Gaming in Vietnam: Betting on a victory

VIETNAM is crazy about computer games. So much so that authorities regard game addiction, and the crimes reportedly committed by junkies desperate for their next fix, as a growing problem. Yet this huge popularity, especially of multi-player online games, has so far failed to translate into much of a homegrown industry. Now, at last, Vietnam has released its first blockbuster offering.

7554, as the new game is called, is set at the tail end of French colonial times and pits the Viet Minh against the European occupiers. The title refers to the date of Vietnam's great triumph at Dien Bien Phu, on May 7th, 1954. The war, which began in 1946 and whose end that victory marked, sealed the fate of the French in Indochina. The final push, orchestrated by General Vo Nguyen Giap, who turned 100 last year, is still celebrated and nearly every city, town, even hamlet has a street named after it.

Communist Vietnam's state-run television news praised the game and its "glorious" story. Such official support notwithstanding, though, 7554 will find it hard to achieve commercial success. For a start, it is only available in PC format. As such, it does not tap the much bigger console market, though given its development budget of a little over $800,000, puny by the industry's standards, that may have been a wise move; a premature and shoddy console version would no doubt have been panned.

More surprisingly, perhaps, it is not being released online. Internet gaming is the most lucrative part of the market, as our recent special report on video games has argued. Moreover, most Vietnamese gamers prefer to play on the internet; few splash out on shrink-wrapped boxes. That may be partly because they find online gaming more convenient and engaging. It is certainly in part down do the fact that piracy is rife. Buying counterfeit games (or films, music, as well as more tangible goods) takes no more effort than strolling along a Hanoi street. As a consequence, making money from selling games, homegrown or not, is a tough ask.

The game's creators, a small start-up called Emboi, may be hoping that patriotism and a desire to support local industry may prompt some gamers to pay up. Comments on YouTube—where the game's trailer attracted over 100,000 clicks—suggested this may indeed be the case. Some viewers argued that the graphics may be poor, but it was important to support the game regardless. Whether there are enough like-minded gamers for 7554 to turn a profit remains to be seen. The game's planned February release in America—which historically picked up where the French left off in Indochina, only to meet a similar end—may yet decide its fate.