Black Myth Wukong Opens New Myth of Chinese Gaming
Recently, the single-player action role-playing game Black Myth: Wukong, based on the Chinese mythology Journey to the West, has taken both domestic and international markets by storm. On August 20, the game officially launched, and on the same night, its peak concurrent player count on Steam exceeded 2 million, placing it at the top of Steam’s real-time online player rankings. Foreign netizens jokingly commented that they were “overwhelmed by a monkey.” As of now (August 23, 2024), the game’s sales have surpassed 1.5 billion yuan, and within just a few days, it has achieved a game rating of over 80 on Steam, with a positive review rate exceeding 95%.
As a significant cultural product in today’s world, video games not only offer entertainment value but also educate and serve as a vehicle for cultural dissemination. In this industry, how can we promote the “creative transformation and innovative development” of excellent traditional culture? How do we follow the concept that “culture is enriched through exchange, and civilization is enriched through mutual learning”? And how can we fully utilize the internet to spread outstanding human culture and promote positive energy? Black Myth: Wukong has provided valuable exploration and profound insights. It not only marks an important breakthrough in China’s AAA single-player game industry but also plays a significant role in promoting the refinement and globalization of the domestic gaming industry.
Reimagining Chinese Mythology
Black Myth: Wukong is set in the backdrop of Chinese mythology and deeply draws from the classic novel Journey to the West, offering a fresh narrative and interpretation. The game is set after the successful pilgrimage of Tang Sanzang (Tripitaka), during which Sun Wukong has become the Victorious Fighting Buddha but yearns for the carefree life on Flower Fruit Mountain. As a result, he once again clashes with the Heavenly Court and disappears after a fierce battle with the deities sent to capture him. Sun Wukong vanishes, and players take on the role of a “Destined One” who closely resembles Wukong in appearance and personality, embarking on a journey to find and rescue the Great Sage.
In the game world, the Buddhist and Daoist systems have collapsed, the cycle of reincarnation is severely disrupted, and people’s memories of their past lives begin to awaken. Society falls into chaos, with citizens suffering and resistance rising. As the “Destined One,” players are tasked with guiding the people out of their predicament. Players must uncover the secrets of the shattered world, engage in intense battles with various hostile forces, attempt to restore order, and seek the legendary truth. The game also incorporates Buddhist philosophy, featuring two versions of Wukong—the True Heart Wukong and the Delusive Heart Wukong—adding profound philosophical and religious depth to the story.
The Birth of the First “Chinese-Style” AAA Single-Player Game
Back in August 2020, when Game Science, a company with fewer than 30 employees, released the trailer for Black Myth: Wukong, the game’s realistic details, aesthetic features, and craftsmanship sparked widespread discussion. Many wondered: When will China have its own AAA game? When will a game made in China tell a truly Chinese story and reflect a unique Chinese style?
An AAA game, in simple terms, is a high-quality, large-scale, high-cost single-player game with top-tier production budgets and marketing efforts. But why, before the emergence of Black Myth, had there been no successful examples in China? The core reason lies in the high risk of the industry, with few companies willing to “bet” on such a venture. Single-player games are challenging to profit from since players can enjoy unlimited gameplay after a single purchase, posing a significant challenge to game companies. Most teams opt for online games to ensure profitability. For example, while Take-Two Interactive, the parent company of Rockstar Games, has a high gross profit margin, its net profit margin is limited, whereas Tencent’s mobile games boast both high gross and net profit margins. Therefore, a domestic AAA single-player game is a high-risk, high-investment “gamble.” Yet, Black Myth took on this challenge, with high development costs, a long production cycle, and massive investments. Although it still has many details to be perfected as the pioneer of Chinese AAA single-player games, it stands as a milestone in the Chinese gaming industry. It symbolizes a breakthrough for domestic games, shedding the “small workshop” label and the stereotypes of mobile games, while also presenting a vivid and profound Chinese story on the international stage, where global blockbusters dominate.
From now on, we can experience our own mythological stories, not as assassins in ancient Jerusalem or warriors battling in the icy seas of the Skellige Isles, but as the Great Sage Equal to Heaven in our own homeland.
Games as a Vehicle for Cultural Confidence “Going Global”
Games have long been hailed as the “ninth art.” As a global cultural language and a new cultural medium, games play a unique role in international cultural dissemination. Scholars like Yu Guoming, Huizinga from the Netherlands, and Stephenson have deeply understood the essential characteristics of games: they are interactive activities where humans voluntarily participate under specific rules, breaking the constraints of reality and offering rich and enjoyable experiences. These features emphasize that games provide a more vivid, engaging, and in-depth way of disseminating information. The rapid development of electronic technology and new media in the latter half of the 20th century, especially the rise of the video game industry, has made the characteristics of games as a medium increasingly clear. Black Myth, as a game based on cultural heritage, not only enhances public awareness of cultural heritage protection through interactive experiences but also promotes cross-cultural communication, deepening the world’s understanding of Chinese culture.
Developing Cultural Creative Products
At the same time, deeply developing cultural creative products is a key strategy for strengthening cultural identity. As a content product, the deep core of cultural products is the value system itself. For example, in the highly popular game Genshin Impact, players commonly perceive two cultural essences: the warmth and inclusiveness of Chinese civilization and the Eastern spirit of collectivism. These elements are not all placed in a Chinese cultural context, yet they universally convey deep values of selflessness and dedication. Therefore, games representing Chinese cultural values can effectively resonate with national sentiments, encouraging the younger generation to examine and identify with their cultural and historical environment from a new perspective.
Insights from Black Myth: Wukong for the Chinese Gaming Industry and Cultural Export
In terms of dissemination strategies, building a diverse cultural dissemination matrix is crucial. The success of Black Myth demonstrates that by pooling the strengths of the government, academia, enterprises, and the public, a powerful cultural dissemination synergy can be formed, breaking the limitations of relying on a single entity.
Innovative Dissemination Methods
On the media level, it is vital to innovate dissemination methods and forms, enhancing the interactivity and immersion of the content. The unique advantage of games as a medium lies in their ability to comprehensively utilize various technological means to enhance user experience. For non-gaming cultural dissemination, this approach can also be applied by using emerging technologies such as video, live streaming, VR, and forms like news games and interactive narratives to enrich the expression of cultural dissemination.
Crafting World-Influential Cultural Masterpieces
In terms of content, meticulously researching the essence of Chinese culture and creating world-influential cultural masterpieces is the core. Black Myth has validated that the key to attracting a global audience to traditional Chinese culture lies in finding resonance points and achieving creative cultural transformation, allowing Chinese cultural products to shine in the globalized context. Black Myth: Wukong also reflects a content transformation direction, actively exploring the domestic market environment. The development team’s in-depth research and fieldwork on Journey to the West ensured the game’s story depth and authenticity. This phenomenon illustrates that the global gaming market’s competition is, in essence, a competition of cultural backgrounds. For instance, Assassin’s Creed: Origins succeeded by deeply exploring ancient Egyptian culture, and the international influence of Japan’s gaming industry also benefited from the long-term cultivation of anime culture. These cases collectively demonstrate that integrating profound cultural heritage with high-quality production is key to enhancing a game’s international competitiveness.
Overcoming “Eighty-One Trials” to Reach the Sacred Mountain
Although Black Myth has successfully broken through and become a phenomenal game, how long will its positive feedback last? This question still requires further observation. The game’s ratings on foreign platforms are not yet high, possibly due to the difficulty foreign players face in deeply understanding and empathizing with the traditional cultural elements in the game, such as 2D ink painting style and opera singing. To genuinely resonate with them requires a certain cultural threshold. While there are rumors that foreign players are already cramming to learn about Sun Wukong’s background, the profoundness of Chinese culture is not something that can be fully appreciated through “cramming.” Not everyone can go from playing a game to reading history.
For most Chinese players, Wukong is a cultural memory ingrained since childhood, but this experience may be somewhat diminished for non-native players due to cultural barriers. Some netizens mistakenly believe that the core values of Wukong in Japan’s Dragon Ball are the same as ours, while others find it difficult to understand certain characters and stories in Journey to the West. Although Black Myth has translated unique Chinese terms like “Land Deities,” “Lingyun,” and “Taoism” into words that overseas players can accurately understand, conveying deeper meanings, such as the background of different characters, the story of Pigsy, and the essence of Chinese Buddhism, remains challenging. The essence of Chinese often cannot be fully translated into English, and the reason Black Myth has received widespread acclaim is primarily due to its unique cultural immersion experience. Through the authentic Chinese voice acting, players can directly and purely appreciate the cultural essence within the game world.
Thus, there is still a long way to go in using games to let Chinese culture “go global.” But at least for the Chinese gaming industry, this is a brand-new beginning. Perhaps many Chinese players purchased Black Myth simply for the “one breath,” to support a domestically produced masterpiece that was born after overcoming “eighty-one trials,” and to push a game masterpiece infused with Chinese culture onto the global stage. Regardless, this is a breakthrough from zero to one in the Chinese gaming industry, and it is bound to lead to a surge of works showcasing the charm of Chinese culture, like bamboo shoots after a spring rain.
