China Enthralled by Cultural Phenomenon: ‘Black Myth: Wukong’ Video Game Takes the Nation by Storm

Chinese official media endorsed the nation’s most popular single-player video game “Wukong, claiming that Western gamers will be compelled to become more culturally aware after playing this rendition of the Ming era classic “Journey to the West.”

“Black Myth: Wukong,” a game that centers around the shape-shifting abilities of a monkey king from an ancient Chinese novel, was being played by 2.2 million people at once on Steam, a popular online gaming platform, on Wednesday, the day it was released.

In a blog post, China Central Television stated, “It is now the responsibility of foreign players to learn about and comprehend Chinese traditional culture. Chinese players have previously gone through this process of cross-cultural understanding.”

“Black Myth: Wukong,” which is based mostly on the tale of the adored magical monkey Sun Wukong, who gains superhuman abilities by studying Taoism, is only enjoyable for gamers who are acquainted with the 16th-century classic’s scenario, according to the national broadcaster.

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With great enthusiasm on Chinese social media, Tencent-backed firm Game Science released the game on Tuesday. Weibo, a microblog like to X in China, saw 1.7 billion views of the game’s hashtags.

In an editorial published on Wednesday, state news agency Xinhua stated that “this release marks a bold foray by Chinese game developers into a market long dominated by Western triple-A titles.”

It also stated, “With this breakthrough, a triple-A game’s default language is now Chinese rather than English.”

Analysts at Shanghai-based Topsperity Securities predicted that “Black Myth: Wukong” will “attract more global players to pay attention to domestic games,” adding that businesses in a variety of industries might profit from intellectual property tie-ins.

In their marketing activities, Lenovo Group, Luckin Coffee, and ride-hailing company Didi are integrating themes from “Black Myth: Wukong.”

Whatever the case, idea stocks related to the game’s development were down on Wednesday after having increased significantly over the previous month. Gaming stocks, however, were constant.

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Widely regarded as China’s first AAA game, “Black Myth: Wukong” required significant investment, lengthy production cycles, and hefty development expenses. With a price tag of 268 yuan ($37.58) for the regular edition and 328 yuan for the premium, the game is a one-time purchase as opposed to other Chinese games that are played on mobile devices and need endless micropayments.

As of Tuesday, when the game was released, pre-sales, which started in June, had hit 400 million yuan, according to Citi.

It’s questionable if “Black Myth: Wukong’s” business plan will increase revenue. China is now getting its own AAA game that can wow the globe, which is crucial, an industry source told state-owned newspaper Global Times.