Game developers generate $2.4 million in export sales

MANILA, Philippines — Game developers generated $2.42 million in export sales from the country’s first Game Development Summit (GDS) organized by the Department of Trade and Industry.

In a statement, the DTI said the initial export sales estimate covers both actual and potential sales during the two-day summit held in Boracay last month, which had 53 business-to-business (B2B) meetings resulting in 47 trade leads.

Organized with solutions provider GameOps Inc. and the Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP), the GDS is the first international summit for the game industry in the Philippines featuring two tracks: external development and indie games.

The event had 300 participants from various sectors such as publishers, investors, developers, advocates, experts, mentors, service providers, industry associations or organizations and other gaming development professionals.

For the external development track, 16 major local and international companies took part in networking and B2B.

During the event, Trade Undersecretary Rafaelita Aldaba highlighted the DTI’s partnerships with the GDAP and the International Trade Center ARISE Plus Philippines project to promote the game development sector.

Funded by the European Union, the ARISE Plus Philippines project aims to help the country achieve inclusive economic growth and poverty reduction through improved international trade performance.

The project is focused on enabling Philippine exporters to take advantage of the market access and trade privileges under the EU Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus and supporting the overall EU-Philippines trade relationship.

“As we strengthen our game development ecosystem, particularly through the indie games track where we promote our Filipino stories and games, the GDS takes on even greater significance. Who knows, the next big, game-changing idea might emerge from a Filipino developer,” Aldaba said.

The DTI has been actively promoting the creative industry, which includes game development, as it recognizes the sector’s export potential.

The Philippine Export Development Plan (PEDP) 2023 to 2028, which aims to grow the country’s merchandise and service exports, has identified information technology – business process management as one of the priority industries.

Under the PEDP, the goal is for the country’s exports to grow to $240.5 billion by 2028.