Vietnam game industry needs fundamental support to realize billion-dollar dream: experts

Vietnam GameVerse 2024, organized by the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, VnExpress, FPT Online, and Vietnam Game Alliance, opened on Saturday in Ho Chi Minh City.

The main event, Vietnam Game Forum, was themed "The billion-dollar journey of Vietnamese games," with nine presentations dissecting hot issues surrounding the development of the market, in addition to the story of a professional player and game publisher.

With engaging presentations, leading domestic and international speakers kept the auditorium filled with audiences for three hours.

The crowd was wowed when the experts from Google, Meta, Roblox... talked about the achievements as well as the potential of the Vietnamese game market.

Representatives of the organizers and game publishers cut the ribbon to open Vietnam GameVerse 2024 on May 11 in Ho Chi Minh City. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

Vietnam GameVerse's milestones after one year

Opening the Vietnam GameVerse 2024, Le Quang Tu Do, Director of the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI), Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), reviewed the important milestones of the Vietnam game industry from 2019.

According to him, Vietnam GameVerse 2023 has convinced the government not to introduce a special consumption tax into the gaming industry because it has proven that this is a potential industry that needs investment and development support.

"The government has agreed and assigned the Ministry of Information and Communications to research and propose tax-related incentives for the gaming industry."

Le Quang Tu Do, Director of the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, Ministry of Information and Communications. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

Last year, Vietnam had the first university major in game training, the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology.

Along with that, society's prejudices about the gaming industry have also been reduced a lot through media campaigns.

"We have gradually proven that games do not cause addiction but bring glory to the country at international competition. This is a billion-dollar industry; parents can guide their children to build startups, earn money, and have specific measures to limit the downside of the games," Do said.

The rise of Vietnamese games

One of the important highlights of Vietnam Gameverse 2024 is the appearance of experts from international corporations.

Zuy Nguyen, International Market Development Advisor, Games & Applications of Southeast Asia, Google Asia-Pacific, said that Vietnam is becoming one of the most vibrant game industries in the region.

Vietnamese games have 4.2 billion downloads globally, a growth rate 2.5 times higher than the world average.

A Google representative cited the example of the global phenomenon Flappy Bird by Nguyen Ha Dong to point out four factors that make the Vietnamese game industry special.

First, Vietnamese game publishers are all very young, willing to innovate and test many new models, and not afraid of difficulties. This is different from large markets, where leaders may have a lot of experience but can easily get into a rut and a rigid path.

Second, the Vietnamese government considers games to be an important export industry.

Third, the game publishing teams are willing to cooperate to bring Vietnam's entertainment game ecosystem to new heights.

Finally, there is the strong entrepreneurial spirit among Vietnamese people. Startups and game studios always learn, research, and grasp new world trends. Sky Mavis is a clear example of this trend.

Zuy Nguyen, International Market Development Advisor, Games & Applications of Southeast Asia, Google Asia-Pacific. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

Zhen Fang, Director of Roblox International Market, said that Vietnam is a bright star for the user-created game genre (UGC).

In addition to the number of potential, creative, and open young users, Vietnam also has an infrastructure ready to test technology to keep up with trends.

"Most importantly, the government policies give a lot of support to the association for cooperation and infrastructure expansion," she said.

Roblox's director also affirmed that Vietnam is currently one of the most potential markets in the region in terms of readiness, adaptability, and exploitation space.

However, international experts also point out the limitations of the Vietnamese gaming industry.

First, the quality of Vietnam's games and applications is still low. The game life cycle is short—only about 65% of the world average.

According to Google experts, relying too much on eCPM (making money through advertising), which accounts for about 10% of developers' revenue from in-app advertising, is also a minus point in the development of the Vietnamese gaming industry.

If these weaknesses are overcome, the domestic entertainment game ecosystem can grow strongly, increasing competitiveness on global playgrounds.

Billion-dollar goal

At the Vietnam Game Forum 2023, Do of the information ministry shared that the game industry's revenue goal in the next 5 years will increase to US$1 billion.

Reiterating this "dream," he said that the Vietnamese game journey is at the beginning but has passed the difficult period. "2024 will be the time to accelerate and turn dreams into reality."

From her observations, Emily Nguyen from Google said that the Vietnamese game industry has undergone spectacular changes.

The billion-dollar dream is not far away when Vietnam ranks in the top 5 downloads worldwide.

There are more than 35,000 game programmers in Vietnam, approximately the same as in large countries like China.

The game programming team in Vietnam is young, has high technical ability, and is highly qualified in subjects such as mathematical analysis and programming...

Another advantage is that the price of releasing a game is not too high. Labor costs help create competition.

Speakers participate in the panel discussion the Vietnamese game industry at Vietnam GameVerse 2024, May 2024. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

La Xuan Thang, Director of VNG Games, said that money should not be the ultimate goal when talking about the dream of Vietnamese games.

"Billions of dollars is just a milestone we will achieve, not a goal. The most important thing in developing the gaming industry is the vision of the leaders of organizations. More important than money, we need to have products that are recognized by the community and the world. The first thing is to make money, but the bigger aspiration is to be recognized worldwide," the VNG Games leader said.

Continuing the story of the big dream of the Vietnamese gaming industry, Nguyen Ngoc Bao, a representative from VTC, said that studios need to gather to fight together.

"Today's knowledge can help game studios succeed, but if they just keep it for themselves and don't share it with the community, it will not benefit the next generation," Bao said.

He also added that knowledge is boundless, and when game industry knowledge from Vietnam spreads to the world and is recognized by the world, the Vietnamese game industry will have a global foothold.

Looking at the bigger picture of building a comprehensive gaming ecosystem, Emily Nguyen, a Google representative, believes that the government's support is an important factor.

Turkey's government has policies such as tax reductions for startups and studios in the early years, and supports 60–100% of tools and platforms for technical analysis.

"In Vietnam, the game industry has received attention. There is no special consumption tax, but to develop further, it will need more support," Emily said.

Regarding human resources, Vietnam also needs to consider recruiting international talents, she said, adding that the government needs to have appropriate strategies, such as prioritizing visa issuance for digital and game-making talents.

AI participation

With the huge potential of the market, Fang of Roblox said that by knowing how to take advantage of new technology, the Vietnamese game industry can narrow the development gap with the world.

She pointed to Vietnam's important indicator, the official commercialization of 5G in 2023, as one of the important highlights to help increase user experience with game series.

Another highlight is that Vietnam recently ranked 5th in ASEAN in the global AI readiness index. Accordingly, GenAI technology is being optimized and modernized right on game platforms.

The unit currently provides tools for Vietnamese users to create content and try to publish their own games on many platforms.

Zhen Fang, Director of Roblox International Market. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

Zuy Nguyen said that 2024 will be a period of nurturing potential projects and companies by integrating AI (artificial intelligence) into applications and improving game quality.

Google experts emphasized the importance of AI in the development of entertainment games. He believes that game developers can leverage AI to develop code, design characters and art, create storylines and localization, write NPC dialogue, create music and voiceovers, and integrate GenAI into applications.

From practical experience, Bui Kien, Solution Architect of Byteplus, believes that AI is making important contributions to the game experience, enhancing interaction between gamers and between game publishers, players, and marketers.

Following the comments from the presentations, Khoi Le, Country Director of Meta in Vietnam, listed a series of Meta AI solutions to help developers and marketers grow throughout the development cycle of games like A+SC and A+AC.

On the other hand, Emily Nguyen once again committed to bringing a series of new technologies, such as AI, Cloud, machine learning, including Vertex AI from Google Cloud.

She also mentioned gathering the advances of AI and MML corporations that have come to Vietnam in the past year so that game publishers can develop initiatives, research, build games, and reach players with AI.

Training: long-term foundation of gaming industry

From an educational perspective, Nguyen Ngoc Bao, General Director of VTC Multimedia Corporation, said that for the Vietnamese game industry to develop sustainably in the future, training must be considered a long-term foundation.

He believes that when gaming is recognized as an industry, a profession will be born, and to do so, training is needed.

"We need to have specialized teaching facilities with industry codes. I hope in the next three years we will have game-related industry codes," Bao said.

Nguyen Ngoc Bao, General Director of VTC Multimedia Corporation. Photo by VnExpress/Quynh Tran

Sharing the same opinion as Bao, Cao Minh Thang, Deputy Director of the CDiT Institute of Information and Communications Technology, Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology, pointed out one of the reasons leading to the weaknesses of the gaming industry.

He said that Vietnam is lacking high-quality personnel. "To reach the billion-dollar goal, the game industry needs an intensive training program."

In 2024, the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology became the first university in Vietnam to provide formal training in the game industry, focusing on two main areas: script design and game development.

The curriculum builds solid interdisciplinary foundational knowledge and historical knowledge of civilization and culture for students to design stories, balance, game economy, AI applications...

At Vietnam GameVerse 2024, the Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology also announced cooperation with large businesses in the gaming industry to train high-quality personnel.

VTC Game Academy Center also launched and signed cooperation agreements with units with formal training systems and extensive experience in the field of digital content training, such as the Academy of Posts and Telecommunications and Information, Information and Communications College, and the world's leading technology companies, such as Google, to train personnel for the gaming industry.

Vietnam GameVerse 2024 is co-organized by the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information (ABEI), the Ministry of Information and Communications (MIC), VnExpress, FPT Online, and the Vietnam Game Alliance. The event attracted more than 40,000 participants over two days, May 11 and 12.