The future of gaming industry in the Philippines
IN the Philippines, gaming industry has attracted foreign and domestic firms to set up sprawling casino-resorts, creating tens of thousands of jobs in the past decade.
As the local gaming industry continues to gain momentum, the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) is optimistic that performance growth remains on the horizon as the agency aims for P244.84 billion industry gross gaming revenues (GGR) for 2023.
In the 2023 Performance Scorecard submitted by Pagcor to the Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG), the forecasted GGR for this year is 33.13 percent or P60.934 billion higher than the 2022 GGR target of P183.906 billion.
The GGR target is also P30.51 billion or 14.23 percent higher than the actual 2022 industry GGR of P214.33 billion.
According to Pagcor Chairman and CEO Alejandro Tengco, the state-run gaming firm’s increased GGR targets is fueled by the gaming industry’s robust performance in 2022, which has been largely attributed to the opening of Philippine borders to local and foreign tourists.
“Since the lockdowns were eased in the country late last year and gaming venues reopened, customer confidence slowly returned and the attendance in our owned casinos slowly improved. Our licensed casinos likewise recorded a major revenue growth,” he said.
Because of this, Pagcor, for its part, targeted P68.490 billion revenues from its gaming operations by the end of 2023. “This amount is 36.6 percent increase from our P50.13 billion target in 2022 and 24.41 percent higher than our 2022 income from gaming,” Tengco explained.
Also part of Pagcor’s commitment, as cited in its 2023 Performance Scorecard, are “100 percent payment of mandatory contributions to recipient agencies; attainment of P1.022 billion net income (less income tax); and 98 percent collection efficiency of license and regulatory fees from Pagcor’s regulated gaming entities.”
Pagcor also endeavors to “retain its ISO:9001:2015 certification; 100 percent attainment of 2023 deliverables; 100 percent completion of transactions within the prescribed period; revision of the agency’s Board-approved Competency Framework; and establishment of competency baseline for employees.”
To achieve these, Tengco shared that Pagcor, under the current management, will endeavor to improve its regulatory functions and business operations.
“We will ensure that our plans and programs for 2023 will be generally beneficial to our industries, putting foremost the interests of responsible gaming and of nation-building,” he said.
Online gaming continues to conquer the industry
Meanwhile, online gaming industry has grown tremendously over the past decade, with the market value expected to reach 3.6 billion by 2025. According to studies, as technology continues to evolve, the future of gaming looks promising with innovations such as AI, virtual reality and the metaverse set to revolutionize the industry
According to a report by Newzoo, a leading provider of market intelligence for the gaming industry, the Philippines has a total of 43 million gamers with a projected growth of 14.3 percent between 2020 and 2023. Popularity of online gaming in the country can be attributed to various factors, including the increasing availability of high-speed internet, the growing numbers of smartphone users and the rise of eSports.
Another research by 6Wresearch reported that the Philippine online gaming market size is anticipated to register growth in 2021 to 2027. The Covid-19 pandemic has led an increase in the growth of the Philippine online gaming market. As the country go for lockdown, interest in online gaming has also risen.
The Philippines online gaming market is expected to be of great importance for the growth and development where keen interest for gaming of the American population is getting served through online gaming experience and is expected to proliferate the significant growth of the Philippines online gaming market in the forthcoming years.
Video games have come a long way to the modern ultra-realistic titles offering immersive gaming experiences. So it’s fair to say the gaming industry is currently in a very strong state. It has been experiencing steady growth for several years and is now one of the largest and most profitable entertainment industries in the world.
The industry has been driven by a number of factors, including the increasing popularity of mobile gaming, the growth of esports, the rise of cloud gaming, and the continued success of traditional console and PC gaming.
Mobile games development in particular has become a major driver of the industry, with mobile games accounting for around 45 percent of global games revenue. The rise of casual and hyper-casual games, which are easy to pick up and play, has helped to broaden the appeal of gaming and attract new audiences.
Esports has also been growing in popularity, with major tournaments and events attracting large audiences and generating significant revenue.
The gaming industry has also been influenced by technological advancements such as virtual and augmented reality, which have the potential to revolutionize the gaming experience and create new opportunities for developers.
Here are the most exciting trends that are shaping the mobile games development industry in 2023.
Cloud gaming
Also known as game streaming, cloud gaming is a technology that allows players to sream video games over the internet without downloading or installing the game locally on their devices.
AR VR gaming
AR VR gaming transports players to entirely new worlds and enhance the gaming experience in ways that were previously impossible.
Mobile gaming
Mobile gaming has been on the rise for several years, and it shows no signs of slowing down. With smartphones becoming more powerful and capable of running more advanced games, mobile gaming has become a viable platform for developers to release their games.
Cross-platform gaming
Cross-platform gaming allows players to play games across multiple platforms, such as consoles, PC and mobile.
Esports
Esports tournaments are now drawing in large audiences and generating significant revenue, and this trend is expected to continue in the coming years as more players and sponsors get involved in the industry.
The Metaverse
In gaming, the Metaverse refers to a fully immersive, interconnected virtual world that allows players to interact with each other and the environment in a way that feels real. It can take many forms like a persistent world where players can create their own avatars and explore a vast, open world filled with other players and interactive objects. It can also be a series of interconnected games that allow players to move seamlessly between them, creating a cohesive gaming experience that feels like a single, continuous world. The Metaverse offers deeper social interaction and greater immersion. However, the development of the Metaverse in gaming also presents some challenges. One of the biggest challenges is creating a cohesive, seamless world that allows players to move between games without feeling like they are in separate worlds. This requires new technologies and standards to be developed to ensure that the Metaverse can function as a single, cohesive world.
Blockchain and P2E gaming
Blockchain technology has been gaining traction in the gaming industry, particularly with the emergence of play-to-earn (P2E) gaming. P2E gaming allows players to earn cryptocurrency or other digital assets by playing games, creating a new economic model for the gaming industry.