Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam – Arp 1st 2023: Today, Microsoft publicly introduced its gaming development ecosystem, including Azure, Xbox and GitHub, to empower Vietnamese creators and developers, and accelerate the Vietnam’s gaming industry to a new heigh at the very first Vietnam GameVerse 2023 jointly organized by the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, VnExpress Newspaper and Vietnam Games Development Alliance.
As of Jan 2022, there are 3 billion people around the globe play video games and expected to grow to 4.5 billion players by 2030. According to Newzoo, the gaming market will also reach $218.7 billion in 2024.
In Southeast Asia, Vietnam is considered a game powerhouse in the region, ranking second in terms of downloads. According to the Authority of Broadcasting and Electronic Information, the total revenue of Vietnam’s game industry is estimated at 665 million USD in 2022. Currently, Vietnam has 28.4 million people playing games and there are nearly 200 companies publishing and producing games in the country.
Nearly two years into the pandemic, there is an increase in demand which is accelerating the remarkable growth of gaming industry. Gaming Ecosystem then focuses on developing tools and infrastructure that content creators can leverage when building their own games.
“We’ve been at the forefront of gaming for more than 40 years, pushing the industry forward with technology and producing some of the most impactful games and stories of all time. Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and organization on the planet to achieve more. We are committed to empowering game creators and developers in Vietnam to do just that – create more games, reach more people, tell and share more inclusive stories with Azure, Xbox and GitHub,” said Nguyen Quynh Tram, Country General Manager, at the Vietnam GameVerse 2023.
ID@Xbox empowers Vietnam’s games independent developers enter the global market
ID@Xbox was created to support independent games developers to access and publish games to the Xbox ecosystem. This year marks the 10-year anniversary of the ID@Xbox indie publishing program. The program has helped bring over 3,000 titles and paid out more than $4 billion to developers after 10 years.
Recently, Microsoft has announced the new ID@Xbox Developer Acceleration program to empower underrepresented creators with the resources and information needed to bring their creativity, innovation, and originality to Xbox. The types of developers that we seek to support includes but is not limited to developers who are led by those from Black, Indigenous, Latino or LGBTQIA+ communities, women, developers with disabilities, developers from emerging markets or teams with unique perspectives. The program enables them to access necessary resources and information to bring their innovation to Xbox. Besides, they can also receive the funding and opportunities to engage with members of team Xbox covering topics like game lifecycle, marketing tips, certification prep and more.
ID@Azure accelerates the Vietnam’s games industry to a new height
At Microsoft, we recognize the benefits brought by the cloud in the gaming industry. We understand the challenges faced by creators and developers, especially the independents. Thus, Microsoft created the ID@Azure to expand those benefits towards small studios and independent games developers.
ID@Azure empowers independent games developers to take full advantage of cloud to enhance the flexibility, increase the scalability, reduce cost while still ensure the development growth and gamers’ experience. Especially, ID@Azure allows them to get access to the additional development tools such as GitHub, Visual Studio, Azure OpenAI and Microsoft 365 at no cost, increased amounts of Azure credits up to $150,000, free access to PlayFab services, and 24/7 support and mentorship from Microsoft’s cloud experts. The ID@Azure has helped more than 500 independent game developers from 55 countries worldwide to bring their games to the cloud after one year launched
“Great games are the heart and soul of gaming. To deliver a great experience to players, we believe we must first deliver a great experience to creators and developers, large or small. By listening, empowering and enabling them to do their job at their best with Microsoft gaming ecosystem, we hope to unlock their creative, technical, and commercial opportunities,” said Nguyen Quynh Tram.
Besides the ID@Xbox and ID@Azure, Vietnamese games creators and developers also have the opportunity to access the world’s largest developer ecosystem, Microsoft’s GitHub, to learn, exchange and jointly build games that are comparable to global hit titles. Especially, GitHub Octership has just been announced to help students the chance to participate in open sources and software development in 10 countries, including Vietnam. This is a good opportunity for creators and developers, who are Vietnamese students, to learn and increase skills.
Previously, VTC Multimedia Corporation and Microsoft Vietnam signed a comprehensive strategic partnership in the 2022-2025 period with an aim to leverage Viet Nam’s e-sport market. Accordingly, Microsoft authorized VTC to release Age of Empires (AoE) games versions I, II, III, and IV in Viet Nam. VTC would publish, distribute, build, and officially deploy e-sports tournaments and make AoE an official sport in national and regional e-sports tournaments. In addition, Microsoft would build a hybrid cloud platform for VTC and connect VTC’s data centre with Microsoft’s global network of data centers to provide the best service for developers operating games in the market. The company would also support VTC to become a game start-up center in Viet Nam.
At present, Microsoft also collaborates with relevant associations and organizations, namely the VIRSEA and VDA to better understand and jointly set out the sustainable development criteria for Vietnam’s gaming industry.
For more information about Microsoft Vietnam, click HERE.
For more information about Microsoft Gaming for developers, click HERE.
For more information about GitHub, click HERE.
Media Contact:
Nguyen Phuong Linh, Communications Lead, Microsoft Việt Nam
[email protected] | +84 912 359 786
Capital Place, 29 Liễu Giai, Hà Nội