On the day “Black Myth: Wukong”, a Chinese action role-playing game developed by Chinese video game company Game Science, was launched in Hangzhou, eastern China, people walked past the image of the “Monkey King” character or “Sun Wukong”. Zhejiang Province.
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BEIJING — China’s first attempt to launch a top-tier video game has broken a world record, bolstering the industry’s global ambitions after a government crackdown in Beijing on gaming.
“Black Myth: Wukong” is an action game set in mythical China. It sold more than 10 million copies in three days after its launch on August 20. .
“I think the next AAA game is likely to be very close because Black Myth: Wukong showed everyone that a Chinese-made AAA game can achieve such high global sales,” said Dino Ying, chairman of Hero Games. Dino Ying said. That’s according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin remarks in an exclusive interview on Thursday.
Ying said he was aware of at least one such game in development and that his Hero Games business partner had invested in it.
As for how Black Myth: Wukong is doing, Ying only said sales growth was “much higher” than the 10 million copies figure, although he said it hasn’t doubled yet.
He said that the company’s future game releases will have a global strategy from the beginning. He also hopes that foreign 3A-level game developers can realize how big the Chinese market is and create more features tailored for Chinese players.
AAA games generally refer to games with high graphics quality and prominent marketing. This means that these types of video games tend to come from companies like Nintendo, Ubisoft and Electronic Arts.
“China is a big country. We’re talking about 1 million concurrent players,” said Ivan Su, senior equity analyst at Morningstar. “There are 600 million gamers in China.”
He said the reason why China had not developed its own AAA games (usually played on computers and consoles) before was because they took years to produce. “If you make mobile games, it’s much more cost-effective,” Su said.
Apple Tim Cook visits Hero Games
When Hero Games first invested in Game Science, apple Tim Cook visited in 2017 Ying said that the first game “The Art of War: Crimson Tide” left a deep impression on him, and he put the game on the home page of the iOS app store in 178 countries.
But it wasn’t a commercial success.
In 2017, Apple CEO Tim Cook visited the offices of Hero Games after the company invested in Game Science, which went on to develop Dark Myth: Wukong.
hero game
He said that when the developer approached Ying and his team about Black Myth: Wukong in August 2020, Hero Games had already spent three years investing 60 million yuan (equivalent to ($8.5 million today).
“We were very lucky that we didn’t give up on the game science until it was successful,” Ying said, noting that his business partner Daniel Wu, now CEO of Hero Games, was the first to discover the startup.
“We’re not saying to blindly wait for everyone,” he said. “When you see this talent, you need to be convinced that this talent has been undervalued. It may not have found itself in the right direction. (So you just have to) help it find it.”
“The best game I’ve ever seen”
He said that two days before Game Science Project released a promotional video for “Black Myth: Wukong”, the company showed the video to Ying Ying and asked his team to pay at least another 100 million yuan. If not, he said the startup plans to ask BilibiliChina’s major video streaming and gaming platform.
After watching the film, I should say he told his team “I really don’t want to miss this opportunity because this is the best game I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Tencent Ying said that he subsequently purchased 5% of the shares, but said that it would not interfere with Game Science’s plans. “Because this is a AAA-level game, it is impossible to get approval according to the normal procedures of large companies.”
Hero Games’ initial investment in Game Science was a 20% stake.
Beijing only began approving games in the past two years after suspending new games in 2021 and limiting the time minors could play them.
Black Myth: Wukong received approval from the Chinese government in February. It should be said that no part of the game needs to be changed to pass.
Ying said: “I personally think that in the past two years, supervision has become more and more respectful of the game industry, which is conducive to the development of the game industry.” He pointed out that a year or two ago, “there was a misunderstanding.”
Great market potential
Ashley Dudarenok, founder of Chinese digital consulting company ChoZan, cited industry data and said that in the first half of this year, sales of domestic games in China reached 147.27 billion yuan.
but Console game revenue only accounts for 0.5% of that, she said.
It should be noted that after the release of “Black Myth: Wukong”, many Chinese people bought a PlayStation or upgraded their graphics cards, just like many people bought a Nintendo Switch for the first time because of “The Legend of Zelda”.
Something that can last 1,000 years, people will love it
Indino
Chairman of Hero Games
As for the global market, Dudarenok said overseas sales of games developed in China will increase from US$11.6 billion in 2019 to US$16.4 billion in 2023.
“Chinese games often incorporate rich cultural elements and are increasingly attracting global audiences,” she said. “This unique cultural flavor sets them apart from games developed in other regions”
Ying said he expected there to be at least five to ten more stories that have been circulating for thousands of years in China that could be adapted into games.
“If I create a new thing, I don’t know if people will like it. But something that lasts 1,000 years, people will definitely like it,” Ying said. “We don’t know why it survived for so many years. But we just have to respect the (original) craftsmen.”
Game Science sent teams and equipment to ancient temples in China to scan and copy designs, adding to the game’s immersion, he said.
Chinese indie games
In the relatively niche market of independent games, Chinese companies are also rising.
Shanghai-based Cotton Game, which has 70 employees, won the 2024 Best Development Team Award for Independent Games from the French-backed Game Connection organization and ChinaJoy.
“It depends on our capabilities, but (we want to) use games as a way to share art, philosophy and thoughtful content,” the company’s CEO, whose English name is CottonGuo, said in Mandarin as translated by CNBC.
Cotton Game’s Sunset Hills – which took five years to hand-draw – also won Game of the Year and Best Indie Game awards. The $20 game launches on Steam on August 21 Raised $13,000 on Kickstarter.
The game follows an anthropomorphic dog through a European-style village, accompanied by the sounds of nature and music. Players solve puzzles along the way.
“Everyone is very tired. In today’s society, the pace of life is very fast.” Sunset Game Manager Luo Yanhong said. Its protagonist is based on his own dog. “So when I made Sunset Mountain, I wanted everyone who plays the game to (find it) refreshing.”
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