Peru is the 52th biggest games market in the world, data firm Newzoo reports, and generating an estimated $103m (83m) in revenue for 2016.
PricewaterhouseCoopers predicts that the market should continue to grow at a seven per cent rate until 2018. The firm has labelled the country’s industry as a one of the ‘higher-growth, smaller-scale markets’, alongside other booming Latin American countries such as Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela.
Latin America is currently the fastest-growing region as far as games are concerned, with revenue reaching $4.1bn (3.3bn) thanks to a 20.1 per cent year-on-year increase, according to Newzoo.
One trend that might impact the games industry specifically in Peru is the steady growth of the internet penetration in the country. In 2015, 40.9 per cent of the Peruvian population had access to the Internet, according to Statista. That’s steady growth from 38.2 per cent in 2012 and 34.77 per cent in 2010.
Should this growth continue, the digital games market in the country should improve in step.
As for most of the countries in Latin America, localisation remains an issue in Peru. Triple-A games are almost always localised in Spanish, but most titles remain non-region specific. There are almost as many variations of the Spanish language as there are countries speaking it, with significant vocabulary differences.
Despite a relatively small development scene, Peru’s industry is well organised, with a number of associations representing its interests. Created in 2014, the APDEVA (Asociacin Peruana de Videojuegos y Animacin) is actively promoting the local scene on a global scale, via booths on all international shows – the association is at Gamescom every year – and events organisation, such as an annual development convention in Lima. There’s also a Lima-based Peruvian branch of the International Game Developers Association.
Population: 31,774,000
Capital City: Lima
Currency: Sol (PEN)
GDP (Per Capita): $6,515.6
KEY RETAILERS
Arenales, CityGame Store, GameStore, Wong, Saga Falabella
TOP DISTRIBUTORS
LATAM Games, US-1 America, Gamexpress Latin America
TOP DEVELOPERS
Arti Games, Bamtang Games, Crea. Leap Game Studios, The Boneless, Unforgiven, Inka Studios, Cosmic Dog Games, Pacha Studio
PUBLISHERS IN THE REGION
Axeso5, Sony, Microsoft