Black Myth: Wukong’s popularity brings unexpected windfall, fame to low-profile developer

A former Tencent game designer started Game Science a decade ago with a dream of creating a Chinese AAA title, which has now come true

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The Chinese video game Black Myth: Wukong has become a global hit after its launch this week. Photo: Game Science

Published: 9:59pm, 22 Aug 2024Updated: 11:07pm, 22 Aug 2024

As Black Myth: Wukong took the global gaming community by storm, the low-profile studio behind China’s first AAA video game has quickly become the centre of attention, fanning heated discussions in China’s gaming industry over the secret to its success.

Set up in 2014 in China’s southern tech hub of Shenzhen by Feng Ji, a former game designer at Tencent Holdings, Game Science this week realised the founder’s dream of making a home-grown blockbuster title.

After six years of development, the sprawling 3D action game has become the hottest single-player title on the PC game store Steam, putting it in the same league as some of the biggest games ever.

Feng’s obsession with Wukong, the Monkey King character from the 16th-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, started as early as his stint at Tencent, the world’s largest video gaming company by revenue.

There he was a core member of the development team on a project called Asura, a massively multiplayer online role-playing game based on The Legend of Wukong, an online novel adapted from the original.