Vietnam poised for global gaming breakthrough: expert

With his experience shaping the global roll-out of major titles such as Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider, Fischer told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper that Vietnam is already respected around the world as a superpower in game development, especially mobile games.

As per the Politburo’s Resolution 80, which took effect in January, gaming is identified as a strategic pillar of Vietnam’s cultural industries.

This policy direction opens a broader ambition: transforming Vietnam’s cultural identity into globally recognizable gaming intellectual property.

Fischer said that he has no doubt Vietnam will become one of the world’s leading countries in gaming.

He highlighted a combination of scale, talent, and institutional support that will fuel the country’s gaming industry.

Events such as Vietnam GameVerse have also grown significantly year after year, attracting increasing global attention and reinforcing Vietnam’s ambition to become a regional hub for game development.

Vietnam GameVerse 2026 opened on May 8, underscoring Vietnam’s drive to position the gaming industry as a strategic pillar of the digital economy, according to the Vietnam News Agency.

“I have visited a Vietnamese university which is very similar to the university I went to when I was young," he said.

“But what was amazing was there were so many students majoring in video game design.

“It's wonderful to see that they can get formal training at a top-class university focused on video games."

The students have so much energy and so many creative dreams, he said.

“I could feel their energy when I was speaking to the group,” he stressed.

Vietnam is moving up the value chain. The technical talent and artistic talent of creative teams in Vietnam are as good as anywhere in the world.

However, much of the current output still focuses on work for hire or super casual games rather than original intellectual property creation.

“I love that the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism is directly overseeing video games, because those games are culture and similar to a book, a movie or a song,” he said.

“I think if you want to touch more people around the world today, a video game is the best way to do it.”

He also expected to see the next generation of game developers not just seen as a technical outsourcing resource, but actually a source of creativity to tell traditional Vietnamese cultural stories, as well as new stories, Vietnamese science fiction, and Vietnamese fantasy war stories.

Vietnam’s gaming industry is part of the global market. What it still lacks is hands-on experience in publishing and business operations.

“I believe that in the future, a Vietnamese game development team will create a global super hit,” he said.

The success will be a lighthouse for other developers and to attract new investors, he asserted.

To achieve this, Vietnam will need more than talent, create supportive start-up ecosystems, offer tax incentives, boost public and private funding, and provide incubation programs designed specifically for game studios.

According to a 2025 GameGeek report, Vietnamese mobile games reached 4.9 billion downloads, ranking second globally.

The country produced 27,388 new mobile games in 2025, a 13-percent increase from the previous year.

More than 90 percent of downloads came from overseas markets, primarily developing countries, while only 5.5 percent originated domestically.

The report also highlighted a shift from quantity to quality, with developers increasingly focusing on deeper gameplay experiences and long-term value rather than rapid mass production.