Escaping from the "Five Finger Mountain of Capital" is the reason why we are raving about "Black Myth: Wukong".

Editor’s note: There is such a monkey who saved Chinese movies, rescued Chinese animations, and is now coming to rescue Chinese games. Maybe you have been an assassin during the Sino-European period, a dragon hunter in another world, a bodyguard in North America, a bandit in Los Santos, or even a brave hero who saved the princess… but you have never been a superhero in your own Chinese story. And now, with the ability to transform at will, see through all falsehoods, and perform 72 earth-shattering transformations, these childhood dreams can all come true in Black Myth: Wu Kong. When the world mentions Wu Kong, it is no longer just the Super Saiyan who can transform, but the Great Sage Equal to Heaven who dares to resist all injustice.

Source: Blue Whale News

Author: Lu Pengpeng

Blue Whale News August 21st (Reporter Lu Pengpeng) It has been 24 hours since the online launch of “Black Myth: Wukong”, and many players have completed the first pass in one week.

The experience of these dozens of hours is the result of 7 years of hard work in game science and an investment of 400 million yuan. In the current situation where capital is eager for quick success and instant benefits, and the industry is trapped in low quality and fundraising circles, Game Science has become the only breakthrough player.

Why is a game worth going viral across the Internet? What does the success of “Black Myth: Wukong” mean?

On August 20th, the domestic 3A game ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ was officially launched, and it immediately exploded across the entire network on the day of its launch.

Within 1 hour of launch, the global online player count exceeded 1 million, 2 hours exceeded 1.2 million, 4 hours exceeded 1.4 million, 8 hours broke through 1.5 million, and 11 hours saw a simultaneous online player count surpassing ‘Palu, the Mythical Beast,’ reaching 2.18 million people. It ranked second in the peak simultaneous online player count list on Steam, second only to ‘PUBG’.

On social media platforms such as Weibo and Douyin, topics related to the game ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ have been dominating the trending lists all day long. Several mainstream media outlets even broke the tradition by live-streaming gaming sessions on workdays, attracting millions of viewers.

As the first true AAA game in China, “Black Myth: Wukong” did not disappoint players. In addition to its explosive sales and the frenzy in the capital market, it has also successfully achieved cultural export.

According to the information from the National Press and Publication Administration, the publisher of ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ is Zhejiang Publishing Group Digital Media Co., Ltd. Public data shows that it is a subsidiary controlled by Zhejiang Publishing United Group, established in 2016. Zhejiang Publishing United Group is a state-owned sole-funded publishing enterprise group directly under the provincial government.

In other words, this is a game endorsed by a state-owned enterprise. Zhejiang Publishing Media gave a high praise: “The game is based on the world view background of the original work of ‘Journey to the West’, and designed the main and subplot, striving to restore the background of the original work of ‘Journey to the West’. At the same time, it also incorporated many elements of traditional Chinese culture in the process of product development and design, and with its unique artistic style and profound cultural heritage, it attempts to promote the excellent traditional Chinese culture and promote Chinese culture to the world through the medium of electronic games.”

The player experienced more than 10 hours of gameplay on the day of its release, and shared his feelings with Blue Whale News journalists: "Just the prologue alone contains so many surprises of Chinese culture, such as why does Sun Wukong call Yang Jian his little nephew? Why does Yang Jian use an axe? The vanguard tiger, the elder of the golden pool, the familiar demon kings such as the black bear came one after another. Players familiar with Journey to the West stories would smile knowingly. The dense Chinese cultural elements have prompted many foreign players to stay up all night catching up on ‘Journey to the West’.

The ultimate Chinese aesthetics are present throughout the game, with meticulously crafted scenes, text, and settings that provide a realistic and impactful experience. It is the first step in China’s gaming industry, a shining beacon among domestic games, a pioneer in opening the door to domestic 3A games, and a shining light in domestic 3A games… like many players, this sentiment has been expressed more than once.

A senior game industry practitioner told Blue Whale News that the reason why AAA games are regarded as top-notch works in the gaming industry is because they strive for excellence in content, plot, and art, emphasize inheritance and promotion in terms of cultural value, and pursue continuous innovation in technology. An excellent AAA masterpiece not only represents a country’s high level in the gaming industry, but also symbolizes the cultural and technical strength of a country. Currently, there is an urgent need for a AAA game masterpiece that can make a name for itself in the world, and “Black Myth: Wukong” is the one that shoulders this mission.

Your 1 hour, his 20 million

With the launch of ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ on major console platforms, the developer Game Science (Shenzhen Game Science Interactive Technology Co., Ltd.) is gradually entering the public eye.

Public information shows that Game Science was founded in 2014 by core members of the Tencent’s ‘Doushenshen’ project, such as Feng Ji and Yang Qi. Over the past few years, Game Science has successively launched several mobile game products, such as ‘Bai Jiang Xing’ and ‘War Arts: Red Tide’. Among them, the single-player/console game ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ with the theme of Journey to the West is its flagship product in the single-player game category.

According to Tianyancha information, the actual controller of Game Science is Feng Ji, with a shareholding ratio of 38.76%; the second largest shareholder is the Shenzhen Game Science Interactive Enterprise Management Center, with a shareholding ratio of 27.36%, and the actual controller is also Feng Ji, which also means that Feng Ji, as the initial game startup team, holds more than 66% of the shares.

In addition, Hero Entertainment holds 19% of the shares through its subsidiary Tianjin Hero Gold Control Technology Co., Ltd.; Tencent holds 5% of the shares through its subsidiary.

What is the investment situation behind such a phenomenal 3A game?

The term 3A game originated in the United States in the 1990s, and there is still no authoritative definition. The widely circulated interpretation is a game with high development costs (a lot of money), long development cycles (a lot of time), and high resource consumption (a lot of resource).

In an interview with CCTV News, Feng Ji, CEO of Game Science, revealed that the development cycle of “Black Myth: Wukong” began in 2017 and officially launched on August 20, 2024. The entire development process took about 7 years with huge investments. The development cost per hour of game time is about 15 to 20 million yuan, and the overall game time is more than 20 hours, so the total development cost is at least 300 to 400 million yuan.

The success of the game is backed by a cost of 4 billion yuan and 7 years of polishing. Can such a huge investment pay off?

The standard edition of ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ is priced at 268 yuan, and the deluxe edition is priced at 328 yuan. As of the time of publication, it has sold over 3 million copies on Steam, and combined with sales on WeGame, Epic, and PlayStation platforms, the total sales volume exceeds 4.5 million copies, with total sales revenue exceeding 1.5 billion yuan.

But this is only the sales volume. To calculate whether it is profitable, the platform commission needs to be deducted. Steam, PS5, and Wegame all take a 30% commission. Based on a cost of 4 billion, games need to generate sales of over 5.7 billion to break even.

In this way, ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ has already recouped the cost on the day of its release, which is undoubtedly beyond the expectations for domestic 3A games.

Analysts estimate that based on the current sales performance, ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ may sell around 8 million copies in the future. Based on the price of 268 yuan per copy, the game’s final sales revenue will exceed 2 billion yuan.

7 years of hard work is not as good as the revenue of King of Glory in 3 months: Capital is eager for quick success and instant benefit, and the industry is caught in a low-quality, money-circling dilemma.

Why is it only today that the first truly AAA masterpiece has been released domestically?

To some extent, the long-term absence of 3A masterpieces is a manifestation of the game industry’s impatience for quick success and instant benefits.

In 2007, Feng Ji, CEO of Game Science, published a long article titled ‘Who Killed Our Games’, criticizing the then current situation of the gaming industry, attributing the failure of self-developed games to the greed of capital.

It is worth noting that the industry problems at that time still exist today.

Unlike the continuous profit model of online games, single-player games are a one-time purchase. After players spend money, they permanently own the right to use the game. The limitations of the game mode greatly drop the profitability.

According to the 2023 global mobile game revenue ranking released by mobile application research organization Appmagic, Tencent’s ‘Honour of Kings’ has a total revenue of approximately 1.48 billion US dollars (about RMB 10.5 billion), ranking first. ‘PUBG Mobile’ ranked second with a total revenue of 1.14 billion US dollars (about RMB 8.1 billion), and ‘Genshin Impact’ ranked fourth with a total revenue of 944 million US dollars (about RMB 6.7 billion).

By comparison, the final sales of ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ may only be 2 billion, after 7 years of hard work by the development team, which is less than the revenue of a mobile game in three months.

Lu Yao, a developer from a domestic 3A game studio, told Blue Whale News that 3A is a heavy industry in the game industry, a crystallization of the highly integrated culture industry and digital technology. From screenwriting, sound effects, action to art style, character design, level production, etc., huge capital investment is needed in the early stage. In addition, from the developer’s perspective, this kind of masterpiece also needs a stable team, and various harsh conditions make most game companies hesitate.

For manufacturers, profit is the primary goal. Making games is not charity. It is not a wise deal to invest billions of dollars in a low-return project, which is also the long-term reason for the lack of AAA works in China.

Luyao said, “In the past, many game companies lacked the spirit of craftsmanship. They took advantage of the short development cycle, quick return on investment, and portability of mobile games to crazily harvest money from pay-to-win players, earning maximum profits in the shortest amount of time. This profit-driven operation model has caused the abnormal development of the game market. But now, we also have our own AAA masterpiece. The appearance of ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ has broken the vicious cycle of low quality and money-grabbing in the domestic game industry for a long time, and has broken the curse of the game industry being profit-oriented.”

It’s hard for AAA games to make money, how can game developers break through?

Big productions, big investments, and low returns seem to have become synonymous with ‘labor of love’ when it comes to AAA games in the gaming industry. How can domestic boutique game developers like Game Science find a positive cycle that is both fun and profitable?

Perhaps some experience can be found in the operating mode of some major game factories abroad.

Taking the world-renowned game developer Rockstar Games (referred to as R Star) as an example, the company’s “Grand Theft Auto” series (GTA), “Red Dead Redemption” series and other classics are undoubtedly the benchmark of global triple-A games.

According to data, Red Dead Redemption 2 invested $800 million and took 8 years to develop, with more than 2,000 employees involved, while the budget for Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5) reached $265 million.

Since the release of GTA 5 at the end of 2013, Rockstar Games has earned more than $9 billion (about 64.2 billion yuan) from the Grand Theft Auto franchise.

The above-mentioned revenue includes the full game sales of “GTA 5” on 3 generations of game consoles, the sales of the 2020 re-issuance of “Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition”, in-game purchases of “GTA Online”, and the sales of other games in the series.

As of now, the global sales of ‘GTA5’ have exceeded 200 million traps, worth noting that this is a game that has been issued for nearly 10 years, and still has a strong ability to attract money.

“3A games are not unprofitable, it’s just not as easy to make money because they rely too much on IP. To maintain continuous profitability, the most important thing is to continuously develop series works.”

Game analyst Shu Tong told Blue Whale News that Ubisoft has the “Assassin’s Creed” series, Activision has the “Call of Duty” series and the “Destiny” series, and EA has the “Star Wars” series and the “Battlefield” series. Rockstar’s “Grand Theft Auto” is the most classic, from the first “Grand Theft Auto” issuance in 1997 to the present, the game has produced more than ten series. Well-known game manufacturers in Europe and America all have their own stable series of works. Once a stable IP effect is formed, it can achieve a positive cycle of popular demand.

As the saying goes, behind the popularity of Black Myth: Wukong, Game Science may have already prepared to continue developing series works.

Blue Whale reporters found that Game Science has applied to register multiple related trademarks such as “Black Myth: Wukong, Black Myth: Wukong, Black Myth: Wukong, Black Myth: Wukong, Black Myth: Wukong, Black Myth: Wukong”.

Earlier, insiders revealed that Game Science is likely to switch to developing the aforementioned games after the release of the DLC for Black Myth: Wukong.

Player-made meme

Everything is difficult at the beginning. “The Myth of Dark God: Wukong” has opened a new era of domestic 3A games, which is not only a game, but also a way for technology to realize in the consumer market. It is a milestone work in the industrialization process of Chinese cultural industry. Its success can help the game industry to firmly embark on the road of independent research and development of high-quality products. With successful precedents, more 3A masterpieces are possible to emerge in the future.