‘Black Myth Wukong’, co-published by Hero Games, has taken US by storm selling over 10 million units just three days after its launch on August 20. The Chinese video game is ranked second by revenue in the United States and number one globally. The popularity of Black Myth Wukong, an action role-playing game, is rising even as Beijing cracks down on the country’s gaming industry.
The video game is about Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, who goes looking for six magical relics. The storyline of Black Myth is based on ‘Xi You Ji’ (Journey to the West) – one of the greatest classical Chinese novels. This novel has popularized Chinese culture, making it fearless and appealing to the West. The story has been made into soap operas, comic books, modern-era television shows, and games.
Black Myth Wukong offers gamers thrilling gameplay and stunning visuals of China’s landscapes. Steam, an online video game digital distribution platform, summarizes Black Myth Wukong gameplay as an action RPG rooted in Chinese mythology.
“The story is based on Journey to the West – one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature.” The player sets out as the destined one taking on challenges and marvels, to accomplish their goal – uncover the obscured truth.
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Black Myth Wukong – China’s First AAA Game
Published by Game Science, Black Myth Wukong is said to be China’s first aaa game. AAA is a label that spotlights big budgets and high production. Ivan Su, a senior equity analyst at Morningstar, says China is a big country with more than one million players.
He believes the reason the Asian giant hasn’t developed its own AAA game is because of the years-long production time. Su said mobile games are much more cost-effective.
Dino Ying, chairman of Hero Games (co-publisher of Black Myth) said this is the best game he has seen in his life. He highlighted that there would be more such games coming up as China has five to 10 other stories that have been passed down from generation to generation over the last millennia that can be turned into games.
