SAN FRANCISCO?Game development companies in the Philippines are eyeing their slice of the billion-dollar game development industry as they participated at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco on March 9-13.

?Game development is really a big business and joining the fair in the US will help us in expanding our business and showing what we Filipinos can share in the game development industry. The United States is a good market to showcase our talents and creativity in game development than any [other] place in the world because many people [buyers] will definitely be there,? said Niel Dagondon, president and CEO of Anino Games.

Anino Games is the largest game development studio in the Philippines and one of the local companies that will join the Philippine delegation. Anino Games developed and published more than 20 games for leading consoles and gaming platforms such as Shutter Island, Mystery of Cleopatra, Dream Day Wedding: Married in Manhattan, Turbo Subs, Littlest Petshoppe, and Jumbo Classic, among others. From PC, Nintendo DS and Dsi, Wii, mobile phone platforms, Anino Games has also started developing games for iPhone and Facebook applications.

Game development outsourcing is one of the potential-rich niches in the outsourcing scale in the near future projected to reach $30 billion by 2010. Asia Pacific is predicted to emerge as a new market for console-based gaming, according to global advisory firm Tholons.

The Philippine delegation?s participation in Game Developers Conference was led by the Department of Trade and Industry through the Center for International Trade Expositions and Missions (CITEM), in cooperation with the Game Developers Association of the Philippines.

Other local game developer companies that joined the event were: CheQ Systems (software quality engineering and testing services provider), Digital Art Chefs Creative Media Studios Inc. (full 2D concept, design services and character creation), Komikasi Enterprise (graphics services for games and websites, develop games, mobile content and comic books), MoAnima Inc. (motion capture data services), FunGuy Studio (also known as Modelworks Philippines, casual massively multiplayer online (MMO) games), SunGame SEA, Inc. (design and turnkey delivery of Social Media solutions), Suspended Animation Media, Inc. (pre-production design and IP development art for video games, film, animation, and publications), The Studio of Secret 6, Inc. (art-sourcing services to video game developers and TV production companies), and Techfactors Inc. (an e-learning company that provides learning systems for ICT).

To date, the country?s share in the global game market is projected to reach more than $7 million by the end of 2010, a 30% growth from 2009, according to industry reports.

Last year, local game development companies saw the boom for games developed for iPhone and leading consoles and gaming platforms. To cope with the increase in demand for game development and game development services, local companies are expanding and hiring more employees. There are now more than 30 game development and game development services companies in the Philippines, employing more than 600 full-time employees, mostly programmers and artists.

The Philippines has become a favorite outsourcing hub of most game publishers owing to its significantly lower production cost compared to US and Japan. Most game development projects outsourced in the country are end-to-end game development projects, concept art design, character generation and design, in-game animation, game testing and quality control, and game community support. Local companies are also looking forward to an increase in demand for development of virtual worlds, social networking functionality, and massive multiplayer games.