Tabarak Paracha
Vietnam’s mobile gaming industry has experienced a remarkable boom in the last 4-5 years, emerging as a powerhouse in the global gaming landscape.
We interviewed Jennifer, the Chief of Staff at VGDA (Vietnam Game Developer Association), to uncover the driving forces behind this remarkable boom and explore the opportunities and obstacles that lie ahead.
The Booming Mobile Gaming Landscape in Vietnam
According to the data shared by Jennifer, the Vietnamese mobile gaming industry has experienced a remarkable boom in recent years.
Some of the key highlights from 2023 in the industry include:
- 4 billion app downloads, a testament to the growing demand for mobile games in the country
- Over 90 Vietnamese companies have appeared in the top charts
- With 400 game companies and more than 1,500 indie game developers, Vietnam boasts a vibrant and diverse ecosystem of game creators
Trends in the Vietnamese Mobile Gaming Industry
A Shift from Hyper Casual towards Hybrid Casual and Puzzle Games
The market has undergone significant changes over the past two years, with the Vietnamese mobile gaming industry being particularly responsive to these trends. During this period, there has been a noticeable decline in eCPM and a rise in CPI in the market, among other shifts. Consequently, the focus has shifted from hyper-casual games to hybrid-casual games in an attempt to increase LTV. Additionally, there has been an increase in the popularity of more complex puzzle games, which have the potential to yield higher LTV as well.
To learn more about the trends and benchmarks to cope with this shift from hyper casual to hybrid casual games, check out our “From hyper to hybrid in 2024” report.
Increased Focus on Content within Hyper-Casual Games
Hyper-casual games are also still present. However, now the mobile game developers that are publishing hyper-casual titles are adding much more, and much longer content into their games in order to increase the lifetime.
Challenges Faced by the Vietnamese Mobile Gaming Industry
While the Vietnamese mobile gaming industry has experienced remarkable growth, it also faces several challenges that must be addressed to ensure continued success.
Below are some of the long and short term challenges Jennifer identifies.
Long term:
The mobile gaming industry in Vietnam is young and has been growing rapidly for the last 4 to 5 years. However, it faces a shortage of skilled workers, especially game designers and experienced product managers. The formal education system for game developers only began 2-3 years ago. And only this year, Vietnam’s first university offering game design and development courses was established.
Short term:
In the short term, a major challenge is creating high-quality games that can compete globally, while having limited resources and talent. Additionally, with the shift from hyper-casual to hybrid casual games, there is also a need to reorganize the workforce. Many people who previously worked on hyper-casual games lack the skills needed for hybrid casual or midcore games.
Future Predictions for the Vietnamese Mobile Gaming Industry
Looking ahead, Jennifer shares her insights on the key trends and developments that are likely to shape the Vietnamese mobile gaming industry in the coming years:
- Increased Adoption of AI in Game Production & Marketing
- Shift towards Hybrid Casual Games
- Restructuring of the human resources in Vietnamese gaming companies
- Increasing number of game developers working with big game publishers
Watch the video above or read the transcription below for a deeper dive into the conversation.
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[Henry from Tenjin]: Hello, everyone. Welcome to our YouTube channel. This is Henry from Tenjin. I’m based in Shanghai. And this time I have the pleasure to have Jennifer Vu from the Vietnam Game Developers Association (VGDA) with us to introduce the Vietnam Market to our global audience.Jennifer, would you mind introducing yourself a bit to our audience?
[Jennifer Vu]: Yeah, sure. Hi, everyone. Thanks a lot, Henry and the Tenjin team for inviting me to talk about the Vietnamese game development market. A very brief introduction about myself is that I have worked eight years in the gaming industry.I have taken many different roles. I was also the CEO of an indie game studio. And currently I serve as chief of staff of the Vietnam Game Developers Association. So we as an organization have over 18 members who support and leverage the development of the game development community in Vietnam.
And at the same time, I’m CEO of GameGeek. We as an organization are an essential hub to connect indie game studios with the necessary resources. We also help a lot of indie teams to grow their business globally.
[Henry from Tenjin]: So for today we have a few questions prepared in advance.So the first one is, uh, for you is why do you think that there’s such a boom in the mobile game development industry in Vietnam?
[Jennifer Vu]: Yes, thanks for the question. I hope that it’s not only my thinking. But a lot of people think that Vietnam is booming for mobile games. You know, I’ve already been in the gaming industry in Vietnam for eight years. And from my personal perspective, it has changed a lot in these eight years. When I first started, I knew everyone in the community. However, now every time we have an industry meetup, we see a lot of new faces. But also, I think I tried to prepare some numbers since I know that you would ask about the numbers in Vietnam. But from last year, from Google’s Think Apps, we have a couple of numbers to show that we really changed a lot.Since COVID-19, the numbers have been crazy. For example, last year we had 4 billion Vietnamese app downloads i.e. apps made by Vietnamese game developers. And also we had over 90 companies from Vietnam appear in the top charts. We have 400 game companies here in Vietnam, and over 1,500 indie game developers.
As you can see, these numbers are huge. And even with a community builder like us, we’re kind of surprised at how big the numbers are. In terms of genres, we see a lot of hyper-casual games. It’s very easy for hypercasual games since they do not require a huge team. With a small team, they can get started with the game development process very fast.
[Henry from Tenjin]: Yeah, those are really great numbers. I definitely agree that Vietnam is a huge market for the gaming industry. Regarding hyper-casual games, that’s kind of similar to Tenjin. We help a lot of hyper-casual games to scale up their business.Which brings me to my next question, what genre trends or other game trends do you see in Vietnam?
[Jennifer Vu]: It’s a good question since the market changed a lot during the last two years. So in Vietnam, the very interesting thing about the game makers is that they are very young, so they were born in the mobile era.They work with short content, and adopt a lot of the changes. They are also flexible since they are not big teams and are able to make changes that they see working around them. And I think this impacts the market situation a lot. We have seen that eCPMs have not been good for last two years, and CPI’s increased. Vietnamese game developers had to find their way to keep the business running well. So they tend to, like other hyper casual studios, move to hybrid. Of course, we still see a lot of hypercasual games, but some of them set a dedicated team to work on hybrid-casual games so that they can make higher LTV.
And one of the things I observed is that most of the studios here in Vietnam try to make puzzle games. Which are more complex, and give you the ability to get higher LTVs or longer lifetime of the users. So, it is very obvious that they’re working more on Puzzle and Hybrid Categories.
[Henry from Tenjin]: This is very similar to what we are seeing in Tenjin as well, that many of the hyper casual studios are trying to add more in-app purchases into their games and trying to move to hybrid, but also it’s hard, it’s not easy, it’s never been easy to move between genres. We’re also seeing a lot of teams kind of struggling to maintain a lower CPI and also trying to increase their eCPM. [Jennifer Vu]: Hyper-casual games are still working in Vietnam. However, I see that they add more content into the games to keep the users longer. [Henry from Tenjin]: Which also leads to the next question, what are the main challenges you are seeing for developers in Vietnam? [Jennifer Vu]: Hmm. Yeah. It’s a good question to ask me because I’m working on the Vietnamese Game Developer’s Association. At the VGDA, we try to understand the long term and short term challenges, so that we can handle the solutions. So, for the long term, for the long term as an industry, we recognize that we are a very young industry in Vietnam, we are booming from the last four or five years but the major thing is that we are really lacking human resources, i.e. the talents to provide for the game studios for like double A, triple A games, since we don’t have a lot of experience with working with these kinds of games. So we lack people for some important roles like game designer or project managers. Our official education systems for gaming lasts two or three years. This year we just had the first university here in Vietnam that teaches game designers and game developers for the first time. So this is a big challenge since we are booming and want to have a certain quality of games. But we try to sell it.As for the short term, I think it’s impacted a lot by the market in general. So you already know that we have to balance. We want to make good games by looking at our competitors. We’re working on quick games, good content, and adopting trends. But at the same time, we have to keep a balance with the market by taking into account eCPMs, CPIs, and making better games. So here is to make better quality games with our limited resources. And another challenge I think, would be that because we have the restructuring from the hyper-casual to hybrid-casual or midcore games, this means that also we have to restructure the human resources. Some of the people that worked on the hyper-casual games can not work on hybrid or mid core games. That’s also a challenge in which you have to build a system in the company that can improve or grow the person. You can work on better products.
[Henry from Tenjin]: Yeah. I totally agree that talent is the first priority in any industry.What do you predict for the next two or three years? Do you see that there will be a change in the market in Vietnam? How are your community members thinking about the future?
[Jennifer Vu]: I love the prediction. I have quite a good sense of prediction. For the next two years, the first thing I observed is that we will apply more AI into game production. Into the game production. I already see a lot of application of AI right now in Vietnam. They use it but still not a lot, but I am seeing more and more studios in Vietnam using AI, not only for game production but also for marketing. Marketing is something that some game publishers in Vietnam do really well, and they have more power when they use AI into the application. I am so excited to see how it changes the gaming industry.The second thing, I still think that we will not see a big change in the market outside of hybrid casual since it’s still on the way. And game studios will still find a way to work well on hybrid casual.
The next thing I recognize in Vietnam is that there will be a restructure in the human resources. As you already know, Vietnam is a little bit delayed. I predict massive layoffs in the big game companies in the world. In Vietnam, we don’t have those kinds of mass layoffs, but we see a lot of switches. For example, some of the game studios working on mid-core, hardcore are trying to work on hybrid-casual games. And some hyper-casual games that are struggling, they have to set up and work on hybrid. Some companies close down, but a lot of new ones open.
The last thing I see in Vietnam, is that before, you know, there were many indie game studios that tried to publish by themselves. But now, they tend to work with big game publishers in Vietnam.
[Henry from Tenjin]: Self publishing has never been easy. We are seeing some similar trends in the past few years. Many of the EMEA or even North American studios are trying to change their traditional way of working with developers.Those developers that tried to start self publishing, there was some success, but not always. Not everyone trying to self publish can be successful. It’s never been easy. The world has changed very fast.
[Jennifer Vu]: I wouldn’t say it’s easier or harder. It’s just how we are projecting in the next year. We have to put ourselves in survival mode and to try as much as possible to make it to next year.
