Mobile-game industry sees high potential

Mobile games are expected to change the face of the game industry in Vietnam, according to an article published on the English language news portal VietNamNet Bridge on October 23.
Mobile games are expected to change the face of the game industryin Vietnam, according to an article published on the English languagenews portal VietNamNet Bridge on October 23.

Mobilegames are estimated to earn 1 trillion VND, accounting for one-sixth ofthe total revenue for the game industry this year, the online newspapersaid.

Vietnamese game developers have been focusing on creating games for mobile phones running on iOS or Android.

There are about 40 firms and studios making and distributing gamesnationwide. The game studios are mostly located in big cities like HoChi Minh City , Hanoi and Da Nang . Some studios do onlyoutsourcing for foreign partners, while many others work asmanufacturers.

According to the article, a survey of Newzoo showsthe increasingly high market share of mobile games. The games brought17.4 percent of total game revenue in 2013, while the proportion isexpected to reach 27.8 percent by 2016.

In Vietnam , the iOS-and Android-based games for smart phones soared from zero to 2 millionUSD a month in 2012, then to 25.5 million USD in 2013. The revenue isforecast to reach 35 million USD this year and 52 million USD by 2016.

Vietnam is believed to be a fast-growing market with a rapidlyincreasing number of internet users and smart phone owners. The countrynow ranks second in the world in the growth rate of smart phone users,with 17 million smart phones in use.

Meanwhile, game developershave been strongly encouraged by the success of Flappy Bird, a mobilegame developed by Nguyen Ha Dong, which eventually topped the list ofgames with the highest number of downloads.

DivMob, one of thesuccessful games developers, reportedly has developed 10 games forAndroid and iOS smart phones, which had over 20 million downloadsworldwide in 2013.

Commenting about the potential of mobilegames, Le Hong Minh, a senior executive of VNG, said it is easy forVietnamese firms to make games but difficult to make money.

NguyenTien Dung, Managing Director of ZoyGame, thinks that mobile games couldbe a playing field for many different players, from large firms tosmall game studios or individuals, because there are many differentplatforms to develop games.

The existence of many players in the same market, however, would create a more competitive field.

Areport released at an online game workshop held several days ago showedthat 90 percent of online games failed during the production phase.Nine percent failed when they were launched on the market, and only 1percent could bring profits to investors.

Ta Nam Anh, gamedistribution director of VNG, said it is not too costly to develop amobile game. It takes a studio of 8-10 programmers about six monthsto create a mobile game, while the average initial investment cost isabout 500 million VND, not including operation costs.

However,success depends on whether the producers are powerful enough to maintainthe products for a long time and if the games can attract manyplayers.-VNA

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