Vietnam has many successful names in the global game industry such as Flappy Bird and Axie Infinity, and VNG, a technology unicorn. However, no new names have turned up.

Many seminars have been organized to discuss solutions to develop the Vietnamese game industry, including a recent conference on expanding the Vietnamese game market – a new vision for the industry -- held on March 18.

Quang said at the event that 50 percent of most played mobile games globally are sourced from Vietnam. More than 180,000 Vietnamese are writing apps on Google Play Store and Apple App Store and with the figure, Vietnam is No1 in Southeast Asia in the number of developers. Though revenue ranks fifth in the region, the potential to increase revenue of the game industry is great.

Though great potential has been gained, the development of the game industry over the last 10 years is below expectations. Most products and game firms have been developing at a moderate level, with no breakthrough made in the game sector and technology in general.

Flappy Bird, Axie Infinity and VNG are Vietnamese names that have been recognized globally, and that is all. In order to create new successes, MIC believes that Vietnamese enterprises need to join hands for mutual development.

“We are calling for students, startups and technology firms to go together and join forces to reach the finish line,” Do told businesspeople and students at the event.

Dr Tran Trong Dao, rector at Ton Duc Thang University, said that the conference helps students learn about games and have more career chances.

“Not only in games, I hope that cooperation is established in many other fields so that enterprises can go further,” Dao said.

Thai Thanh Liem, CEO of Topebox, a game studio, agreed with the view that Vietnam’s firms should cooperate together to develop widely in the region and world. The company is calling for programmers to create creative games, so as to generate differences and become outstanding.

Liem said that some game studios worldwide are cooperating with each other, exploiting each other’s advantages to support companies in the industry to develop.

In the case of Topebox, the firm is working with some large studios through sharing a workforce and financing, in order to create games with a global stature. 

Hai Dang