China freaks out over culture-promoting video game “Black Myth: Wukong”

By Joe Cash

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese state media has sharply criticized China's most successful single-player video game to date, saying the adaptation of the Ming Dynasty epic “Journey to the West” will force Western gamers to learn more about the country's culture.

“Black Myth: Wukong,” based on a mythical monkey king from a Chinese literary classic who can take the form of humans, animals and inanimate objects, was played by 2.2 million simultaneous players on Steam, a major online gaming platform, on Wednesday, a day after its release.

“Chinese players have gone through this process of intercultural understanding in the past, now it is the turn of foreign players to learn and understand traditional Chinese culture,” China Central Television wrote in a blog.

Since “Black Myth: Wukong” is closely tied to the story of the popular magical monkey Sun Wukong, who gains supernatural powers through the practice of Taoism, the game can only be enjoyed if one is familiar with the plot of the 16th-century classic, according to the national broadcaster.

The PC/console-based game was launched on Tuesday by Game Science, a Tencent-backed startup, to widespread acclaim on Chinese social media, with hashtags related to the video game garnering 1.7 billion views on China's X-like microblog Weibo.

“This release marks a bold foray by Chinese game developers into a market long dominated by Western triple-A titles,” the official Xinhua news agency wrote in an editorial on Wednesday.

“With this breakthrough, the default language of a triple-A game is no longer English, but Chinese,” it added.

“Black Myth: Wukong” will “attract more global gamers to domestic games,” said analysts at Shanghai-based Topsperity Securities, adding that companies from many different industries could expect to benefit from intellectual property ties.

Ride-sharing companies Didi, Lenovo Group and Luckin Coffee are incorporating elements inspired by “Black Myth: Wukong” into their advertising campaigns.

Black Myth: Wukong was widely hailed as China's first AAA game – high development costs, long production cycles, and huge investments. Industry analysts see the game's sudden fame and popularity as a turning point for China's PC/console gaming sector.

According to Citi, pre-sales, which began in June, had already reached 400 million yuan ($56 million) by Tuesday when the game was launched.

Feng Ji, founder of Game Science, told Xinhua in an interview that the global attention has exceeded his initial expectations and that his team will develop more such games.

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“We see signs that the government recognizes the industry's potential export and cultural value, particularly the Game Science founder's interview with state media agency Xinhua ahead of the game's launch,” Goldman Sachs wrote in a statement.

Goldman added that they expect more Chinese AAA games to enter the global market in the future.

Be that as it may, gaming industry stocks were flat on Wednesday, with concept stocks related to the game's development declining after rising sharply over the past month.

Unlike other Chinese games played on mobile devices that require endless in-game microtransactions, Black Myth: Wukong is a one-time purchase, costing 268 yuan ($37.58) for the standard version and 328 yuan for the premium version.

“It is unclear whether the business model of 'Black Myth: Wukong' can bring more profit… the important thing… is that China finally gets its own AAA game that can excite the world,” the state-run tabloid Global Times quoted an industry insider as saying.

“Players around the world can develop a deeper understanding of traditional Chinese culture while having fun,” Global Times said.

(1 US dollar = 7.1342 Chinese renminbi yuan)

(Reporting by Joe Cash; additional reporting by Ryan Woo; editing by Michael Perry and Christian Schmollinger)