Survey on situation of Video Games in Vietnam

34 years have passed since the arrival of Nintendo Famicom in Japan.

Now that a wide variety of games have appeared over time, people around the world are having fun.

Do you know the average age of citizens of Vietnam?
Its 30 years! So overwhelming!
We wonder what kinds of game are popular in the current generation of Vietnam which is so far away from the FAMICOM era.

We would like to introduce you to the situation of video games in Vietnam based on the data from [Survey related to video games (*)]

(*) Licorice Investigation
Questionnaire delivery period：2016.12.16-2017.01.28
Questionnaire Respondents：500 Vietnamese men and women, aged between 10-40 years old.

[Q.] Do you like video games?

When asked “if you like games”, 57.5% of total people replied “Like them a lot”. Followed by “Like them somewhat” at 32.1%, “Don’t like them much” at 5.6% and “Hate them” at 4.8%.
“Likes” from 89.6% of total people and dislikes from 10.4% of total people, this shows that there are so many game lovers in Vietnam, both male and female.

It seems that this conversation on the topic of gaming will be an interesting one.

Well, let’s see what changes arrive in the gaming environment in Vietnam.
Since the release of Nintendo Famicom in Japan in 1983, it has become possible to enjoy games with ease at home.

After that, because of the spread of internet, “internet gaming” became popular and it became possible for people to communicate with other people while playing games.

Moreover, now that “smartphones” and “smartphones app” have appeared, now it has become possible to play games without the requirement of a gaming device.

Due to the recent economic development in Vietnam, the Internet has spread rapidly and smartphone ownership rate is also increasing.

In this way, it can be said that with the establishment of an environment where you can game with ease may have resulted in the increased in population of people who play games

[Q.] Which type of games have you played? (MA)

When we asked the people about the “type of games they have played”, the highest response was “online game” at 70.1%, followed by “App Games (SP)” at 63.7%.

Users of home video game consoles such as TV game consoles and Portable gaming accounted to 20% of the total people.

The reason why online games have become more established in Vietnam in comparison to Japan is that the game environment in Vietnam was a different game environment from Japan.

In the year 2000, “PlayStation 2” was released and while being a global hit, there was a time when it was subject to export regulation in Vietnam.

(Regular sale started from 2010.)

In Japan, household games have penetrated the general households, whereas in Vietnam, it was difficult to sell via regular ways. Although there was circulation of second-hand goods and pirated goods, but it was at a high price and hence the household games were unable to become popular in ordinary households in Vietnam.

In the meantime, while the popularity of Internet steadily progresses, Internet cafes will also emerge.
As internet games can be played at a cheap rate and easily, the population of people who play “internet games” has increased in a stretch.

In this way, it can be said that the reason why online gaming became predominant over household games in Vietnam is due to the presence of Internet environment for the online games.

By the way, it is said that manufacturing and selling of game consoles was regulated in neighboring country China from the year 2000 to around 2014 and it seems that this is the reason behind higher popularity of online games in China than in comparison to home games and consoles.

[Q.] Please tell us your favorite genre in video games.（MA）

When we asked the people about their “favorite genre of games”, the highest response was “interactive games” from both women and men at 46%. The second highest response was “shooting” at 42%.

This “interactive game” refers to “strategy simulation game”. Specifically, it is a game where the players plan strategies to spread and develop their own territory in the game.

Although it is a genre derived and inspired from “simulation game”, this “strategy simulation game” seems to be popular in Vietnam.

Looking at the results as per the gender, more than half of the men support “interactive game” and “shooting” game genre.

These two game genres seem to be most popular among Vietnamese men.

As for women, just like in the case of men, “interactive games” are most popular among women too. But they are also interested in a wide range of genres at the same rate as much as the men are. Perhaps there are many women who are curious in other genres.

[Q.] Have you ever experienced “VR games”?

When we asked people if they have experienced “VR games”, 32% of total people replied “Yes” and as per gender men and women who have experienced “VR games” were 36% and 25% respectively.

Viibar Inc. (※) announced in June 2016:

According to the “Survey on Virtual Reality (VR)”, people (both men and women in their 20s and 60s in Japan) who replied that they have “experienced VR”, were 37% of total respondents.

Since this survey in Japan was done before the launch of “PlayStation VR” (October 2016), there is a possibility that the number of people in Japan who have experienced “VR gaming”, at the present time may have increased but it may also be high awareness of “VR game” among the domestic game lovers. (*) Reference: Viibar Co., Ltd. “VR (Virtual Reality) Survey”

Keep an eye on the future of VR and gaming in Vietnam.

In Vietnam, there are many people who like games and are particularly keen about online games. In addition to that, they’re also interested in VR gaming and seem to be paying attention to next generation games.

Meanwhile, there are also many excellent engineers in Vietnam, hence the number of advanced countries outsourcing system development to Vietnam is increasing and Japanese IT companies are working on development of smartphone apps and VR in Vietnam.

Usually, the smartphone apps we use casually, might have been developed by Vietnamese engineers.

Currently, in the global game content market, despite continued weakness in the domestic game console / software field, online game and smartphone applications are continuing to grow. Particularly, the game market size of “Asia” is top class in the world and is a notable market that drives the world.

It can be said that the Vietnam with a young generation of around an average age of 30 which is full of vigor will play a huge role in raising the game market in Asia.

The development of game industry and development of Vietnam itself in future is very much anticipated.