VNG has been the king of social platforms and games in Vietnam for over 10 years. With more than 50 licensed games and a 150 plus in-house development team, how can we decide which are the top games as we expand into the SEA region? During a session at Casual Connect Asia, Christopher Liu explained, “The number one thing that I think we have been really focusing on a lot in Vietnam and we are noticing in Southeast Asia is the phone specs. I think this is a big issue when we are looking at games especially coming from developers who don’t have much experience developing for countries like Vietnam.” Chris stressed taht when targeting countries like Vietnam, it is important to keep in mind the specs of the game. Some games may be too demanding for what is available in Vietnam. To learn more, listen to Chris’ presentation below.
DOWNLOAD SLIDES
VNG was founded in 2004 by five people looking to expand online gaming in Vietnam. Now they reach millions of users everyday on platforms like Zalo, which has 45 million users in Vietnam.
Christopher Liu serves as VNG’s Head of Mobile Game Publishing Business. Prior to this role at VNG, he was Business Development Director for ZeniMax Asia Pacific.
“My past experience working for Bethesda, developer of Fallout and Elder Scrolls, allowed me to understand how the top developers from the PC and console era created games with deep stories and innovative gameplay,” Liu detailed. “Unfortunately, most F2P online games now are more obsessed with simplicity and monetization. I believe that the most successful mobile games in the future must have all of these factors - deep content, new/fun gameplay, simple to learn and monetization which accommodates all types of players.”
Mobile Growth in Vietnam
Chris says he was interested in games and technology as a child. Flying across the Pacific Ocean 10 times before the age of five was also important in spurring an interest in international relations.
Eventually, Chris interned at VNG for their masters program, where he says he “fell in love with the people, culture, and vision of the company for Vietnam.” The general growth of the tech industry in South East Asia made it possible for Chris to combine his passion of games and the region into a new career.
In addition to publishing, VNG also has a +200 person in-house development team. Sky Garden was one of the largest successes and reached over 2M DAU in Vietnam and nearly 1M DAU in China. The mobile version of Sky Garden is already a hit in Vietnam and a global version will be released soon.
Measuring Risk
Chris says the choice was easy to pursue his true passion in video games. It was a personal risk, leaving a well-paying job with an established company, but Chrisloves getting out there and seeing how people react to VNG’s games, whether it’s positive or negative.
Chris always has his eyes out for games that work for Vietnam and the surrounding countries. When he isn’t leading a team in game localization, operations, or branding, he is looking to deal with the fact that bigger games take more money to publish.
“My job is to make sure that we deeply understand the game, our users, and from a business perspective, manage risk without threatening our profit margin too much,” explains Chris. “As the gaming market is fickle, foregoing a risky opportunity is better than making a gamble based on your attachment to a certain game.”
Developers and Publishers Collaborating
Photo taken by Lera Polska
Working with developers is a push and pull for a publisher. While Chris is looking for innovative gameplay, a good user base to target and a strong IP, he says developers should expect publishers to understand what makes the game great and that it appeals to fans. Chris warns against trusting a publisher who wants to put a game out in order to chase the latest trend.
Liu sees the target users as being the most important part of a marketing campaign. He argues that developers should go to publishers because it helps developers focus on games instead of having to put time and resources into advertising.
As for working with developers, Chris had this advice: “Don’t try to change the game too much as a publisher, if you have to change it too much, then look for another game. The development team must have a good work atmosphere because if they are not happy, they won’t be able to make a fun game.”
vng just getting started
VNG’s biggest success is launching Zalo in Vietnam, a social messaging app like Line and Wechat which dominates the region with over 50million users. They now use Zalo and our other social and entertainment platforms to push advertising, games, and in the future, perhaps e-commerce.
When asked about the largest trends going forward, Chris posited, “VR aside, I believe we are going to see some major breakthroughs in gameplay on mobile. From FPS, MOBA, casual, sports, and even traditional RPGs, we are beginning to see that innovative gameplay is the most important factor to success as gamers globally mature. Gameplay will also get more hardcore and game design deeper even as controls remain simple.”
Comments
