Vietnam is currently a bright spot on the mobile game map and the trend of profitable gaming in the world. In 2021, Vietnam will emerge with blockchain application games, NFT games and a series of titles released by Vietnamese with a market capitalization of billions of dollars.
Vietnam currently has 430,000 game developers. One out of every 25 games downloaded globally is made in Vietnam
According to the Ministry of Information and Communications, Vietnam’s game industry revenue is estimated to reach VND 14,500 billion in 2021, up 11% from 2020.
Although mobile game revenue in Vietnam ranked third in revenue at $507 million from 54.6 million players in 2022, it remains far behind Thailand with revenue of $763 million and 38.3 million players. This gap is expected to continue until 2025, with Vietnam competing on fraudulent rates for total gaming revenue in Southeast Asia.
Vietnam’s rapid growth is propelling it into the international gaming market, but the Vietnamese mobile game market still has limitations and shortcomings. What opportunities and challenges do domestic and international game developers face in this market?
Opportunities and challenges
Opportunities come from core values
- Vietnamese programmers possess excellent capabilities, programming expertise, and a strong work ethic. Vietnamese programmers can even make their own products from A to Z, so game start-ups in Vietnam are very convenient to develop. Just need a group of 2-3 people, have ideas and connect the investment to be able to develop a game.
- Good and affordable internet infrastructure, along with its large smartphone population, offers vast potential for growth in the game industry for both publishers and developers.
- As a new field, the game industry can become a spearhead in the digital economy, facilitating development of domestic games.
- Some domestic game publishers support policies and licenses if foreign games want to be imported into Vietnam.
However, the mobile game industry in Vietnam faces several challenges, with the most significant being the lack of unity among businesses . Some other challenges include:
- A special consumption tax is expected to be introduced into online games, but the inadequate management policy creates difficulties for domestic and international game publishers..
- State policy has not kept pace with the development of web 3.0 games,…so many domestic game publishers have to expand abroad first, causing brain drain in the Vietnamese game industry.
- The mechanisms of licensing or policies to support foreign games are currently not prioritized by the state.
Despite the challenges, authorities and leaders are currently taking action to address bottlenecks in the Vietnamese game industry. One example is the establishment of the Vietnam Game Alliance, which involves 40 companies and is under the direction of the Ministry of Information and Communications as of June 2022. The focus is on licensing and taxing emerging games to penetrate the Vietnamese market, as well as connecting with payment intermediaries to block payment for pirated games.
It is anticipated that the game industry in Vietnam will continue to grow rapidly in the coming years, providing a fertile ground for both Vietnamese and international game publishers.
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