A Chinese feel of network gaming is now in the country. That feel is offering expensive per-hour rates, coupled with coffee and meals.
This is what network-gaming firm TheNet.Com (TNC) Inc. wants to try out in the Philippine market with its latest business computer-use rental venture called High Ground TNC-Predator Café.
“What we want to do is to make High Grounds Café [HG] the high-end branch of TNC. So, when you say ‘High Grounds’, it’s the high-end of TNC, composed of full restaurant and coffee,” CEO and President of TNC Eric M. Redulfin told the BusinessMirror at the sidelines of HG TNC-Predator Café’s soft launch in early February.
According to documents provided by Redulfin, HG TNC-Predator Café is a partnership between TNC, the biggest network cafe in the Philippines with more than 100 branches nationwide; and Taiwanese firm Acer Inc. The latter allowed the use of the “Predator” brand of its latest line of gaming laptops, desktops, tablets and other devices.
Redulfin said the partnership involved the supply of 110 units of Acer’s high-end Predator desktops—100 units of Predator G3 and 10 units of Predator G1—for the 1,500-square-meter-wide i-Café at a “discounted price”.
“This was a win-win situation for both parties. HG became the showroom of Predator while, at the same time, we were given a good price for the computers,” Redulfin said, without disclosing how much the “discount” was.
According to Redulfin, at prevailing market price, a complete set of Predator G1 desktop would cost at around P180,000, while a package of Predator G3 units is estimated at around P120,000. A unit of a Predator G1 desktop central processing unit (CPU) alone costs around P70,000, while a Predator G3 CPU is pegged at P60,000. On the other hand, the gaming monitor—2a 24-inch full-HD Predator XB241H—costs around P30,000.
The Predator G1 is powered by Intel Corp.’s Core i7 6700 processor (8M cache, up to 4.00 Gigahertz) partnered with a 32-Gigabyte (Gb) DDR4 (double data rate fourth-generation) 2133-megahertz memory. The unit has a combined storage drive of 3-terrabyte, 3.5-inch 7200RPM (revolution per minute) and 256-Gb M.2 22280 Solid State Drive (SSD). To top the unit’s overwhelming specs, its graphics processing unit is invigorated by Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 8GB DDR5 graphics card.
Meanwhile, the Predator G3 is powered by the same processor, only with a little bit lesser memory, storage space and graphics card. Predator G3 is comprised of 16GB DDR4 2133-MHz memory, 2TB 3.5-inch and 128GB SSD and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 3GB GDDR5 graphics card.
“This is the first branded iCafé not only in the Philippines but in Southeast Asia,” Redulfin said. “All units are comprised of i-gaming monitors and other paraphernalia.”
Clark Gurden, so-called Predator brand ambassador, said they partnered with TNC, because “we saw a great opportunity” with the company that would result in a favorable outcome for both companies.
“Working with TNC, you know you are working with someone like Eric that would form a strong business relationship,” Gurden, who flew to Manila from Taiwan for the soft launching of HG TNC-Predator Café, told the BusinessMirror. “It’s going to benefit both groups.”
“And the eSports community in the Philippines is growing. Predator wants to be part of that growing industry, and also to be part of the daily life of gaming in the Philippines,” Gurden added.
Innovation
STILL, HG TNC-Predator Café is not just made of beastly computer machines.
The HG TNC-Predator Café is a two-floor building with a glass façade smacked in the middle of the food-and-beverage district of Tomas Morato. The Internet café offers full dining and gaming experience.
The ground-floor area hosts the café and restaurant bar with a dining area and lounge. Around 70 computer units could be found in the middle of the ground floor in an octopus-like table setup. The tournament stage with 10 booths of Predator G1 units is also in the middle the coffee shop.
The second floor holds the remaining 40 Predator G3 computer units, with a balcony overlooking the first floor of gaming area.
“We chose this [Tomas Morato] area, because this is the center of ‘gimmicks’ and businesses. HG cannot be put within the vicinity of universities, because our target market for this one is not really students,” Redulfin said. “If there would be student customers [at all], they would be the ones capable of paying not only the hourly rates but what they get in total.”
With the overwhelming computer units and unusual amenities come the higher-than-usual per-hour rate. HG TNC-Predator Café’s hourly rate is fixed at P100, with the computers on the stage priced at P150 per-hour use. Only those who availed themselves of the membership subscription of HG TNC-Predator Café could rent the computers on the stage platform. Based on its hourly rate, HG TNC-Predator Café deviates from the usual P15- to P30-per-hour rate and four-hour to 10-hour gaming promos offered by standard computer shops in the country.
This is what is happening in China. This is what business café owners in China are experiencing. What’s happening in the Philippine i-Café industry is that a lot of Internet cafés are being established and hourly rates are being dragged down, Redulfin said. That was the problem of China before, which they (i-Café operators in China) corrected through this concept of (high-end) i-Cafés.
Redulfin noted that, with the current business model of computer shops, the return of investment takes long due to logistical problems and technical concerns. “You’re at losing end if you are always upgrading your computer units. So, it makes it unprofitable,” Redulfin said.
“I, myself, went to China and saw that most of i-Cafes there are big and at the high-end level, and they are the ones that are surviving,” Redulfin added. The (i-Cafés surviving are the) ones with coffee shop and restaurant and offer costly hourly rates.
He disclosed around P35 million to P40 million was spent to put up the HG TNC-Predator Café.
Redulfin is confident and aggressive with his latest business venture in the growing network-gaming industry in the country.
“The target here is a two-year ROI [return of investment],” Redulfin said. “Within two months this should be full of gamers already [on] a daily basis. Meaning, by April, there should be 100 or so Filipino gamers using the units,” Redulfin added.
Redulfin admitted that given with the setup and luxury of HG TNC-Predator Café, their target market is really focused on the Class A and Class B market segment. And if the HGC-type of network gaming would be marketable to Filipino gamers, Redulfin argued: just take a look at the automotive industry.
“It’s just like buying a car. Why are there people buying Jaguar, BMW [brands of vehicles]?” Redulfin said “That’s the same with network-gaming industry. It’s impossible that no one will [buy] it.”
He cited the location of the HG TNC-Predator Café as example.
“Within the 1-kilometer radius, its impossible that we cannot get a market of people who are willing to pay for a great ambiance. What you are paying here is the ambiance and the specs of computers that are not available in an ordinary computer shop,” Redulfin added. If you want to experience the feeling of competing at the international level, go to HG (TNC-Predator Café).
Beyond café and computers
THE HG TNC-Predator Café is not just a café-plus-computer shop.
According to Redulfin, he wants it to be one of the next hubs of the gaming and information-technology (IT) industry. “We plan to hold tournaments here and not just gaming tournaments, but also host product launching and events of IT companies,” Redulfin said. “A lot of IT companies have already expressed interests to hold events here by March.”
One of their plans, Redulfin said, is hosting fan-focused events. He said he give Filipino gamers the chance to play alongside the country’s top-caliber e-sports players.
“Our plan here is like play with Kuku [a famous Filipino Dota-2 player]. We also want to make this as a viewing party venue,” Redulfin said. He cited as example making the i-Café into a viewing party venue for the TNC Pro Teams match in China on February 28.
For the restaurant, Redulfin said they would use “paperless technology” in taking and queuing orders of customers. He added waiters would take orders for food and beverage using a handheld device.
“True, we designed HG more for gamers,” according to Redulfin. He added, however, “family bonding” was also considered.
Redulfin said they plan to hold LAN (local area network) parties, wherein parents could dine while they wait for their children who are playing.
“It’s a chance for bonding. Instead of preventing your child to play, why not join them?”
eSports industry
FOR Irymarc Gutierrez, executive director of the Philippine eSports Organization, the HG TNC-Predator Café venture is a testament to the growing eSports industry in the country.
“I think this is a great opportunity for gaming. There’s someone who invested to test if there’s really a high-end eSports market,” Gutierrez told the BusinessMirror at the sidelines of the i-cafés soft launch. If you think about it, almost all gaming cafés in the country at present offer cheap hourly rates.
Gutierrez, who is also a longtime eSports events organizer, said the series of big events being hosted in the Philippines is neither a proof of the real eSports market landscape nor the buying power of Filipino gamers.
“You will really see the buying power of Filipino gamers with this one [Refulfins i-Café, since] this is an everyday consumption,” Gutierrez said. “You will see here, based on consumption, the behavior of Filipino gamers, whether there are really rich hard-core gamers.”
He added that should the HG TNC-Predator Café achieves its goal of filling all its units on a daily basis, it would be a sign of “camaraderie” within the Filipino gaming community.
“If this will be filled on a regular basis, we can finally see and say Filipinos love to interact through games, and they don’t mind about the price they pay.”
Gutierrez noted HG TNC-Predator Café could be the “go-to” venue for eSports and gaming-related events due to its ideal concept and establishment.
“As an events organizer and being in eSports for a long time, the biggest barrier in holding an eSports event is venue. How will you book the venue? How much would it cost? You’ll rent computers, you’ll tap service providers for Internet and other logistics concerns,” Gutierrez explained.
He said with Redulfin’s i-café, organizers’ concerns and costs are removed.
“You’ll just pay them [TNC] a certain amount, and you’re ready to go, [as] everything is here already,” Gutierrez said. “You just have to bring the people.”
Home of champions
THE i-cafés laurels rest on the TNC Pro Team. And these are big laurels, as the team took home the championship trophy in the game DotA (Defense of the Ancients) 2 at the grand finale of the 2016 World Electronic Sports Games (WESG) held from January 12 to 15.
Alisports (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. said in a statement on February 17 Filipino player “Staz” and South Korean player “TY” earned the championship titles for Hearth Stone and StarCraft II, respectively.
After four days of battles, the Philippine team bested players from 35 other countries.
Alisports said the TNC Pro Team shared the $5.5-million prize money with the French team EnVyUs, which won the last and much-celebrated game CS:GO (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive).
“Backed by more than $14.6-million investment from Alisports, the WESG has sent a shock wave through the eSports industry since its launch in March 2016, not only due to the size of the investment, but also as a result of its innovative worldwide open audition and promotion mechanism and the ‘Spirit of Sport’ that is based on fairness,” Alisports’s statement read.
The company added that other than the World Cyber Games, it considers the WESG as the first eSports competition to select players and hold competitions worldwide, “opening a new chapter for the industry.”
The final competition drew 6,000 spectators.
Rare experience
FOR 27-year-old working student Andrew Lacsina, queuing for almost an hour is fine.
Lacsina was one of nearly a hundred young people who waited outside the HG TNC-Predator Café on February 8.
“I just want to see for myself the top line of the gaming computers today,” Lacsina told the BusinessMirror. “As a gamer and consumer it’s rare for me to experience such.”
Lacsina, who is gunning for a master’s degree in Sociology at a state-run university, said he spends around P300 every weekend—usually on Saturdays—for five to six hours of gaming at a TNC computer rental store branch in Lagro, Quezon City.
“I want to go back here in HG, because I want to test the computer units,” Lacsina said. “The Internet [connection] speed seems so fast.”
After touring the café, Lacsina considered Redulfin’s establishment really a different type of computer shop.
“It’s spacious [and] the gaming gears are great. Maybe I’ll go back during pay days or when there’re no more bills to settle.”
Image credits: Photos courtesy TheNet.Com (TNC) Inc.
1 comment
You haven’t addressed KuKu properly…
Currently one of the few people that can go 1 on 1 with Miracle…
He is like Terrence being able to play against and beating a Kyrie Erving…>.< LuLz…