Black Myth Wukong 2024 has been an incredible success, helping the Chinese gaming market grow strongly

Black Myth Wukong is China’s first AAA game, released on August 20.

AAA games are an unofficial term in the gaming industry used to refer to games that require a large investment of money, time, and human resources to develop. The letters AAA stand for A LOT OF MONEY, A LOT OF TIME, AND A LOT OF RESOURCES (i.e. A LOT OF MONEY, A LOT OF TIME, AND A LOT OF RESOURCES).

China’s video game market generated revenue of 33.64 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) in August, up 21% from July, mainly due to “Black Myth Wukong,” according to a report released by the Game Publishing Committee of the China Audiovisual and Digital Publishing Association.

Black Myth Wukong is an action role-playing game inspired by the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West” and developed by Hangzhou Game Science Studio.

“Black Myth Wukong” has received unanimous praise and warm welcome from Chinese and global game players.

According to data compiled by video game insights, a game market research company, “Black Myth Wukong” has sold more than 20 million copies globally through the Steam game distribution platform so far, with total revenue exceeding US$961 million.

The popularity of “Black Myth Wukong” in the global market also led to a 25% year-on-year increase in overseas sales of Chinese games in August, from US$1.5 billion to US$1.88 billion.

However, China’s mobile game sales dropped slightly by 1.55% year-on-year in August to 22.5 billion yuan. This shows that the world’s second-largest gaming market after the United States in terms of revenue is still struggling due to the economic slowdown and the fallout of the recent industry blow.

Thanks to the success of “Black Myth Wukong,” the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA), the regulator for China’s gaming industry, approved 117 video games in August, the most of 2024.

In the first eight months of 2024, the NPPA approved licenses for 850 domestic games, compared with 609 in the same period in 2023.

Industry consultancy Newzoo expects China’s video game market revenue to reach $45 billion in 2024, compared with an estimate of $47 billion in the United States. By 2024, these two countries will account for half of global consumer gaming spending.

China’s video games market grew by more than 15% in August compared with the same period in 2023, helped by the popularity of Black Myth: Wukong – Photo: South China Morning Post

Black Myth: Wukong is so successful that many Chinese are dreaming of a second blockbuster AAA game

Since releasing Black Myth Wukong on August 20, little-known startup Game Science has become a household name around the world, drawing fans and media to its ArtInno Town offices in the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou to get a glimpse of the birthplace of China’s first AAA video game.

According to Game Science, “Black Myth Wukong” has sold more than 10 million copies in less than four days after its release, and the number of concurrent players on the Steam digital game store exceeds that of other popular AAA games such as “Cyberpunk 2077” and “Elden Ring.” At this point, “Black Myth: Wukong” has become the most attractive single-player game in the world.

The response has been so overwhelming that the Chinese gaming industry is getting hopeful at the prospect of creating another blockbuster game, which is expensive and takes years to make. But the excitement masks the many challenges China’s gaming industry still faces, including strict government censorship and a tendency to seek the quickest way to make money.

When Game Science CEO Feng Ji (42 years old) and Yang Qi left Tencent to start a game studio ten years ago, they never expected that their business would cause such a sensation. Two years after founding Game Science, Feng Ji made a decisive decision that went against the trend of the Chinese game market.

“We have discussed this issue for a long time. A few days ago, I was looking at the business plan we made when we raised funds in 2016, and 1/3 of it we wanted to spend on making single-player games.” Feng Ji shared with news website Chuapp (China).

China is known for its online free-to-play games, which generate their greatest revenue through the sale of in-game items. These include Tencent’s PUBG Mobile and miHoYo’s Genshin Impact. Game Science thought there was a big market for a single-player 3D action RPG, and the game ended up selling for $38 a unit in China and $60 a unit in the U.S., which is the standard price for a new AAA game.

Over the course of six years of development, Black Myth Wukong’s team has grown from 13 to more than 140 people, with an estimated budget of more than 300 million yuan ($42 million). That’s a hefty initial investment in China, but far less than the cost of developing major games abroad, such as Cyberpunk 2077’s reported budget of over $400 million.

The bet paid off, with Chinese players excited about Black Myth Wukong’s graphics and gameplay.

Black Myth Wukong could also benefit from broader industry trends. Cui Chenyu, a senior analyst at research firm Omdia, said “Black Myth: Wukong” is in line with “the general popularity of Souls games in recent years.” Souls-like games are a subgenre of action role-playing games known for their difficulty and dark fantasy settings, named after FromSoftware’s Souls series.

Cui Chenyu said: “The success of “Black Myth Wukong” is a combination of inevitable factors and random factors.”

Another factor is slowing growth in China’s 300 billion yuan gaming industry. China is the world’s second-largest games market by revenue, with sales rising 2% in the first half of 2024 to 147 billion yuan. A decade ago, the industry was growing at an annual rate of 40 percent as smartphones brought millions of people online.

Cui Chenyu said that to some extent, “Black Myth Wukong” is a shot in the arm for the game industry that has matured and has recently been looking for ways to cut costs.

Mio Kato, founder of LightStream Research, which is headquartered in the Japanese capital of Tokyo, said the game is also “a proof of concept for expanding beyond mobile gaming in China.”

“According to the data I have seen, “Black Myth Wukong” is very popular both abroad and domestically, but without the Chinese domestic market, it would not be able to achieve the status of a super hit. The sales volume of a launch game like “Black Myth Wukong” is very impressive and has set a record, because most games tend to gradually increase sales in the first 2 to 3 versions before they gain huge popularity.” Mio Kato commented.

The domestic success of “Black Myth Wukong” highlights a combination of favorable factors, including first obtaining the licenses needed to sell in China.

The gaming industry has been under a cloud since China began imposing strict regulations three years ago, resulting in an eight-month freeze on new licenses and limiting minors to three hours of play per week.

“When I entered the game industry in 2017, it was relatively easy to get a license, usually taking about two or three months. But around 2018, the government suspended the process. We were all scared at the time,” said Sherry Wang, who has been a game distribution manager in Shanghai for six years. Sherry Wang was referring to the nine-month game licensing freeze that preceded similar events in 2021. In the months following the latest freeze, as many as 14,000 gaming companies were removed from China’s company registration list.

Censorship of game content has also been stepped up. “We must stay away from historical nihilism, inciting politics and insulting religion,” Wang Xia said.

Traditionally, censorship has included supernatural elements such as ghosts. Final Fantasy XV replaced skeletons with other creatures when it launched in China.

Black Myth Wukong is filled with its own supernatural elements, such as gods and headless monks, but its ties to traditional Chinese culture could benefit the game as China seeks to bolster its soft power abroad. The game is inspired by the novel “Journey to the West”, one of the most influential literary works in East Asia in the 16th century.

“China encourages game companies to go abroad and also supports games as a means of showing its soft power to the world. Therefore, regulators are willing to issue licenses to games that can meet these two requirements.” said Zhou Huaming, a Shanghai game developer who has worked in the industry for 18 years.

However, Game Science seems to have made some changes for the domestic market. “Wine” in the PC version sold on Steam is labeled “honey” in the version sold through Tencent’s WeGame store.

It is one of the best-selling computer games of all time in China and is critically acclaimed worldwide.

There are many challenges in making such a game in the current environment. The success of “Black Myth Wukong” is almost a miracle, and it makes people question when China will have another hit game of this scale.

“Even if I have the ability to develop such a large project, I would not dare. When we do AAA projects, the first thing we consider is the cost-benefit ratio.” Zhou Huaming said when talking about the risks in China’s game industry, risks are unpredictable.

“Large companies with other businesses can survive, but small game studios are not so lucky. Sometimes the studio that is the last to approve a game runs out of operating capital,” Sherry Wang said.

Game Science may not be able to do this without the support of Tencent, the world’s largest gaming company by revenue. Feng Ji revealed on the Q&A platform Zhihu that Tencent promised not to interfere with the operations of Game Science and to provide technical support for Unreal Engine, a computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games (supported by Tencent).

While this, and what experts say is some of the serendipity of Black Myth Wukong, made the game so popular, some remain optimistic that the industry will see another AAA game within a few years.

“The success of “Black Myth Wukong” will definitely bring more funds to this field and make more game developers willing to try to develop such large-scale projects.” Zhou Huaming said.

Cui Chenyu estimates that it will take at least 2 to 3 years for another Chinese AAA game to appear.

“I’m not sure because the development time and huge investment required for a AAA game is not within the reach of the average developer,” she commented.

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