Game industry targets US$1 billion in revenue

With this figure, Vietnam became the top game market in ASEAN, which is the sixth biggest market in Asia.

Le Hong Minh, CEO of VNG Corporation was quoted as saying in Dau Tu (Investment Review) that he believed strongly that the domestic game industry would reach US$1 billion before 2027, thanks to young talents like Nguyen Ha Dong, who created the international sensation Flappy Bird several years ago.

He added that Vietnamese game studios had designed many games that meet international standards.

Even so, the game market is still dominated by foreign games.

Minh said that turnover earned by Vietnamese game studios this year could be up to US$40 million, and up to US$80 million if including other places like the AppStore.

The figures show that most of the turnover in the country has been earned from foreign games.

The domestic game industry has lagged behind many years as it started later than in other countries, such as the US, China and the Republic of Korea.

Last year, Vietnamese games were not listed among the top 10 online games in the country.

To reach the target of US$1 billion in annual revenue within 10 years, Minh suggested that the industry head to the international market and not just focus on the domestic scene.

Minh said that his company’s game studios had developed wells thanks to this strategy.

He said the company stopped developing games for PCs and began developing online games beginning in 2013.

This decision was made at the time when the studio was earning VND160 billion (US$7 million) per year from PC games.

Minh said that last year the company made decision of targeting foreign markets.

He said that Vietnamese studios should design more games that meet international standards and develop world-class studios if they want the industry to earn an annual US$1 billion by 2027.

Positive signs

The trend of making international games in Vietnam took off after the famous Flappy Bird by Nguyen Ha Dong gained international success, according to a report in Dau Tu.

In March, a game called Sky Garden: Farm in Paradise, a Vietnamese game for mobile phones, was honoured at the 13th IMGA Global Awards for mobile games held in the US.

The game also won the People’s Choice Award, with over 7,000 voters.

In 2016, three games developed by Pine Entertainment were listed among the top 50 games in US app stores.

Politaire last year was selected by Apple as one of 10 games having the best name.

In March, VTC Mobile launched Au Mobile in Indonesia, following First Blood, which was also launched in Indonesia.

Dao Quang Tuan, Director of Entertainment and Sport at VTC Mobile, said that Indonesia was a market with high potential in ASEAN, attracting many pioneers in the field.

VTC Mobile has shown that the gold mine that games represent is wide open to Vietnamese companies. They just need to become more active and invest in foreign markets to take advantage of the opportunities.