On August 20, with “Black Myth Wukong, China made a stunning entrance into the global AAA video game industry, which had been controlled by Western giants for a long time. The game quickly broke records and set the gaming world on fire with its unique, or “Chinese,” features.
If President Xi Jinping’s goal of reviving China and becoming more important in the world depends on “telling Chinese stories well,” then Black Myth Wukong is the perfect ambassador, getting the full attention of top video game magazines like IGN and PC Gamer.
Tencent helped the previously unknown company Game Science make this high-budget hit, which sold over 10 million copies around the world in just three days. This is an amazing feat considering it was the company’s first “premium” production.
Worth Black Myth Wukong
It’s crazy that the game has already made $800 million; over 18 million copies were sold in just two weeks after it came out. That’s a return of more than ten times the $70 million that was spent over six years making the game.
The game is based on the famous Chinese book Journey to the West, which was written in the 16th century. However, the title is more than just a game; it’s an impossible-to-stop-watching masterpiece of old stories, cutting-edge technology, art, and a celebration of Chinese culture.
Chinese-themed video Game
Journey to the West has been turned into many different media, from TV shows to comic books. However, Black Myth Wukong is the first hugely popular Chinese-themed video game made by a company in China.
The game Black Myth Wukong is a big deal for the Chinese gaming industry, and it’s also an exciting look into the future of the AAA game industry, where silly stories often sell well and money is spent on appealing to “kidults.”
Many AAA games are criticized for trying to appeal to a childish, consumer-driven audience by having a lot of merchandise and weak stories. Black Myth Wukong, on the other hand, fights this pull with its complex, sophisticated requirements in what the developers call a “interactive ancient mystical world.”
In the magical world of Black Myth Wukong, the player puts on the shoes, or rather, the fur, of Sun Wukong, the famous Monkey King. As soon as the game starts, you’re thrown into epic fights that make heaven and earth shake and make the gods pay attention. Players who have the legendary “Jin Gu Bang” have to fight enemies like the three-eyed warrior-god Erlang Shen, whose axe can cut through mountains.
The game is a lot like the “Soulslike” genre, which is hard but rewarding. It focuses on intense, high-stakes fighting with huge, mythical boss fights.
Action to be Taken
In the game, death doesn’t mean the end; instead, it’s a pattern of rebirth, which makes sense for a game that is based on Buddhist ideas.
Even though it was made for serious gamers, those who have read the book will recognize that the story stays the same throughout the 40 hours of play, giving it a lived-in realism even for players who haven’t read the book.
Black Myth isn’t like most current action games because it doesn’t have an open world with cluttered mini-maps and never-ending lists of quests. People who play the game are thrown into uncharted territory. It’s both exciting and scary to get lost in the old mythical world of China.
Obsessions
Every step through a dangerous mountain pass or a muddy swamp is a leap of faith.
To make things even better, you can find hidden places called “Obsessions” that you can only get to by completing certain tasks or collecting certain items. Again, it looks like the optional tasks are based on the Buddhist idea of attachment, with the items standing for the weight of desire.
Motion capture technology, which uses the movements of professional stuntmen to make virtual fighters that look and move like real people, is one of the most interesting things about the game.
Professional stuntmen wearing custom suits with reflecting points record their actions from every angle with this technology. The data is then turned into virtual information and shown on in-game characters.
“Guochao” and the rise of AAA games in China
But it should be said that the game’s win against all odds was more than just a stroke of luck. It shows how China is becoming more important in a global business.
It’s also hard to ignore the fact that the game’s amazing and record-breaking popularity seems to be riding the wave of a growing trend that fits in with the culture renaissance: guochao.
In China, gochujang is present in movies, TV shows, video games, music, and all other areas of youth culture. All of this is based on two main ideas. First, the culture product must have a clear and recognizable national style. Second, it needs to be creative, exciting, and fun so people want to see it.
More than 10,000 applications from professionals across the country were sent in after seeing the promotional video. They wanted to help with the development and creation of the project.
The game’s director, Feng Ji, said something very nationalistic when he said that the game wanted to bring back the Monkey King’s original name, Wukong: “The story is from China, but everyone calls him Goku…” We want everyone to know that his real name is Wukong.
Millions of players who watched the game agreed with the phrase “the pride of China.”
The comment turned out to be true. In the past, Chinese games were often similar to Japanese or American games. Black Myth Wukong, on the other hand, breaks this mold by using a story that is uniquely Chinese and based on old myths.
Like how the movie Chang Wukong is a big hit show that mixed modern animation with poetry from the Tang era. It is helping to change the way Chinese people think about popular culture.
Also, the desire for a Chinese-made AAA game has been steadily rising over the past few years. Since 2018, when Chinese players were able to join Steam, the way people play games in China has changed. Chinese gamers wanted more action, bigger worlds, and deeper gameplay after getting a lot of European and American games.
With over 10 million views on social media, this short but powerful show has already caused a stir.
