for themselves within an exceptionally competitive marketplace, positioning its products in key countries around the world while covering a wide diversity of consumer-oriented platforms, ranging from mobile devices to the most popular consoles currently in the market.
• There are many success stories that demonstrate that local developers are well equipped to compete globally. For example, Wanako Games, a company founded in 2002 by Wenceslao Casares, Tiburcio de la Cárcova and Esteban Sosnik, whom later on founded Atakama Labs, two companies which only after a short period of time were acquired by the giants Behaviour Interactive Montreal and DeNA Japan respectively.
• IguanaBee, is another success story, this is a pioneering company in the local industry, developing the first titles for Smart TV sets and Augmented Reality platforms in Latin America, later becoming one of the first company to participate in Sony’s Latin American incubation program with their game “Monster Bag”.
• Finally, there is the case of ACE Team, the company made up by the sibiling Andrés, Carlos and Edmundo Bordeu, whom have consistently astonished the global markets with their critically acclaimed titles “Zeno Clash”, “Rock of Ages”, and most recently “Abyss Odyssey”; awarded with the title of “Best Chilean Game of 2014” by Chile’s very own Game Developers Association — VideoGames Chile.The videogames sector has been prioritized as an important part of Chile’s exports offerings. Since 2012 Chile has been participating as a country in the “Game Developers Conference”, one of the industry’s most important international trade exhibitions. It has been very encouraging to witness the increasing involvement that Chilean companies have had year after year on this event, through which they have been able to reach important business opportunities.
• Today, the expectations are set in that the Chilean game developers take full advantage of this instance to generate contacts with important actors in the global industry. We know that Chile has great potential, given the success stories we just mentioned, which can help position our country as the main games development hub in Latin America.

Chile & USA FTA

The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Chile and the United States was signed on June 6, 2003 and entered into force on 1 January, 2004. In January 2014 the FTA turned ten years in force, during which excellent bilateral relationship has reflected in the ongoing work of implementation and modernization of the treaty, to adapt to the realities and needs of the commercial relationship between the two countries, such as tax relief of all industrial goods.

About ProChile

ProChile is the institution of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile responsible for promotin exports of goods and services of the country. ProChile also contributes to encourage foreign investments and tourism in Chile. It has a network of over 50 trade offices worldwide and 15 regional offices throughout the country, with specialized teams that contribute to positioning Chile’s attributes in international markets.

Chilean Companies at GDC 2015