Will China produce more?
You are thrust into the heat of battle - a clash so violent it has "disturbed heaven and Earth" and "alarmed both demons and gods". Playing as Sun Wukong, aka the Monkey King, you wield the jin gu bang (a fabled staff weighing eight tonnes) and face down Erlang, a three-eyed warrior-god. You must be wily, not to mention nimble: Erlang's axe can cleave entire mountains in two. (And you thought your day job was stressful.)
"Journey to the West" has been adapted many times: it is the most famous novel in Chinese literature and among the country's most successful cultural exports. But "Black Myth: Wukong", released on August 20th, is special. The video game is the first blockbuster release from a Chinese studio. In industry lingo, "Black Myth" is a "AAA" game-a label that denotes big budgets and high production values.
China is a country of gamers. By 2027 there will be more than \(700\mathbf{m}\) players there, and the market will be worth \(\$ 57 \mathbf{bn}-\) up from \(\$ 45.5 \mathbf{bn}\) in 2022 -according to Niko Partners, a market-research firm. Many Chinese have bemoaned their country's inability to produce a video game as thrilling as "Grand Theft Auto" or "World of Warcraft" (which originated in Scotland and America respectively). They are hoping "Black Myth" marks the arrival of a new player in the AAA arena.
Why has China been so late to log on? One reason is that the country has been focused on winning the mobile game war. China made four of the ten highest-grossing mobile games of 2023, including the top entry, "Honour of Kings". Mobile games "monetise much faster", explains one game producer in China, which counts against designers who want to spend time and money on something more expansive.
Nor did it help that gamers did not have the right hardware. From 2000 to 2014 China banned imports of PlayStations and Xboxes, citing concerns for youngsters' mental health. After the ban was lifted, Chinese studios lacked the expertise to make games for those consoles; it has taken a long time to catch up. China's game technology is "backwards", says a developer at a major Chinese gaming firm. "Black Myth" was made with a 3D graphics creation tool called Unreal Engine from an American company, Epic Games.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the lag is that Chinese gamers are not in the habit of paying to play. Copyright protection is often scant and software piracy rampant. That has made making elaborate games financially unviable. China is richer now, but with the rise of mobile games-which are typically free-to-play and make their money from selling in-game benefits-the habit has stuck. Some Chinese netizens were nonplussed when the pricing for "Black Myth" was announced at 268 \(\mathbf{yuan}\) \((\$ 38)\).
GameScience, the maker of "Black Myth", based in Hangzhou, is hoping to reboot that attitude. Feng Ji, its boss, abides by the motto "Move oneself first, then find alignment with the market." GameScience studied the best titles and historical material to create a game world that would feel true to "Journey to the West".
The process took six years, but the determination has paid off. In the day after its launch, "Black Myth" enjoyed 2.2 m concurrent players on Steam, a gaming platform-the second-highest figure of any game on record. Most of those players were from China, but it has proved popular abroad, too. In the week after its release, it has been the top-selling game on Steam in America, Germany and Japan. "Black Myth" has earned positive reviews on the platform from \(96 \%\) of Chinese players and \(93\%\) of English-speaking ones.
With "Black Myth" the Monkey King has reaffirmed his reign over Chinese content. The game has already been promoted as a source of nationalist pride. Xinhua, an official news service, says "Black Myth" has succeeded in "telling China's story with world-class quality". A spokesperson for China's foreign ministry, delighted at a positive news story about China, has argued the game's approval overseas "reflects the appeal of Chinese culture".
Some analysts believe that China's gaming industry will not give up its preference for mobile even if "Black Myth" becomes the stuff of legend. But others are more optimistic. The game's success proves the viability of blockbuster games in China, they say, and encourages other developers to think big. GameScience has accrued the experience to make subsequent projects easier. Mr Feng asserts that "There will be more Chinese games that can vie with those overseas." That will come as good news to those who like to monkey around on gaming consoles.