Currently, playing games and making games go hand in hand, it can be said to be a profession that is being recognized by society.

At the SEA Games, eSports is a competition content that many people look forward to. The gaming industry also has close connections with other industries such as hardware development, mobile phones, and telecommunications networks.

In the Southeast Asian market, the gaming industry revenue has jumped from US$2.4 billion in 2019 to more than $5.3 billion in 2023.

In particular, countries with a fairly developed gaming industry in the region, such as Thailand and Indonesia, have lower annual growth rates than countries with rich potential such as Malaysia and Vietnam. Currently, more than 220 gaming businesses are being licensed to do business in Vietnam. These businesses invest in technology development and they have no longer developed computer games like before but switching to mobile devices and other digital spaces.

Famous games such as Axie Infinity, Amanotes, Topebox, and OneSoft have created the potential to compete in the international game market. According to a recent report from Google, the country has risen to the fifth position in the list of top countries for game production in the world with 4.2 billion game downloads on the application.

It is expected that by 2026, revenue from games and applications in Vietnam will reach $2.7 billion. According to data from some market research companies, Vietnam in particular and Southeast Asia in general are the regions with the highest mobile game growth rate in the world, at 7.4 percent a year from 2022 to 2025.

With innovation associated with technological trends around the world, the gaming industry has taken a new step forward and promises to bring value to the economy. Therefore, the Ministry of Information and Communications sets a goal that in the next 5 years (by 2030), the Vietnamese gaming industry will reach a revenue of $1 billion.

Recently, the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information under the Ministry of Information and Communications has had many activities to achieve the game industry's revenue target of $1 billion including listening to businesses' opinions and finding ways for healthy development of the gaming industry.

Vietnam can learn Korea and China's ways of doing. In 2018, Korea established a digital content management and development agency named Kocca which is responsible for supporting the Government and Korean game developers in developing content and facilitating domestic game development and rising globally.

Meanwhile, China recognizes esport as one of 1,900 professions with titles and many good job positions. This country also has the first eSports majors.

General Director Nguyen Ngoc Bao of VTC Game Multimedia Corporation said that the new field of eSports has appeared in the country. This field can become a spearhead in the digital economy, with an annual growth rate of 8.1 percent and it is expected that 640 million people will follow this subject by 2025.

Meanwhile, a representative of VNG Joint Stock Company said that three factors that are attributable to the success of the gaming industry in countries such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore include support from the Government, strong cooperation from the game industry association and the hive of the game programming community. Businesses that develop and publish games and the community of game lovers hope to soon have incentives to create openness and convenience for the game industry to develop sustainably as well as promote creative values, a VNG representative said.

According to Director Le Quang Tu Do of the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information, to obtain the gaming industry’s revenue target of $1 billion, it is necessary to build a good foundation in parallel with suitable policies while promoting international connections so that foreign businesses and investors can see that Vietnam is a potential market.

The Ministry of Information and Communications, the Department of Radio, Television and Electronic Information and related units have been building important foundations. In particular, the foundation of this industry is training.

Currently, the Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Academy trains students of the game industry major with bachelor's degrees while VTC Corporation trains skilled human resources, creating an abundant and highly qualified human resource in games. It is necessary to change the society's prejudices about the gaming industry to help the industry create more values.

Director Le Quang Tu Do advised parents to let their children study and work on games such as game programming, game graphics, and game design as their children can create famous startups in the future.

SGGP