Brazil’s Law No. 14.852 establishes a national legal framework for the electronic-games industry. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva signed it on May 3, 2024; it was published on May 6. The law lets covered games be developed and commercially exploited without prior state authorization, while preserving age classification and other applicable legal requirements. It also creates conditional routes to special treatment and cultural or innovation support—not automatic grants or a general tax break. A proposed 70% tax reduction was vetoed.
What is Brazil’s new games law?
Law No. 14.852 creates a Brazilian framework for electronic games, addressing their manufacture, import, marketing, development and commercial use. Article 1 states, in translation, “This Law creates the legal framework for the electronic games industry.”
The law’s definition is broad. It covers interactive audiovisual software whose images change in real time in response to player actions, as well as dedicated devices and accessories, console games, mobile applications, web pages and games in virtual, augmented, mixed or extended reality, whether accessed by download or streaming. Games involving bets, lotteries, prizes in real or virtual assets, or chance- or prediction-based outcomes are excluded from this framework and cannot receive its benefits.
Do game developers in Brazil need government approval?
For games covered by the law, development and commercial exploitation do not require prior state authorization. The statute also treats manufacturing, importing and marketing as free activities, subject to Brazil’s Constitution and existing law. That is not a blanket exemption from other legal requirements.
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Indicative age classification remains relevant. The law permits classified games to be used for entertainment, art, teaching in schools subject to curriculum and school rules, recreation, therapy, training, institutional simulation, communication and advertising.
Which developers may qualify for special treatment or support?
Article 8 sets eligibility conditions for certain individuals, companies, cooperatives, simple societies and individual microentrepreneurs (MEIs). An applicant’s gross revenue in the prior year must not exceed R$16,000,000. For a business active for fewer than 12 months in that year, the statutory ceiling is R$1,333,334 multiplied by the number of months of activity. The applicant must also meet either the innovation-business-model criterion or the Inova Simples regime criterion.
Meeting the revenue ceiling alone is not enough, and the law does not promise automatic funding or a tax benefit to every eligible studio. It identifies game development as eligible for innovation, human-resources and cultural support; it also treats game development as a cultural segment under the Rouanet Law and investment in game development as investment in research, development, innovation and culture. These provisions establish possible routes for support, not a guaranteed award.
What development tools does the law recognize?
Article 9 identifies the following as essential tools for game development:
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- Specialized equipment for a specific platform;
- Game-creation software and licenses needed by multidisciplinary teams; and
- Software development kits (SDKs) and development kits (DevKits).
DevKits are consoles or equipment prototypes made by commercial console manufacturers and supplied to registered developers under signed responsibility contracts. The law does not specify computer hardware requirements or require developers to buy a particular product.
What protections apply to children and adolescents?
When setting age classifications, authorities are to consider risks associated with microtransactions. Games accessed by children and adolescents must be designed and operated with their best interests as a parameter, using proportionate measures to mitigate risks and safeguards for child-facing interactions, complaints and reporting.
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Where applicable, in-game purchase tools must by default restrict children’s purchases and commercial transactions so that guardian consent is secured. The law also allows authorities to develop public policies for school use of games and a public repository of publicly funded games; it does not establish those initiatives as already operating programs.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Does Brazil’s games law give studios tax breaks?
Not the proposed 70% remittance-tax reduction. The president vetoed Article 19, which would have allowed a 70% reduction in income tax on certain remittances arising from game exploitation or licensing in Brazil, conditional on investment in Brazilian independent-game production or co-production.
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The veto message cited an unestimated revenue waiver, the absence of compensation measures, no five-year maximum duration and missing fiscal-impact documentation for the relevant budget years. The proposed reduction is not part of the enacted law.
Is Brazil’s electronic-game registration system open yet?
Not according to INPI’s update published and updated August 25, 2026. The law added a provision for electronic-game registration to the Industrial Property Law and assigned implementation to INPI. In that update, INPI said it was conducting a regulatory impact analysis and public consultation to develop criteria and procedures. It also reported that an interministerial working group, created by a Ministry of Culture ordinance in December 2025, was preparing a regulatory proposal for the law. The statutory registration provision exists, but those procedures and broader regulation were still in development as of the update.
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