China’s first AAA game Black Myth: Wukong has both fans and brands excited

Ahead of Tuesday’s release of China’s first AAA video game, Black Myth: Wukong, Chinese brands are rushing to link themselves to the highly anticipated title through partnerships and product tie-ins.

Lenovo Group, Luckin Coffee and Didi Bike are among those giving their products a design makeover drawing inspiration from what could become China’s first blockbuster game to become a global hit, generating excitement among domestic gamers.

Inspired by the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, the action role-playing game from Hangzhou-based studio Game Science is already receiving rave reviews, placing it among the best-rated titles to come out of China and putting it in league with hits such as Activision Blizzard’s Diablo IV and Microsoft’s Halo Infinite.

Unlike other major Chinese titles, Black Myth is one of the first to spend years in development with much of its large budget going toward advanced graphics for computer and console gaming – a classification known as AAA. Two years after development started, Game Science first unveiled a 13-minute demo reel in 2020, attracting widespread attention for its fluid combat scenes and cinematic visuals. Earlier this month, the studio released its final pre-launch trailer, generating more buzz and racking up more than 14 million views on the Chinese streaming site Bilibili and 1 million on YouTube.

“I’ve played a lot of games since I was a kid, but most of them were based on Western culture, so I’m very excited to finally be able to play a game purely based on Chinese culture,” said Eric Wu, a sophomore at Guangzhou University. Wu bought the game for Sony’s PlayStation 5 on June 8, the first day of pre-orders.