China's video game achievement may be anomaly for years to come despite Black Myth: Wukong
The Wukong mania that swept the nation shows how far the domestic video gaming industry has come in the last 10 years: Sony could not legally sell the PlayStation in China a decade ago, when the country was in its final year of a 15-year console ban.
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China's first AAA video game - an unofficial designation that signifies high costs, long development times and the most demanding graphics - is proving to be a massive success. It sold 10 million copies in less than four days, according to developer Game Science, and its peak simultaneous players measured by the digital game store Steam surged past other hit AAA titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Elden Ring.
Importantly, this is not just a win at home like Huawei's China-made processor, which was considered a win for China but not the semiconductor industry. Black Myth is being praised by gamers worldwide, resulting in a score of 82 on Metacritic. That is not quite Elden Ring territory, with its score of 96, but it is more than respectable, especially for a debut AAA title.
With elements ripped straight from one of the most influential pieces of classic Chinese culture - it is inspired by the 16th century novel Journey to the West, where the Monkey King first appeared - Black Myth's success has led to questions about whether the country's massive video gaming industry could finally be boon to national soft power.
Views on this seem to be mixed. Some analysts dubbed it a big win for China's techno-nationalism and said it would help the country project global influence. But this is just one game. Industry insiders say it could be years before China sees another AAA game with this level of enthusiasm and success. One person estimated that seeing another such title come out of China could be nearly a decade away.
There are a lot of reasons for this, not the least of which is that China has a complicated relationship with video games. Reversing the console ban was not even the end of Beijing's campaign against video games as "spiritual opium". One of its biggest crackdowns on the industry was just three years ago, when Beijing limited minors to playing three hours a week and froze licences for new game releases for months.
The crackdown did immense damage to China's video gaming industry and did not go unnoticed in Beijing, which has since pulled back. In January, regulators retracted a proposal that would have limited spending in games - a move that had wiped US$80 billion from Chinese video gaming stocks. The official in charge of regulating the video gaming industry stepped down earlier in the month.
Another complication is that Game Science - a once low-profile studio that became a national champion overnight - has been the subject of controversy for years. Allegations of misogynistic remarks online from one of the company's founders, and of a sexist culture in the company, have clouded the developer. Ahead of Black Myth's release, streamers who got advanced access to the game posted online that they received notices telling them to avoid "feminist propaganda" and other sensitive topics, including Covid-19.
Some people called for boycotts of the game long before its release, but that seems to have had little effect. Still, the game is clearly having a much bigger impact at home than anywhere else.
The benefits of Black Myth go far beyond the video gaming industry. There has been talk of a "Wukong economy", as the game has spurred all kinds of activity in China - from the sale of tie-in products and services such as coffee and bike sharing to tourism to areas related to the game.
The biggest beneficiary of the game's success outside Game Science is probably its biggest backer: Tencent, the world's largest video game company by revenue. The founders of Game Science worked as game designers at Tencent before leaving to start their own studio. Tencent's fingerprints can be found everywhere in the gaming industry.
Most PC gamers globally are buying Black Myth on Steam, but in mainland China, they are buying on Tencent's WeGame. There, gamers are still subject to censorship even though the title got a licence back in February. The "wine" in the international version of the game, for example, was changed to "sweet dew" in the domestic version. No one knows how to navigate China's complicated web of video game regulations and restrictions as well as Tencent.
Technologically and even culturally, Black Myth represents the significant progress that Chinese game developers have made. It also shows the areas in which the industry remains held back. Gamers around the world can rejoice at having another major AAA title to play that, I'm told, is a genuine delight. Black Myth took six years to develop. Great AAA games are not necessarily rare, but neither are they common.
Yet, it is probably a stretch to say this is a big win for Chinese soft power. That remains too soon to tell. Beijing is also not known for speaking softly when it comes to video games, even if Wukong carries a big stick.
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