Black Myth: Wukong – Why the Chinese game is taking the world by storm

A new Chinese video game has created a buzz worldwide after it sold more than 10 million copies within three days, becoming the most successful game of all time to emerge from the country. According to 2023 estimates, China’s gaming industry is roughly worth $40bn.

Black Myth: Wukong, produced by developer Game Science (GS), has already generated an estimated $800-900m in revenue to date and will help project Chinese culture to a global audience.

The game, believed to be China’s first AAA video game, was developed at a reported cost of about $70m over six years. AAA is a classification used to denote a high-budget or high-profile game from a large video game developer.

While the game has gained attention for its meteoric rise in popularity, critics have pointed to an apparent culture of sexism, at least in the past, at Game Science, as well as a controversial list of dos and don’ts issued by the developer for influencers promoting the game and for streamers playing it. Among other things, the guidelines ask influencers and streamers to not use “trigger words such as ‘quarantine’ or ‘isolation’ or ‘COVID-19’” as well as “politics”.

China has long been sensitive to criticism over its COVID-19 policies, which included restrictions that continued long after most of the world had opened up.

The Black Myth: Wukong guidelines for content creators have apparently leaked online.

Streamers who agree to use a game key are not allowed to include politics, feminist propaganda, China's game industry policies or trigger words as COVID-19 & quarantine.https://t.co/YNZIFFK4ML pic.twitter.com/TMGsNLjVIG

— MauroNL (@MauroNL3) August 17, 2024

Yet the criticism has not put the brakes on sales with 18 million copies sold since its August 20 release.

According to Game World Observer, an online magazine that covers the video game industry, Wukong’s sales compare well with other games that had similar blockbuster releases in recent years.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, released in May 2023, and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, released in November 2022, both sold 10 million copies in three days.

What is the Black Myth game about?

Black Myth: Wukong is a single-player action game inspired by the classic 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West. The novel is loosely based on the actual seventh-century pilgrimage of the Buddhist monk Xuanzang to India in search of sacred texts.

The game follows the story of Sun Wukong, the Monkey King, as he goes on an epic journey to retrieve lost relics. Players take on the role of “The Destined One”, an anthropomorphic monkey with supernatural shape-shifting powers and combat techniques.

With its high-end realistic graphics, stunning visuals and appealing gameplay, it has gained wide acceptance from the gaming community with many flooding Black Myth: Wukong Reddit boards and Twitch livestreams.

What’s the controversy about?

In November, IGN, a United States video game and entertainment media company, reported on an alleged history of sexist posts that went public from some of Black Myth: Wukong’s developers.

Additionally, the guidelines for “socially appropriate” posts issued by the game’s developer for influencers and streamers have prompted criticism. Such guidelines are rare – if not unprecedented – for major games, according to industry insiders.

The full list of guidelines are:

• Enjoy the game!
• Do NOT insult other influencers or players.
• Do NOT use any offensive language/humour.
• Do NOT include politics, violence, nudity, feminist propaganda, fetishization, and other content that instigates negative discourse.
• Do NOT use trigger words such as “quarantine” or “isolation” or “COVID-19”.
• Do NOT discuss content related to China’s game industry policies, opinions, news, etc.

Game Science has not responded to the IGN article nor made a statement on the guidelines sent for Black Myth: Wukong. Beijing-based Hero Games, one of the largest investors in Game Science, has not commented either.

Ex-Gamekult journalist Benoit “ExServ” Reinier was among individuals to receive the guidelines from Game Science and has made a public video stating that he would not be reviewing Black Myth: Wukong, describing the guidelines as “ridiculous” due to concerns about censorship.

Why is Black Myth so popular?

Black Myth was first introduced in 2020 with a 13-minute pre-alpha trailer which eventually garnered two million views on YouTube and 10 million views on the Chinese streaming site Bilibili.

With four years of anticipation for its eventual release, expectations were high.

In addition, this was the Chinese video game industry’s first AAA release.

One of Black Myth’s big challenges was to try to cross over and resonate with both Chinese and English-speaking audiences.

PC Gamer, which has been reviewing computer games for 20 years, spoke to Game Science, the creator of Black Myth: Wukong, about the challenges of language translation.

“But in terms of a message to really drive home with the audience, when you peel away the language difference you see that Journey to the West has a spirit about it,” a developer from Game Science said in a recent article.

In another article, Yap Hui Bin, a longtime gamer and writer for Techgoondu – a Singaporean digital news site that covers technology and gaming culture – credited Black Myth: Wukong’s designers with using special care to reach English-speaking audiences.

“The game’s English translations, both in the written and spoken word, are of superb standard. Most impressively, there are painstaking efforts put into rhyming and alliterations of poems, fables and myths, which is a great way to introduce Chinese fables and culture to the English-speaking audience,” wrote Hui Bin.

How is the game’s success being seen in China?

The mega-success of the game has generated a national conversation on China’s soft power and the arrival of Chinese games on the global stage.

China’s state-run Global Times in a report said the game had shone “a global spotlight on China’s ancient wonders”.

“Black Myth: Wukong stands out for its stunning, lifelike portrayal of ancient Chinese architecture and cultural heritage,” it wrote.

Many in China’s gaming industry view the game as a source of national pride, celebrating Chinese culture and pushing back against Western dominance in gaming.

“Driving the development of games like Wukong is the nationalistic sentiment, promoted by Chinese state propaganda, that ‘we Chinese are as good as [and maybe better than] foreigners, so whatever foreigners achieve, we can achieve as well,” Yanchen Zhang, a doctoral student in the department of East Asian studies at the University of Arizona, told New Lines, a global affairs magazine, with a focus on the Middle East, Africa, South Asia and other regions.

The ability of Chinese video games to cross over into other global markets has the potential to build momentum around the local gaming sector.

“With the continued emergence of successful cases including Black Myth: Wukong, more investment and resources will focus on the Chinese gaming industry,” Mei Bo, senior game producer and founder of a gaming startup, told the Global Times.

“That not only drives the development of China’s gaming sector but also allows traditional Chinese culture to reach the world through this new, modern medium.”