The Philippine outsourcing industry is definitely a major factor in the country’s economic growth with total industry revenues reaching $7.3 billion in 2009, higher than 2008’s $6.061 billion revenue. The business process outsourcing (BPO), knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) and information and communications technology (ICT) sectors all contributed to the Philippine outsourcing industry’s growth. Currently, the country’s BPO industry holds between 7 to 8 percent of the global outsourcing market, according to the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPAP). The association, along with numerous economic analysts, expects the Philippine outsourcing industry to grow more as unavoidable high operating costs will continue to make offshore outsourcing a viable option to many businesses. The Philippine outsourcing industry is expected to rake in double-digit growth in employment and revenues in 2010.
A part of the BPO industry that helped the Philippine outsourcing industry attract foreign and local investors is the fledgling sector of computer game and animation. In 2009, the sector contributed some $4.5 million to the Philippine outsourcing industry’s revenues. Although revenues from the computer game and animation sector is smaller compared to the revenues racked up by other sectors in the BPO industry, the former is said to have potential to become a big player in the Philippine outsourcing industry. According to chief technology officer of SunGame Corp., Ranulf Goss, the sector grows by more than 5% each year. Currently, this Philippine outsourcing sector employs more than 640 Filipino developers and artists – an improvement from the 50 or so workers it had back in 2004. Goss and the coordinator of the game design and development program at the De La Salle College of Saint Benilde, Norman Lee, however, are seeing a problem with the seemingly slow growth of this Philippine outsourcing sector in terms of talent pool size.
Philippine game developers and animators are more than capable of satisfying game and animation studios’ programming and animation requirements. However, the country doesn’t have a big enough talent pool to answer to this demand. Currently, only DLSU holds the first formal game and design program in the country, and even Lee is not yet sure about letting go of the first batch of 30 game development graduates. The Philippine outsourcing industry’s game development and animation sector needs more trained artists and developers to cater to all the foreign game studios and animation studios knocking at local developers’ doors for projects. The Philippine outsourcing industry will definitely benefit from all the foreign firms willing to pay a lot to game developers and animators, but both Goss and Lee say the country needs a bigger talent pool.
The digital animation sector benefits from old alliances with large animation studios like Disney which employed Filipino artists long before the dawn of digital arts. Artists used to render cartoon characters, but now the country is pushing for more digital illustrators. Individuals with a background in information technology (IT) can go into game development if they see the opportunity of earning big money from foreign companies asking for particular Philippine outsourcing services such as developing games. A lot of the country’s game development projects from an outsourced assignment, but many locally owned studios develop games on their own.
Despite the current lack of trained talent in the Philippine outsourcing industry’s game development and animation sector, there is still hope that the sector will grow in the coming years. It helps that many people in the country perceive digital illustration and game development as cool endeavors. Majority of the country’s cell phone users are into mobile games, and even professionals are into playing PC-based games. Online multiplayer games are popular in the country, and although a lot of people are put out about high costs for buying games, they are willing to make small payments for virtual goods. This just proves that aside from outsourced projects, the game development sector can also count on the local market for profit.
Responding to the demand of the local gaming market and the foreign companies’ game development assignments will be hard for the Philippine outsourcing industry if the animation and game development sector does not acquire a large pool of talented and trained developers and artists. Many of the developers also need to develop more skills in C++ if they want game development to be a big player in the Philippine outsourcing industry.