How New Game Studios in the Philippines Manage Revenue Across Global Platforms

Through the years, game development has experienced mild but steady growth in the Philippine market, marking a period of high-value transformation for game studios in the country. With the rise of a generation that’s tech-savvy and values social connectivity in the online context, the demand for interactive video games has increased, with a 2.6 billion USD revenue forecast for the Philippines’ game industry by 2027.

But as opportunities grow, so do challenges: how do game studios make money, manage international income, and handle cross border payments efficiently? This guide breaks it all down.

Growth of game development in the Philippines

The Philippine gaming industry is growing rapidly, driven by digital adoption and a new generation of players. This growth is closely tied to the following factors.

Gaming influencers and their impact on game studio revenue

Gaming influencers now occupy a large space of the World Wide Web, creating their own economy in the process. This includes local influencers who popularized anime and video games in the early 2000s, to influencers who continue to flourish the culture of video games via online streaming today. They play a key role in mobile game monetization and user acquisition, often driving millions of downloads through streaming platforms and social media. This helps shape video games into an intercultural, interactive media format as we know it.

Small to mid-tier streamers are able to make anywhere from 50 USD to 1,500 USD per month because of built-in subscription systems and online gift equivalents. On the other hand, the most well-known game streamers today are able to earn 100,000 to 200,000 USD monthly, according to a report by StreamYard.

The multiplayer FPS-Battle Royale game Apex Legends amassed 1,000,000 downloads within the first month of its launch in 2019. A great part of its success is credited to game streamers, with the live game streaming market expected to reach 16.56 billion USD this year. With ads, subscriptions, and gifts being incorporated in the streaming process, game streamers effectively become influential marketers, funneling active engagement and revenue into the gaming industry from multiple directions. 

Macroeconomic factors

The country’s continued GDP growth, and increased disposable income across multiple tax brackets, fuel higher consumer spend on digital entertainment. While “digital entertainment” is a large umbrella term that features other forms of media, such as movie and TV streaming services, the video games market is an integral part of this growth, being the largest-growing market in Philippine media so far.

As Philippine game studios expand globally, cross border payments become an important part of operations. Studios often receive payments from international publishers, platforms, and users in multiple currencies such as USD, EUR, and GBP. Without efficient systems, currency conversion fees and delays can significantly impact profitability.

Rise of the global-level indie and mid-sized game studios

We are currently seeing an increase in Philippines-established game studios, which intentionally cater to international clients, fueling the Philippines’ reputation as a strong source of quality work. This includes Leveret Group, a game studio that balances creative velocity and operational compliance, by ensuring that quality games are delivered to their international clients as efficiently as possible.

Animation Vertigo is also a PH-based studio that provides motion capture and animation services, building over 20 years of steady progress on triple-A games, film and TV, and commercials all over the world. This has made them a studio that has transformed from being a service provider to a global stakeholder.

Both of these studios are able to manage globally-sourced revenue through streamlined systems, automated tasks, and ensuring full regulatory compliance in every deal. As you scale your own game studio, it is important to manage global revenue streams efficiently, as it becomes a primary business imperative. This step can heavily define your ability to become a global player in the game development industry.

How do game studios make money?

Modern game studios rarely rely on a single income source. Your revenue never comes from one single investor, publisher, or paycheck. Your revenue stream is a fragmented collection of one or more of the inflows below. If you’re positioning your game for a global audience, this income will arrive to you in a myriad of currencies, which you will need to be equipped for.

Mobile and PC distribution platforms

There is a healthy variety of distribution platforms for your apps, depending on the type of video game market you are trying to capture. Each distributor and publisher will have different regulatory requirements, and it is important to keep your game studio in compliance with these regulations. As an example, Steam, a PC game distribution platform, typically pays developers via monthly bank transfers in USD. Payments are usually processed 30 days after the end of the sales period, and may include platform fees and currency conversion costs. This also includes fees that you are required to pay to publish your game on their platform. For Philippine developers, converting USD in PHP can impact final earnings due to fluctuating exchange rates and bank fees.

In-app purchases (IAP) and micro-transactions

In-app purchases are a core pillar of mobile game monetization, allowing studios to generate recurring revenue from active users. Your game itself can be a great source of revenue, if micro-transactions are embedded in the structure of your game. For your game studio to pass auditing standards, you’ll also need to be able to manage a potentially high-frequency inflow of these in-app purchases.

In-game advertising networks

One way to generate revenue through your game is by integrating AdMob into your game, allowing your game to display ads that are relevant to each player. Specifically, for the deployment of ads in Unity-based games, Android will require API level 23 or higher, and iOS will require an iOS deployment target of at least 13.0, so make sure that you’re using the latest possible version of Unity Editor.

Game studio revenue management challenges

As the founder of your game studio, you’ll need to spend your time fixing workflows and systems to ensure that you can deliver milestones, in the quality you expect. As revenue streams grow, managing income becomes increasingly complex. So, how do you manage income in a business like a game studio? It starts with understanding key financial challenges:

• Platform friction: Managing multiple currencies is an inevitable part of having multiple revenue streams.
• FX Volatility: Exchange rates can eat into your pre-calculated profit margins, affecting your overall revenue.
• Legacy Banking System Lags: Delays from traditional bank transfer processes can impact your ability to follow timelines with your publishers, and deadlines with your team.
• Visibility Issues: You may encounter difficulties taking note of real-time revenue as your income streams continue to grow in variety.
• Cash Flow Stability: All the aforementioned reasons above directly affects your ability to maintain steady liquidity, to continue business as usual in your game studio.

How game studios manage income and cross border payments efficiently

To effectively manage income in a global business, game studios must centralize their financial systems and streamline cross border payments.

Multi-currency accounts with platforms such as Payoneer will help you streamline your game studio’s finances with added ease.

• A single business account can help you consolidate all international and local revenue into one clean dashboard, allowing you to focus your time on operations instead.
• Speaking of operations, you can streamline operational efficiency and maintain visibility on all incoming and outgoing payments in real-time.
• With a multi-currency receiving account, you can accept payments in 10+ different currencies, as if you’d built your game studio right where your players are.
• With Batch Payments, you can streamline payments to your global talents and contractors wherever they are in the world.
• For more convenient access, you can withdraw funds directly to your local bank account, or e-wallets such as GoTyme.

Supporting the growth of Philippine game studios

Efficient global revenue management is now more accessible than ever, due to the many platforms that any key decision-maker can easily integrate into their workflows. It is, therefore, essential for game studios in the Philippines to explore these options, so that scaling globally is an achievable ambition and not a grand hurdle.

As you implement an efficient payment infrastructure into your game studio’s systems, founders like you can maintain a stable cash flow and shift your focus back into the development of your games, where your attention matters most.

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