Most of the emerging markets business usually end up doing the outsourced work of the developed markets. A striking example is the online freelance software projects which are often shipped from Europe, US to Asia to be completed against a much lower payment. This end up slowing doing the genuine growth of the native market. Vietnamese developers are apparently trying to avoid this trap by developing their own set of video games which fall well in line with their ideology. A case in case point is the video game, Ho Chi Minh.
This video game is necessarily a shoot-em-up game. You play the part of the communist forces which are fighting against French colonists and trying to eliminate them. The game has been developed by Vietnam-based Emobi games. It is based on the most famous historical battle of Vietnam which was a victory against French colonial forces in 1954.
The developers of the game spent a huge $850,000 on “7554” which is the actual title of the game. The reason why the developers spent so much on the development was that they are now hoping to enter the international gaming market as a brand. For now, the game is available in US for $12. While the plot of the game is somewhat specific to Vietnamese history, it is still very intriguing and may attract a large customer base.
The fact that it is a natively-developed game in entirety is a huge achievement. And the fact that it was entirely developed in a third-world country is even more striking.As a kind of an economic criss hits Vietnam, Vietnamese entrepreneurs are increasingly starting to develop ‘brands’ of their own, rather than do the outsources works of larger firms. This trend is catching up.
Other third-world entrepreneurs should take a lesson from it and try developing original gaming content which they can go on to market on Apple’s App Store and through other means online.
Image courtesy maria.
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