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Business
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2016 Ray S. Eñano, Editor / Roderick dela Cruz, Issue Editor business@thestandard.com.ph
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ENTERS LADY CEO WORLD OF VIDEO GAMES
PRINTER INSTALLS SOLAR ROOFTOP THE Rex Group of Companies tapped Greenheat Corp. to build a 178.5-kWp solar rooftop at its office in Quezon City, becoming the first publishing house in the Philippines to go solar. Greenheat, a solar solutions provider, installed the 595-photovoltaic module solar power plant that can generate up to 216,036 kilowatt-hours in its first year of operation, displacing Rex’s power consumption by 20 percent.
LADY CEO Synergy 88 managing director and co-founder Jackeline Chua
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Filipino company led by a lady executive has created three-dimensional art assets for bigbudget video game ‘Gears of War 4,’ which was launched globally on Oct. 11.
“We are proud of our artists who were part of that development,” says Jackeline Chua, the managing director and co-founder of Synergy 88, an IT conglomerate that employs 200 Filipino professionals. Gears of War 4, which was reportedly produced at a cost of over $100 million, is the fourth main installment in the Gears of War series, developed by The Coalition and published by Microsoft Studios for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One. The Coalition, a Canadian video game developer and a subsidiary of Microsoft Studios, selected Synergy 88 Digital Inc., one of the companies under Synergy 88, as a development partner to create 3D art assets. Synergy 88 Digital thus became the first Microsoft-certified studio in the Philippines for game art outsourcing. By being part of an elite game development team, Synergy 88 Digital joins the ranks of premiere 3D game art providers in the world. Initial reviews are positive about the new weapons, the active game play and smooth movement of the characters. Early beta testers describe Gears of War 4 to be a natural evolution of the popular series. “The budget for this one is more than a Hollywood production,” Chua says of Gears of War 4. Synergy 88 Digital is one of the companies under Synergy 88 Group
headed by Chua, who hones and taps Filipino talent to render 3D animation, cutting-edge visuals and virtual reality designs for foreign and local companies. “We are a technology and creative company. We produce cutting-edge gaming visual effects and animation. We try to come up with a lot of new ideas,” Chua says in a news briefing in Makati City. Chua says a team of six Filipinos worked for about 20 months for the art assets of Gears of War 4. “It is a milestone [for the Philippine game development industry] because it [Gears of War] is one of the biggest titles in the world,” she says. “We have heard about Pinoys being involved in Pixar and Disney. This is the equivalent of that. The game industry, as far as I know, is greater than the animation,” says Chua, a corporate manager, entrepreneur and visionary. Synergy 88 Digital is the same company behind Filipino-made mobile game apps ‘Catch the Guava’ and ‘Barangay Basketball.’ Catch the Guava, a game developed for GMA Network, had more than a million installs and was featured seven times on Google Play. Synergy 88 Digital also did outsourced services for ‘The Witcher Wild Hunt,’ which won the Best Video Game of the Year twice in a row. “All its arts assets were made here and were integrated in the game,” says
Chua, who obtained degrees in political science and marketing management from the De La Salle University. Board of Investments director for international investments promotion service Angelica Cayas says game design and development is the next evolution of the country’s blooming BPO industry.
The impending success of the game is icing on the cake. Our partnership with The Coalition gives us the confidence that we can compete with the world’s best in our area of expertise. “With the steady growth of the economy, and the continued public and private support, we are confident that the industry will remain on its positive growth path in the years ahead,” Cayas says. The Coalition, the Vancouverbased game studio, says it is pleased with the quality of work produced by Synergy 88 Digital. “I would like to thank Synergy88 Digital for their contribution in making the environments of Gears of War 4 come to life. Their quality was world class and they delivered when we needed them to. We look forward to collaborating with them on future projects,” says The Coalition director
of production Walter de Torres. Alvin Juban, president of Game Developers Association of the Philippines, says: “There has been no greater honor and pleasure than serving with the Coalition. The mentorship, work style and communication practice, the entire experience from qualification to execution was beyond all our expectations.” Chua says Synergy 88 Digital invested in hardware and software, particularly in human resources to make this possible. “Two years ago, this partnership was just a gleam in the horizon. Since then we’ve consistently and continuously grew our capabilities, our facilities, and our people because we foresee bigger, more resource-driven engagements with our partners.” “When The Coalition with the Gears of War 4 project came along, we knew for sure that we were on the right track all along. The impending success of the game is icing on the cake. Our partnership with The Coalition gives us the confidence that we can compete with the world’s best in our area of expertise,” she says. Chua says being involved in Gears of War 4 is expected to draw the attention of global foreign studios to the rich talent available in the Philippines. “If they can see in the credit that it is a Pinoy studio, then the other producers of video games will also tap our talents, so they will be able to create more jobs. People will discover that Filipinos are very good in creative products,” says Chua. Roderick T. dela Cruz
Greenheat, which installed the solar rooftop in 155 days, said Rex’s solar energy initiative would reduces carbon emission by 108 metric tons a year. It is like having 1,080 adult trees planted within its vicinity, it said. “We cannot reduce the impact of climate change without transforming global energy systems, but today, we have the unique opportunity to transform not only our company but society as well,” said Rex Printing chief operating officer Don Timothy Buhain. The solar power plant is a part of Rex’s energy conservation and efficiency program that institutionalizes the practice of saving energy using available technologies. “As a company whose core business is to produce books and with paper as its raw material, the solar power plant is definitely a worthwhile project,” said Rex Group chairman and president Dominador Buhain. Manufacturing companies have the most to gain from going solar because of the nature of their business, according to Greenheat director Glenn Tong. “Your operations never stop and you have a constant power usage, so by being the pioneer in using this system, Rex is showing that this is the way of the future for the country,” said Tong.
HANS SY ENDORSES NEW BUSINESS MODEL SM Prime Holdings Inc. president Hans Sy has renewed his commitment to incorporate disaster resiliency into business models in accordance with the call of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. Sy made the commitment during the UNISDR Private Sector Alliance for Disaster Resilience Societies meeting in Washington DC held recently. Sy is the only Filipino international board member of the UNISDR Private Sector Alliance which is also called Arise. SM Prime is the secretariat of Arise Philippines. “Our commitment to disaster resiliency has always been at the core of our business and we will further find ways to innovate in order to make business more responsive to the needs and demand of our times,” Sy said. UNISDR has called on business leaders to make the risks posed by natural and man-made hazards
to be put front and center in investment choices in order to curb disaster-related economic damage around the globe. Taking note of the frequency and intensity of weather hazards such as super typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) and more recently, Hurricane Matthew, as a result of climate change, the UNISDR said disaster risk reduction should be the topmost consideration in all business decisions because of the costly consequences of disasters. More than 100 private sector representatives from different industries such as construction, insurance, retail, tourism, consulting and technology attended the meeting which was aimed at reviewing ongoing projects to build resilience and identify gaps to reach the global goals set out in the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. The Sendai Framework, a 15-year plan to curb
disaster deaths, the number of affected people and the scale of economic losses, was adopted by the international community in March 2015 which is also linked tightly to the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change. SM Prime has been spearheading disaster resiliency and management in the private sector through the annual Top Leaders Forum which brings together the UNISDR, government officials and business leaders to discuss best practices in DRRM and how to adopt them in their business operations and bring them to the communities where they operate. Sy vowed to continue to do DRR to energize the private sector for a resilient Philippines. “Rest assured, we will continue to do this. Disaster resilience is not only the private nor public sector’s concern; it is everybody’s business,” Sy said.
From left: Hans Sy of SM Prime Holdings Inc., US Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate and Sandra Wu of Kokusai Kogyo.