Ecoplay

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Ecoplay
Founded: 1984-10 (as Edições Comerciais de Video S.A)
Headquarters: Vila Maior, Santa Maria da Feira, Aveiro, Portugal (formerly: São João da Madeira, Aveiro); Branch Office: Alfragide, Amadora, Lisbon, Portugal

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Ecoplay (formerly named Ecovideo/ Ecofilmes ) was founded in October 1984, in the city of São João da Madeira, Aveiro, Portugal, by Portuguese businessmen, Gil Oliveira Santos and Rui Manuel Rodrigues de Almeida Fonseca, and Portuguese journalist and founder of Oporto International Film Festival Fantasporto, Francisco Mário Dorminski de Carvalho (best known as Mário Dorminsky, Ecofilmes Marketing Director and CEO from 1990 to 1995), starting its activities in film distribution. In 1991, the company entered the videogame market through the exclusive representation of Sega (hardware and software) and quickly extended its activities to the distribution of multi-platform software.

Ecoplay did an excellent job of promoting and publicizing the games and consoles throughout the country with the support of Bozell Portugal, (which localized, and adapted many Sega US television advertisements and print advertisements for the Portuguese audiences, including those of their famous campaign "Genesis Does What Nintendon't") and Portidata Software Interactivo although this work was facilitated from the outset due to the network of video rental shops that Ecoplay supplied. Ecoplay assigned licenses to supermarket and hypermarket chains (such as Continente, Feira Nova, Carrefour, Jumbo El Corte Inglés, etc), Toys "R" Us, computer resellers, office supply vendors, magazine stores, bookstores, toy stores and video rental shops, which became Agente Autorizado SEGA (SEGA Authorized Agent/ Retailer), as they were known in Portugal, thus covering all country's territory.

With the representations of Electronic Arts and Microsoft, Ecoplay reached high volumes of business that influenced the decision of these multinationals in establishing themselves directly in Portugal. Currently, Ecoplay prominently leads the Portuguese market for videogames and represents some of the world's most important publishers and peripheral brands: Activision Blizzard, Capcom, Konami, Milestone, Sega, Square Enix and Tecmo Koei.

Ecoplay belongs to a group of Portuguese companies, led by the european holding International Entertainment Group SGPS S.A. (also a owner of São Paulo-based (Brazil) video games and peripherals distribution company Ecogames Distribuição e Serviços, S.A). Ecoplay sister companies are PRIS Audiovisuais (formerly Prisvideo) in the market for distribution of films and other audiovisual products and Goody in the media market, while Ecoplay manages video games distribution.

The acronym "Eco", featured, in the company's name, stands for "Edições Comerciais" (Trading Editions).

Gallery

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  Plaque provided by Ecofilmes to stores in Portugal, to identify them as authorized retailers

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  The company's first logo.

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  The older Ecofilmes logo.

External links

• www.ecoplay.pt
• www.4play.pt (Ecoplay's official online catalogue)
• www.pris.pt (Pris Audiovisuais, Ecoplay's sister company)
• www.goody.pt (Goody, Ecoplay's sister company)
• www.ecogames.com (Ecogames Brasil)
• www.fantasporto.com (Oporto International Film Festival website)
• video excerpt, from an old VHS Cassette showing the "Ecovideo" logo used by the company in their early years
• Ecofilmes Promotional Video #1 (1991) (Promotional VHS cassette provided by Ecofilmes to its authorized agents/retailers in Portugal, to be continuously played in stores for demonstration to the public)
• Ecofilmes Promotional Video #2 (1991)
• Ecofilmes Promotional Video #4 (1993)