Black Myth: Wukong is increasing China’s appetite for AAA games, but next one could take years
- Long wary of China’s capricious regulations on video games, investors and developers now see an upside to spending years on a single title
The popularity of Black Myth: Wukong has Chinese investors and video game developers looking at ways to replicate its success, but industry insiders say that might be a decade away.
Sales of Black Myth topped 8.4 million copies within three days, sending total revenue from the title on video gaming platform Steam to more than US$400 million, according to data from market research company VG Insights.
The immense popularity of China’s first AAA title – an unofficial designation for games with large budgets and long development times – now has other developers in the country thinking more ambitiously.
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“The emergence of Black Myth: Wukong proves that a [Chinese] AAA game project can be established, developed and eventually hit the shelves,” said Allen Chan, a game developer in Beijing who has been working in the industry for four years.
Over six years of development, with the team behind it growing from 13 to 140, Black Myth was produced under China’s stringent video gaming regulations, which require all titles to be licensed for commercial release.
