Aqui Acontece on 05/02/2018
The virtual reality and augmented reality market was the subject of a debate at the second meeting of the Working Group on Policies to Promote Electronic Games, held this Monday (30), in Rio de Janeiro. Created by the Superior Council of Cinema (CSC, Conselho Superior de Cinema) to debate public policies for the games sector, the WG received representatives from XRBR, a non-profit association that brings together professionals and companies of the virtual reality sector. The meeting was chaired by the Minister of Culture, Sérgio Sá Leitão. The CEO of ANCINE, Christian de Castro, was also present.
According to the minister’s assessment, the meeting served to enable the Working Group to have contact with the reality of the virtual reality and augmented reality market, which should be included in the financing lines of the Audiovisual Sectorial Fund (FSA, Fundo Superior do Audiovisual). “We are designing a proposal to support the development of these segments, which have enormous growth potential, to be submitted to the Superior Council of Cinema and to the Management Committee of the Audiovisual Sectorial Fund”, he added.
“We need to think of a line to enable training and development of this sector as a whole. It makes no sense to think only about production. It is necessary to strengthen companies, train professionals, and to bring infrastructure and technology in order to increase the competitiveness of our Brazilian talents in the market. At this moment, solutions in this market – that is experiencing its genesis – can appear anywhere in the world. We cannot stay out of this scenario.”, assesses Christian de Castro.
The president of XRBR, Marcos Alves, presented the main data on the virtual reality market. According to him, companies in the sector are concentrated in the Southeast, with 68% of the total in the state of São Paulo and 20% in the state of Rio de Janeiro, and in small centers in the Southern Region. Alves also informed that most companies in the games sector were created as services providers and that there are few dedicated to virtual and augmented realities.
A recent survey carried out by Microsoft revealed that, by 2020, 80 million mixed reality devices will be sold, blending the virtual with the augmented, generating US$ 75 billion in revenues.
For Marcos Alves, who is also Ventures Director at YDreams, the challenge for a virtual or augmented reality company which is not based on services, is investment.
Alves says that the creation of XRBR met a specific demand from the games industry itself. “We observed that associations made up only of hardware, software or other technology companies were not representing an industry as diverse as this one. Last year, we started partnering with 16 virtual reality companies at a first meeting. After four months of existence, we already have 90 companies”, he explained.
To participate in the association, the company must have presented at least one virtual reality or augmented reality project. There is no need for the project to have been commercialized. The objective, according to XRBR representatives, is to select companies that are entering an industry that is passing through a qualification process.