São Paulo

The concrete jungle

São Paulo can be considered the financial heart of Brazil. Not only is it one of the biggest cities in the world, but it is also home to various converging cultures thanks to the massive influx of immigrants in the early 1920s, from various countries. It is the capital of the São Paulo state, and has a huge network of satellite neighborhoods and smaller cities to which it converts its many trade routes outside the state. São Paulo houses the Interlagos race track, which holds the Brazilian Grand Prix for the Formula One Championship series, not only holding racing as a sporting event. The city also concentrates various soccer, basketball and volleyball teams. People who were born in São Paulo are called paulistanos not to be confused with paulistas, people who were born in São Paulo, the state. For a city of its size, São Paulo has a very limited subway train grid for transportation, and other alternatives, which causes gigantic traffic jams everyday during the rush hours. The influx of cars is immense, causing the city to suffer from moderate to high pollution rates during the dry season. Adding to that, the weather in São Paulo has earned the city its nickname of "the city of the light rain" ("a cidade da garoa"). The biggest problem with the city is that its routes are limited to roads for the product out flux coming from the city, limiting the transporting to trucks - leaving formerly built train tracks useless.

The city is also home to many game studios, most importantly, the newest European game company branch, Ubisoft, premiered in early June, 2008.