Javier Otaegui is a pioneer in local game development. In the late 90’s, at just 15 he creates Malvinas 2032, a strategy game whose goal was for the Argentines to win the war, which sold around 5,000 copies. A total success, if one takes into account his lack of experience in the sector. The 42-year-old ITBA graduate software engineer is the CEO and founder of Tlön Industry, one of 150 firms in the country.
Otaegui is considered a guru among companies in the sector. In 2021 he launched Per Aspera, a PC strategy video game named among the best in the world by AIAS (Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences), in a category that competed to win the “DICE Award” of the category against the famous Flight Simulator, from Microsoft.
“It’s an exclusive event that takes place every year in Las Vegas, where studio owners, directors, producers and distributors – the most important people in the industry – vote,” recalls Otaegui. The ceremony was virtual due to the restrictions of the pandemic, but AIAS sent him the prize for the nomination (a statuette) which She was held at customs involved in a series of Kafkaesque procedures without a favorable resolution.
“They also asked me for the name of the artist who designed the figurine. Many things over the course of 3 months, I finally gave up,” Otaegui laments. Until today the distinction continues – it is assumed – in one of the many tax warehouses together with other goods seized by the organization which today is directed by the massist Guillermo Michel.
However, Otaegui points out that this isn’t the worst. He assures that Argentina’s video game creation business, which has an annual turnover of 90 million dollars in exports, is experiencing a critical moment between actions and because “we are obliged to settle at the official exchange rate,” he says. He adds that only 10% of games generate profits. “More than half go into lossfor the high fixed costs and because in order to compete we have to sell twice as much as our foreign competitors”, remarks the entrepreneur.
Established companies coexist in the local market, such as Globant, Etermax (creator of Trivia Crack), and Nimble Giant. With other smaller ones, among which Tlön Industry, Purple Tree, Pixowl, Killabunnies, Widow, Dedalord, Digi Learnnials and Games Station stand out. Most of them indicate their own developments, mainly for mobile phones, while others provide services for the giants of the industry.
Purple Tree’s Ezequiel Heyn says his studio employs 10 people, including programmers, graphic designers, screenwriters and digital sound engineers. “Basically, there are two business models. One of them is the premium (which consists of being charged for each download) and the free one for mobile devices, which is monetized with advertising and purchases to progress in the game,” he explained to Clarín. One way or another, Heyn argues that “getting a hit is very difficult”.
Game development is a minor branch of the software industry. The companies are represented by ADVA (Argentine Association of Video Game Developers), which has indicated this in its latest statistics the sector employs 1,495 professionals. 71% of local production is destined for PCs and 61% for smartphones. Some of them have two versions of the same game.
In general, again according to ADVA, these are small enterprises: 54% are micro-SMEs, 32% are SMEs and only 14% are medium enterprises. Last year, 39 video games produced in Argentina were launched on the market. Of these, 34 required up to 6 months of development and the remaining 5, in that time.
The case of Globant is different. The Argentinean unicorn has created a business unit to provide services to games considered AAA, ie major productions, including FIFA, Halo, Counter Strike and League of Legend. The value of a downloaded copy ranges between 10 and 150 dollars.
Globant has 27,000 of which 700 employees (300 in Argentina) work for giants such as Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Warner and Epic Games. Paula Haurie, its CEO, points out that local gaming “is still a niche activity within a market that moves more than 160,000 million dollars a year”.
Source: Clarin
