Initially targeting a niche market, games have become popular with the digital generation, rather than just a means of entertainment. Not only games, Gen Z are attracted by everything relating to games. They love technology and discovery. 

Games integrate three fields - technology, business and art/psychology. Of the three biggest entertainment fields - music, entertainment and games - revenue from mobile games is higher than music ($20 billion in 2021) and cinema ($80 billion) combined.

According to Statista, as of Q1, 2021, Vietnam had the sixth highest ratio of game players to population. Meanwhile, the workforce in the industry was modest, with 25,000 people. The shortage has forced domestic game producers to recruit workers from foreign markets or outsource to other markets. 

Ads to recruit game coders can be seen on many websites and forums in Vietnam. Technology firms offer pay of $1,000-1,250, even $3,000, but they still lack talents.

According to an NFT project director, there are about 300 NFT games being built in Vietnam, but studios cannot handle the workload because of the lack of workers. Many technology firms say they are willing to pay high wages to attract talents in game coding. 

The workers trained in game coding in Vietnam have relatively high incomes. Those who have just graduated from school or have one year of experience can earn VND25 million per month, which is a dream of many young people.

Coder Le Minh Hieu, 22, said that game coders can increase their income by implementing their own projects and post on iOS or Google Play stores. Unlike other branches of IT, game programmers not only work with codes, but also have contact with arts, history and psychology. 

Kallol Mukherjee, vice president of Aptech India, said Vietnam has a serious shortage of game programmers because it has few schools that give in-depth training in game programming. 

Trong Dat