Making Gaming Accessible in the Philippines

The Philippines is a developing country that has always had problems keeping up with the gaming industry. Due to the inaccessibility of video games and technology in the country, gamers had to find ways to overcome this yet can mostly only find the bare minimum to solve it.

To completely understand this problem and assess the future of Filipino gaming requires a look into its history. Let us start with a brief but thorough rundown of gaming in the Philippines.

Filipino Gaming from the 2000s to the Present

The history of gaming in the Philippines has always been bound in turmoil, the enjoyment and progress held back by outdated technology, inaccessible resources, and upscaled prices.

In the early 2000s, the emergence of Dota, Counter-Strike: Source, and Ragnarok Online ushered the era of gaming in the Philippines and reigned over it until the end of the decade.

The outdated dial-up internet where Filipino gamers had to buy pre-paid cards and the inability to use telephones in households paved the way for the popularity of internet cafés, or computer shops as they call them in the Philippines.

Came along are Filipinos spiraling down into the abyss of gaming addiction, as well as the mass-production and importing of low to middle-of-the-pack computer tech in the Philippines.

A few years pass by, and a new decade comes. The 2010s had the Philippines scrambling for knowledge on wi-fi and better computer technology.

Gamers and internet cafés owners had to catch up with video games that demanded more from their computers, in which the Philippines lagged in both production and performance.

Another decade has come and the 2020s have left the Philippines at a great divide. Video games available to everyone such as Dota 2, League of Legends, and Valorant are present.

However, access to better and more affordable games and gaming tech has yet to come. At least, not until now.

With the introduction of Xbox Game Pass, the Philippines has found a way to get over most, if not all, of the barriers to gaming.

Gaming Subscription Services in the Philippines

This past April, Microsoft recently made available Xbox Game Pass in various Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines. With this, another entertainment subscription service is available to Filipinos. 

Yet how do entertainment subscription services fare in the Philippines?

Aside from Netflix, video game subscriptions such as EA Play, Prime Gaming, and Netflix’s Mobile Gaming are rarely used in the Philippines.

So why is Netflix’s streaming service popular in the Philippines, and not gaming services? We can look at this through two lenses which are practicality, and pricing.

Netflix

The main service provided by Netflix is their exclusive shows that can be watched on almost any device. The only criticism that can hold against Netflix is their “hidden” mobile gaming service that almost sees no light of day.

According to reports by various gaming news sites like Kotaku and The Verge, app tracking group Apptopia has discovered that less than 1% of Netflix subscribers use their mobile gaming services.

Even if we cut it some slack knowing that 1% of the 221 million subscribers of Netflix is 2 million and it was released late in 2021, we have to divide this among the numerous countries that have Netflix.

The Philippines is one of them, and despite being a hub for mobile gaming, Netflix has a long way to go before it beats mainstream mobile games in the country. As it stands now, Filipinos are more enticed with Mobile Legends and League of Legends: Wildrift than any other mobile game.

However, Amir Satvat views this differently. Amazon Games’ Principal Publishing Producer sees the future of Netflix’s mobile gaming service as a developing enterprise that needs some time to build success and expand its services. In this light, things may not be so bad with Netflix’s gaming subscription service.

On the topic of pricing, Netflix’s basic plan of Php 369 per month can still be considered expensive in the Philippines with the average salary being Php 15,000 and the average cost of living being Php 28,000 in city areas.

However, Filipinos find the pricing worthwhile due to the practicality of its streaming service being available on almost any device.

EA Play and Prime Gaming

Now let us look at EA Play and Prime Gaming. Their pricing may be considered cheap with the benefits considered, EA Play is Php 250 on Steam per month and Prime Gaming is $5.99 or roughly Php 333 per month, but they are still mostly impractical.

Most games in EA Play are triple-A games that require powerful computers, and not every Filipino has one. Rewards from Prime Gaming are usually for games that are not popular in the Philippines or are ones that also require high-end PCs.

These are why mobile games and mainstream low-end PC-friendly games such as Mobile Legends, League of Legends, Valorant, and Dota 2 are more than enough for the average Filipino gamer.

Nintendo Switch Online

The Nintendo Switch was released internationally in 2017 with a free online service for multiplayer called Nintendo Switch Online. However, the free online service became a paid subscription service in 2018.

While the subscription service provides access to the multiplayer mode for your Nintendo Switch games and hundreds of NES games at a cheap price of $3.99 or Php 222, the online store is not directly available in the Philippines and the handheld console is expensive.

Nintendo Switch owners in the Philippines will have to set their accounts to another region to access the online shop.

Along with this is the fact that the pricing of video games is not adjusted for the Philippines. For example, the US store puts on the price for Pokémon Legends: Arceus and Stardew Valley at USD 59.99 and USD 14.99 which is around Php 3350 and Php Php 835.

The Nintendo Switch, itself, is expensive. The handheld console roughly costs around 15000 Php to 25000 Php in the Philippines, which is about the same as the average salary of a Filipino in one or two months.

In short, the subscription service may be affordable but the console and video games online are not.

Playstation Plus

One of the last subscription services Filipinos can get is Playstation Plus. 

Just like Nintendo Switch Online, the Playstation Network and Playstation Service are not directly available in the Philippines but Filipino gamers have also found a way to get around this.

By inputting a different country or region like Singapore or Hongkong and then buying subscription codes online or in local retail stores, Filipino gamers can access and play video games on their Playstation devices like the Yakuza series, Dead by Daylight, and Ghost Recon Wildlands.

However, these digital codes can be bought for around 1000 Php to 3000 Php from international online web stores like Amazon, and eBay, or local Philippine web stores like Datablitz, and Game One.

Aside from its limitation as a console game subscription, it is also the most expensive and complicated of all the game subscriptions on the list.

Xbox Game Pass might suffer the same fate as EA Play, Prime Gaming, Playstation Now, Switch Online, and Netflix’s gaming service if not for its highly cheap pricing and the wider array of video games offered.

Overcoming Barriers with Xbox Game Pass

Xbox Game Pass is a subscription service that allows gamers to play over a hundred video games in the market, including newly released ones and games in the EA Play subscription service.

Video games in their catalog are also more accessible and friendly to low-end computers in the Philippines such as Age of Empires, Dead Cells, Fallout: New Vegas, Skyrim, and Minecraft.

Aside from the number of available and accessible games, Xbox Game Pass for PC, or PC Game Pass, is also the most inexpensive of all the current gaming subscription services with Php 49 for the first month and Php 119 for the subsequent months.

A feature currently in Beta testing is also present in Xbox Game Pass where some games in the EA Play service can also be accessed in the game catalog. 

PC Game Pass currently has the most potential out of all the gaming subscription services in the Philippines right now. It is the cheapest and most practical for PC gamers, with every Filipino from the outlying islands of the country to the city areas able to enjoy its service.

The only possible complaint? Not enough mobile games, but this is not a make-or-break for PC Game Pass as it might not be practical like Netflix’s mobile gaming services.

If PC Game Pass does not boom early, then Satvat’s analysis of Netflix’s gaming subscription service might be right. It may be in the natural course of things for some gaming subscription services to need time before they become popular.