HCMCity (VNA) - The Vietnamese game industry is expected to earn annualrevenue of 1 billion USD within 10 years, according to experts.

Lastyear, Vietnamese game studios launched 150 games, which attracted 36 millionplayers, earning turnover of 300 million USD.

Withthis figure, Vietnam became the top game market in ASEAN, which is the sixthbiggest market in Asia.

LeHong Minh, CEO of VNG Corporation was quoted as saying in Dau Tu (InvestmentReview) that he believed strongly that the domestic game industry would reach 1billion USD before 2027, thanks to young talents like Nguyen Ha Dong, whocreated the international sensation Flappy Bird several years ago.

Headded that Vietnamese game studios had designed many games that meetinternational standards

Evenso, the game market is still dominated by foreign games.

Minhsaid that turnover earned by Vietnamese game studios this year could be up to 40million USD, and up to 80 million USD if including other places like theAppStore.

Thefigures show that most of the turnover in the country has been earned fromforeign games.

Thedomestic game industry has lagged behind many years as it started later than inother countries, such as the US, China and the Republic of Korea.

Lastyear, Vietnamese games were not listed among the top 10 online games in thecountry.

Toreach the target of 1 billion USD in annual revenue within 10 years, Minh suggestedthat the industry head to the international market and not just focus on thedomestic scene.

Minhsaid that his company’s game studios had developed wells thanks to thisstrategy.

Hesaid the company stopped developing games for PCs and began developing onlinegames beginning in 2013.

Thisdecision was made at the time when the studio was earning 160 billion VND (7million USD) per year from PC games.

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

Hesaid that Vietnamese studios should design more games that meet internationalstandards and develop world-class studios if they want the industry to earn anannual 1 billion USD by 2027.

Positivesigns

Thetrend of making international games in Vietnam took off after the famous FlappyBird by Nguyen Ha Dong gained international success, according to a report in DauTu.

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

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

In2016, three games developed by Pine Entertainment were listed among the top 50games in US app stores.

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

InMarch, VTC Mobile launched Au Mobile in Indonesia, following First Blood, whichwas also launched in Indonesia.

DaoQuang Tuan, Director of Entertainment and Sport at VTC Mobile, said thatIndonesia was a market with high potential in ASEAN, attracting many pioneersin the field.

VTCMobile has shown that the gold mine that games represent is wide open toVietnamese companies. They just need to become more active and invest inforeign markets to take advantage of the opportunities.-VNA