Video games is a lucrative sector of the entertainment industry. In fact, Japan has embraced gaming as one of its key driving force in strengthening its economic competitiveness. Gaming developers in Japan take pride in their ability to produce and market chart-topping video games inside and outside the country.
Another competitive player in the video games industry is the United States of America. USA had already taken part in the evolution of video games during the intervention of Nolan Bushnell’s Pong. Since then, the country has become a paradise for critically-acclaimed and thematic games such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty.
The Philippines, best known for its strong business process outsourcing (BPO) operations in cities like Makati and Cebu, has yet to come up with well-rounded solutions to evolve its gaming services. The country has been coined as a threat among BPO leaders such as India and China due to its deep workforce employed at call canter offices located in major trade hubs.
Despite its comfortable lead against India on its voice-based BPO services, the Philippines has yet to make a name for itself in terms of video game outsourcing for next-generation consoles.
Local outsourcing leaders for video game development
Anino Games is the largest game development studio in the Philippines and has already published 20 casual gaming titles such as Dream Day Wedding: Maid in Manhattan and Littlest Petshoppe. Anino Games has contributed different titles for the PC, Nintendo Wii, and DS. The studio is currently planning to produce games for social media giant Facebook.
Although Anino Games is doing its share of contributing to the video game outsourcing industry in the Philippines, games like Little Petshoppe failed to create a massive following among its target demographics, which are kids.
Anino Games CEO Neil Dagondon proudly claims that “most of their projects are outsourced from foreign clients.” Foreign gaming publishers recognize the innate talent of our local gaming developers. However, there a couple of elements that make the Philippines a weak country for video game outsourcing services.
These factors are:
- Lack of undergraduate courses about video games – Universities in the Philippines do not have intensive courses that tackle programming for video games.
- Lack of support from government agencies – The local government currently eyes call centers to become the country’s most efficient companies in terms of producing profit and employment for fresh graduates.
- Weak and insubstantial facilities – The Philippines’ stalled growth in the gaming development industry is caused by its inability to provide game developers with advanced facilities and equipment.
- Isolated workforce – Game development is not all about programming. Game development involves the contributions of graphics engineers, artists, and storyboard writers in order to create a compelling title. Sadly, the Philippines does not have the reservations for such positions.
Source: http://www.citem.gov.ph/gdc2010/downloads/GDC_press_kit.pdf
