IT Expert Eyes Philippines As Online Game Development Hub

Davao City (PNA) -– The Philippines could be the next online game development hub following the successful partnership between Davao City-based business process outsourcing (BPO) company Next BPO Solutions, Inc. (NBSI) and Netherlands-based company Maata Games for the development of a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) called Erectus.

“Erectus is an online three-dimensional game featuring the clash of civilizations between the Homo Sapiens and Homo Erectus 130,000 years ago,” said Paul Ludwig, Managing Partner and Head of Marketing and Sales of Maata Games.

The Homo Erectus, played by the system, felt threatened by the new civilization of Homo Sapiens which is played by gamers worldwide.

Erectus is a free browser-based game but an in-game shop will be made available to allow players to purchase items to boost their camp. It will take months to finish the game, he said, although other can purchase can purchase time from the game shop if they it faster.

There are two gameworlds: the Erectus World, a game available to players early July this year, and the Erectus Asia, which is basically a tournament for players in the Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines-East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) that already launched during the recent BIMP-EAGA Chief Executive Officers Information and Communication Technology Forum in the city.

Erectus was simultaneously launched on March 31 at the University of Mindanao in Davao City and at nine other local and foreign cities including Cebu and Manila, Philippines; Tokyo, Japan; Hong Kong; Cape Town, South Africa; Luanda, Angola; Amsterdam, Netherlands; San Francisco, United States of America; and Hamburg, Germany.

“This is a real-time strategy game that can be played by people through their browsers. Each player can start on their own and later on form allegiance with other players,” he said. The game is available in four different languages namely Filipino, English, Dutch, and Japanese. However, there is a plan to develop Erectus into a mobile game application once they have established a large number of players.

Ludwig, who conceptualized Erectus, said the game’s design, storyline and gameplay were done in the Netherlands but the programming and coding were done in Davao City by five IT student developers from NBSI.

“We initially planned to outsource the work in Europe but we had a business contact in the Netherlands who knew one of the student developers here,” he said.

The cost of labor is also ten times lower here, he added. Maata then partnered with NBSI which facilitates the working space and equipment for the coders since game development started in October last year.

Ludwig said “there is a very high possibility for the Philippines to become a game development hub because Filipino programmers can think for themselves and are vocal when they think that something is not a good idea.”

They also have a very high command of English which makes communication easier, he added.

“My programmers here are very highly skilled and are a joy to work with,” he said. It took four years to complete the game from conceptualization to coding, but the latter only took less than a year. The target players are gamers from 16 to 70 years old.

Xavier Eric B. Manalastas, president and chief executive officer of NBSI, said the partnership shows that Filipino programmers and game developers in Davao are highly-skilled and competitive.

Manalastas said Erectus will showcase Davao as a destination for game development and an ICT-BPO hub. While the city is a known BPO destination, there are IT professionals who are developing games for mobile phones.

“This is a milestone for the city’s software industry,” said Atty. Samuel Matunog, president of the Information and Communications Technology, Inc.-Davao. He said this is the first of its kind to be undertaken by a Davao-based company and “it has placed the city in the global gaming arena.”

However, Ludwig said the Philippines need to address the issue on fast internet connection if it wants to be a gaming hub or even the next Silicon Valley.

As it is now, he said, internet connection here is not only expensive but also slow.

The slow internet connection in the country was one of the concerns discussed by the ICT players during the Forum. ICT is one of the sectors for cooperation and collaboration among the BIMP-EAGA member economies and is a key enabler for socio-economic development and integration in the region. Thus, the ICT industry players discussed the development initiatives that have been done in the BIMP-EAGA as the region prepares for the Association of South East Asian Nations Economic Community which will be fully implemented this year.

ICT-Davao vice president Lizabel G. Holganza said Mindanao’s ICT sector has asked the National Telecommunications Company (NTC) and the telecommunications companies to bring the cost of broadband in Mindanao down.

“We want to understand how to build a better infrastructure for all of Mindanao’s territories so we can bring the cost of bandwidth down. That’s the issue of the Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), how to bring the cost of broadband down,” she said.

The ICT officials sat down a few months ago with the NTC and the executives of Smart and Globe and told them that they cannot apply the rates of the National Capital Region to other parts of the Philippines because that is an entry barrier to our SMEs.

Holganza said the high cost of broadband is impeding the competitiveness of the SMEs especially in the ICT sector.

However, she said, the telecommunications companies explained that they have made significant investments in putting up telecommunications infrastructure in Mindanao so the price of broadband is really influenced by the volume of user.

“We were told that there are not so many BPO companies here so they cannot bring the cost down,” she said.

While they understand the position of the telecommunications companies, she said, the high cost of broadband is really very crippling for the SMEs. (PNA) LAP/LCM/LOVELY A. CARILLO/LDP