VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnam’s mobile game industry is believed to have great potential, but it has not been able to turn that potential into reality.

Vuong Vu Thang, managing director of Soha Game, said that Vietnam’s mobile game turnover in 2014 reached $83 million, equal to Thailand’s and the Philippines, and is expected to rise to $104 million this year.

Vietnam has over 134 million mobile subscribers, and ranks second in Asia in terms of smartphone user growth. It is estimated that 80 percent of people aged 16-34 play games on smartphones. Sixty-four games were distributed in the first two quarters of 2015, or 83 percent of 2014. The figure is expected to reach 120 by the end of 2015.

Maxim de Wit, deputy chair of South East Asia Mobile Game Association, noted that South East Asia, including Vietnam, is a promising market for the mobile game industry.

Vietnam is a fast growing market thanks to the large coverage of smartphones and potential users. The country has many game developers and attracts a lot of foreign firms.

However, two-thirds of the existing game developers now just do outsourcing for foreign partners. 

Meanwhile, more than 90 percent of games available in the market are the imports from South Korea and China. 

According to Le Giang Anh, director of JOY Entertainment, distributors hesitate to distribute the games made by domestic studios for fear of risks. Therefore, developers find it difficult to market their products.

Tran Vinh Quang, managing director of Appota, a game distributor, noted that game players mostly make payments with phone scratch cards, while payment with credit cards is under 5 percent, which affects game distribution.

Barriers 

Le Hong Minh, managing director of VNG, noted that eight years ago, most games distributed could gain success beyond expectations, but ‘things are quite different now” because of the market’s changes.

Maxim de Wit noted that the majority of Vietnamese game studios are small  and operate with limited capital, so they should focus on developing simple and easy-to-play games.

Vietnamese game developers and distributors have been advised to introduce products suitable to the users’ habits and cultures.

Minh from VNG also thinks that game developers need to adapt to the growing tendency of consumers to shift from computers to mobile devices. 

In order to develop, mobile game distributors should create payment systems suitable to mobiles.

If Vietnam can overcome the difficulties, it will become a mobile game development center in South East Asia, according to Maxim de Wit, and will be able to compete with large developers in China, Japan and South Korea.

NLD