Xsolla, a global video game commerce company, is working to help Philippine independent game developers move beyond the domestic market and build studios that can compete worldwide, as interest in game development continues to grow in the country.

Founded in 2005, Xsolla supplies developers worldwide with commerce infrastructure — payments, storefronts and launcher tools — that handles the business side of selling games across platforms.

Eric M. Lee, Xsolla's head of partnerships for the Asia Pacific, said the Philippines already has the creativity, technical skills and talent needed to develop games. The bigger challenge, he said, is turning these capabilities into original intellectual property (IP) that can be published directly by Philippine studios.

"The biggest hurdle has always been turning that creativity, development and the result into their own IP, meaning their own games published directly out of Philippine studios," Mr. Lee said in an online interview with BusinessWorld.

That gap between capability and homegrown IP is a familiar feature of the local scene: the Philippines has hosted game-development work for years, though much of it has involved outsourced art and services for foreign studios rather than original titles published by local companies.

He noted that the situation has been gradually improving as the broader gaming ecosystem develops, including through partnerships with global companies, industry associations and government agencies.

Game developers are also increasingly working with global companies to strengthen the business side of development, particularly monetization.

"Game developers are now finally working together with a global company like us to help monetize their games. That's a critical step after publishing your game to monetize better so they can earn better, build their business better, get more users and publish more games in the future," Mr. Lee said.

Xsolla is working to give Filipino developers more exposure through its launcher programs.

"We're going to be helping all these indie games, as we call it, or student games, to be exposed or be launched," Mr. Lee said.

The company is also working with the Game Developers Association of the Philippines (GDAP), the industry body representing local game developers, on another launcher program focused on commercial, non-student and more established games.

Mr. Lee said the programs are intended to support the broader ecosystem rather than just individual studios.

"They're also going to be launched in the same way. So, it's the start of a helping cycle where we're not focused on helping just a single game studio, but more helping the ecosystem find a better way to be exposed outside of the Philippines through our international expertise," he said.

Xsolla has seen strong interest among Philippine indie developers, which Mr. Lee considers a potential advantage for the country.

"We have finally understood that the game creations and the urge to create and publish these games from indie game developers are bigger in the Philippines compared to other Southeast Asian countries," Mr. Lee said.

Southeast Asia is itself among the world's fastest-growing games markets, with hundreds of millions of players and mobile as the dominant platform, giving regional developers a large home audience even as they pursue sales abroad.

He added that the Philippine indie sector could be comparable to, or potentially larger than, those of more established gaming markets such as South Korea and Japan.

The next challenge, he said, is helping these independent studios scale into larger companies capable of producing globally competitive titles.

"The hurdle, if I may add, is how can we turn those or expand those indie games into AAA studios that can boast and become the forerunner of the Philippines," Mr. Lee said.

South Korea's industry is anchored by large publishers such as Nexon, NCSoft and Krafton — the scale of studio Mr. Lee points to when he talks about Philippine developers growing beyond indie status.

This growth cannot depend solely on the domestic market, he said.

"It has to be a global market," Mr. Lee said, adding that global reach is still not as well understood in the Philippine market compared with other countries.

"That's where Xsolla would love to step in and help them to become a global market-reaching forerunner instead of a domestic indie game that they are at the moment," he said.

Mr. Lee said the economic potential of game exports also deserves greater attention. He noted that the Philippine gaming sector remains relatively small compared with traditional exports such as furniture and handmade products, but said games could eventually become a significant source of export revenue.

Citing South Korea as an example, Mr. Lee said the country's gaming industry generates substantial global revenue.

"I can say for Korea, I'm located in Korea, by the way, aside from all the K-drama, K-pop music and K-food or whatever you consider, all of that combined does not overcome the K-game revenue, global revenue," he said.

For emerging studios, Mr. Lee said access to financial assistance, industry networks and exposure can be critical to moving from development to commercialization.

"I think that's a very critical and essential step for emerging studios to get monetary help or other indirect help to get their game exposed, just like how we are trying to do that as well," Mr. Lee said.

On July 24, Xsolla also partnered with the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and GDAP under a three-way memorandum of understanding. The DTI, the government agency responsible for trade and industry promotion, has been backing creative industries as part of a broader state push formalized in the Philippine Creative Industries Development Act of 2022. Under the arrangement, Xsolla provides its global launcher and initiatives, GDAP connects the program with local studios and developers, while the DTI provides budget support for domestic studios.

Mr. Lee said the initiative is designed to give Filipino developers another avenue to launch their games and connect with the international market.

The concrete measures to watch from here are practical ones: which Philippine titles reach international storefronts through the launcher programs, and how many local studios move from development to published, monetized releases.

— Kaizzer Angela Marie V. Manuba