Chinese Games Going Overseas, not Just Wukong

Telling a good Chinese story is like giving a gift; it’s unappealing to give it hard, but if it’s wrapped with great graphics and special effects, it can be a hit and generate interest. This late summer, “Black Myth: Wukong” is a gift pack from a domestic game to global players.

“‘Black Myth: Wukong’ is of such a high caliber that it can be called one of the best graphic presentations in the world today.”

This is what a nearly 20-year veteran gamer who worked for a Chinese head game maker had to say about “Black Myth: Wukong”.

Since launch in August this year, “Black Myth: Wukong” has broken the record as the PC single-player game with the highest number of people online in the history of the Steam gaming platform, selling 18 million copies in two weeks, making it the highest-selling game of the year and one of the fastest-selling records in the global gaming industry. As of today, a total of 18 million people have played the action game themed on Monkey King, with each person playing for about 27 hours, and the total revenue has exceeded $867 million (Figure 1), ranking No. 1 in the IGN Game of the Year Awards (Figure 2).

Figure 1, Source: Video Games Insights

Figure 2, Source: Video Game Insights

“Wukong Craze” around the World

Playing as a Dragonborn, Demon Hunter, Assassin, Brave, etc. is all well and good, but you say you can be a Monkey? This kind of addition from bloodline, history, culture and childhood memories is unimaginable in the past.

This is a Chinese gamer’s review of “Black Myth: Wukong” in the Steam Discussion Community, which has been liked by more than 12,000 gamers and has led to an imitation of the “love letter to Chinese gamers” style in the community.

Source: Steam

“Black Myth: Wukong” has sparked “Wukong craze” around the world. According to Metacritic, a global game rating website, “Black Myth: Wukong” has received an average rating of 81 out of 100 from 54 media outlets around the world as of early this week. Game review site IGN even gave it a perfect score, praising it as “a milestone in China’s game industry and a domestic 3A game with international competitiveness”. For a long time, 3A games have been called “large production, large cost, large volume of god-level games” with huge game worlds and rich content, and have been monopolized by European and American game makers, such as “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare,” “The Wilderness Dartboard,” “The Legend of Zelda,” “Call of Duty,” “Sniper Elite,” “Forza Horizon 5,” and so on. China lacks producers who have real experience in managing art and technology, and even producing a 3A masterpiece on their own. Throughout the history of the development of domestic games, China has failed to produce even a single 3A game in its true sense.

Source: Screenshot of “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare”

According to EqualOcean’s online research in several major gamer communities including Steam community, Reddit, NeoGAF, Twitch, X and YouTube, gamers showed great interest in “Black Myth: Wukong”. The majority of players spoke highly of the game’s visual effects and battle system, especially the next-generation picture quality and smooth action design.

Source: Steam

In addition to the online gaming community research, EqualOcean randomly selected around 50 interviewees of various ages, occupations, nationalities and genders from the international traveler community in different regions of the UK, of which nearly 20 were gaming enthusiasts. How hot has “Black Myth: Wukong” become? From the big and bustling city of London to a Scottish village away from the hustle and bustle, all the game enthusiasts had played or heard of the game and all gave positive reviews.

“Every gamer on Steam knows Black Myth: WuKong! I have played many games on Steam based on stories in Journey to the West. I began to read Journey to the West after WuKong.”

This is what a retired American electrical engineer had to say about his experience playing “Black Myth: Wukong”.

He rejected all social media, but has played most of the Steam games based on Chinese stories, because playing the Wukong game stimulated his interest in reading the Chinese classics Journey to the West. He specially brought a copy of the book to read on the trip when going on vacation in the town. On social media, many Europeans and Americans have also expressed their interest in reading the original book in discussion forums related to “Black Myth: Wukong”, as they were unaware of the game’s background setting.

Chinese Games Going Overseas, not Just Wukong

“Black Myth: Wukong” has gained popularity around the world, but its success isn’t easy to replicate.

Firstly, it has a top-notch art director. Yang Qi, known to game enthusiasts as “the ancient god of China’s cg industry”, has more than 10 years of painting experience, and led a team that spent six years and invested more than 400 million yuan ($57 millon) to carefully create every scene and character in the game, reinterpreting classic elements from Journey to the West, both preserving traditional culture and incorporating them into the game. This extreme pursuit of graphic details and flexible use of technology to enhance the visual effect of the game relies on top-notch professionals and capital investment.

Secondly, a large part of the success of “Black Myth: Wukong” comes from the authentic reproduction of ancient Chinese architecture. Thirty-six historical monuments in China, including the Hanging Temple and the Jade Emperor Temple in Jincheng, have been perfectly brought into the virtual world through advanced 3D scanning and drone technology. For example, the image of the game’s hyper-jin dragon comes from the Jade Emperor Temple’s twenty-eight star constellations, while ancient buildings such as the Dazu stone carvings have also been highly reproduced to give players an immersive sense of presence.

The Unreal Engine’s Lumen and Nanite technologies also provide a strong technical backing for the game’s detailed graphics and complex lighting and shadow performance. Lumen technology provides real-time global illumination, making the scene’s light and shadow changes more realistic, while Nanite ensures the non-destructive rendering of complex models through the rendering of details in the virtual geometry. The combination of these technologies has enabled “Black Myth: Wukong” to reach a new level of graphic performance, far surpassing many similar products and bringing gamers the experience of “returning to a time when gaming was all about fun and immersion”. All of this is based on a huge amount of capital investment.

In addition, the performance of the entire gaming market this year has paved the way for the success of “Black Myth: Wukong”. This year, there were relatively few games with long production cycles and high costs, and no other major games on the market were able to go head-to-head with them. In addition to the game’s attractive combination of “Journey to the West + Dragon Ball” elements, the vacuum of competition in the market has made “Black Myth: Wukong” the first choice of gamers this year.

In terms of data achievement alone, “Black Myth: Wukong” can be considered a successful commercial narrative, but it’s not perfect. Judging from the Steam community and social media reviews, the majority of participants are still Simplified Chinese player reviews. As of now, 76% of gamers are from China. It can be said that this is still a Chinese narrative game supported by Chinese players. In addition, the game’s performance is unstable and prone to lagging or crashing, the level design is more linear, and the freedom of exploration is low. Technical issues such as language switching, disappearing audio, and unsynchronized animations also detract from the experience. The game also lacks map navigation, the story is less friendly to players unfamiliar with Journey to the West, and the lack of a difficulty option adds to the challenge for newcomers. Additionally, “Black Myth: Wukong” has been subject to some controversy regarding feminist issues.

Realistically, most game makers do not have the ability to afford high production costs, long development cycles, or unique technological advantages. Therefore, although the success of Wukong is exciting, Chinese games going overseas should not only focus on Wukong. Beyond Wukong, there is no shortage of high-quality Chinese games that have been well received in overseas markets, and beyond 3A games, there are other areas where Chinese games have achieved cultural export and global market breakthroughs in different ways.

Chinese mobile games have performed particularly well. Take Tencent’s Honor of Kings International Edition as an example, the game has quickly taken over several markets around the world thanks to its smooth operation experience and continuous update content. It has topped the free list in 12 countries and regions, including Southeast Asia and North America. By combining local cultural characteristics and targeted marketing, Honor of Kings has successfully broken through cultural barriers and become one of the favorite handheld games of players around the world. Mihayou’s “Original God” is even a classic case. As a cross-platform open world game, “Original God” not only reaches the international first-class level in visual effects, but also skillfully integrates traditional Chinese cultural elements through the scenes, character designs and cultural symbols in the game, becoming a phenomenal product in the global market. Such a game has not only successfully exported Chinese culture, but also provided a new dimension of cultural experience for global players.

The performance of lightweight games should not be underestimated. Take Lilith’s Sword & Sworcery as an example, this game has successfully won the favor of the global market through its exquisite painting style and easy-to-play gameplay. It not only attracts different types of players with its simple and easy-to-play design, but also provides a rich and diverse cultural experience for players around the world by integrating elements of Western mythology and Eastern culture. In addition, Dot Interactive’s Endless Winter has also quickly made a name for itself in the international market through its innovative survival gameplay and highly immersive graphic performance, propelling Dot Interactive into the top three of the global handheld game revenue chart for the first time. This type of lightweight handheld game is also able to achieve global success through precise market positioning and innovative gameplay design.

Therefore, while we applaud 3A masterpieces such as “Black Myth: Wukong”, the bright performances of Chinese game companies in different game fields are also worthy of attention. From mobile games to indie games, Chinese game makers are gradually changing the global players’ impression of Chinese games through flexible development models, cultural output and precise marketing strategies. These games do not rely on huge investment to win, but rely on innovation and precise marketing strategies to steadily gain a foothold in the global market. It can be said that Chinese games continue to win the world’s attention in diversified forms at all levels.

The “Three Kingdoms” Culture Wins Global Players

Games going overseas is essentially a kind of culture going oveaseas. Through games, a highly interactive form of entertainment, Chinese history, literature and traditional culture can cross the boundaries of language and geography and enter the vision of global players. Games are not only entertainment products, but also a carrier for carrying and spreading culture. When Chinese games emerge in the global market, what they convey is not only the gameplay and technology of the game itself, but also the Chinese culture, values and stories embedded in them. As we have seen, “Black Myth: Wukong” has not only attracted global attention with its beautiful graphics and action design, but it has also demonstrated the unique charm of traditional Chinese culture to players around the world through the classic character of Wukong.

When we talk about games going overseas, it’s not just about the technical aspect; what really impresses global players is how to incorporate culture and stories into them. In this regard, Japanese game companies have done a pretty good job, not only do they know how to play with technology, but they are even better at adapting Chinese stories. For example, Everbright has adapted the story of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms into the hit True Three Kingdoms game series. Since the release of True Three Kingdoms in 2000, the game has sold millions of copies worldwide and garnered a lot of fans because of its “grass-cutting” style of fast-paced fighting gameplay. Players can play as Guan Yu, Zhao Yun and other famous generals of the Three Kingdoms in the game, and one person faces hundreds or thousands of enemies, wielding a sword to kill, with a great sense of excitement. Many people have become interested in the history of the Three Kingdoms as they play.

In order to further understand Chinese gamers’ perception of gaming culture, EqualOcean randomly interviewed some domestic gamers and asked them about the most impressive games related to Chinese culture, and most of the gamers answered the “True Three Kingdoms” series. They said that although these games are made by Japanese companies, they perfectly reproduce the important characters and battle scenes in the history of the Three Kingdoms. Playing these games, you can not only feel the charm of the story of the Three Kingdoms, but also experience the fun of hot-blooded battles. “I didn’t have much interest in the Three Kingdoms when I was a kid, and as a result, I started to become particularly enamored with these historical characters after playing True Three Kingdoms.” Many Western gamers were also exposed to the Three Kingdoms culture for the first time through these Japanese games, and even became “Three Kingdoms fans”. Everbright’s success also led to the creation of more Three Kingdoms-themed games, such as “Crouching Dragon: Fall of Heaven” and “Total War: Three Kingdoms”. These games not only have a large number of fans in China, but also attract many global players. As IGN’s famous game review wrote, “With Glorious’ strong Three Kingdoms history accumulation, players gain a sense of immediacy as if they were there, feeling the history sinking in along with the Three Kingdoms heroes.”

Source: IGN China

Culture Going Overseas, not Just by Games

Nowadays, games, animation, movies, short plays and other forms of entertainment content are closely linked, and the linkage between them can often help each other to achieve a wider range of cultural dissemination. The development of the game industry in Europe and the United States has proved that a successful movie IP can be converted with the game IP, and even boost each other. For example, the Star Wars series is not only a classic movie, but has also further expanded its influence through multiple game versions, and in turn, the success of the game has attracted more movie fans into its cultural circle.

Insight into player user experience and industry trends is key. In the gaming industry, for example, most players are now accustomed to games as a service (GaaS), such as the continuous update model of Proto-God and Honor of Kings. These types of games keep players engaged for a long period of time by constantly releasing new content and instant feedback, which not only allows the game to continue generating revenue, but also keeps the players always fresh and avoids the risk of a single-player game’s popularity rapidly declining after its release. The advantages of this model are obvious. For example, the success of Proto-God in the global market proves that through open worlds, beautiful graphics, and continuous content updates, service-based games can attract a large number of long-term players and even cross cultural and geographic constraints to enter overseas markets.

Telling a good Chinese story is like giving a gift; it’s unappealing to give it hard, but if it’s wrapped with great graphics and special effects, it can be a hit and generate interest, said Feng Ji.

The success of “Black Myth: Wukong” has proved that the key to culture going overseas lies in how to tell a good Chinese story, rather than simply instilling culture in players. Culture going overseas also doesn’t just rely on a hit game; cross-border cooperation of movies, animation and games can amplify each other’s influence. In order for Chinese culture and Chinese games to be recognized globally, it is necessary to break the stereotypical way of thinking. By focusing on user experience, continuous innovation, and utilizing modern development and operation models, we can truly attract the attention of global players. As Feng Ji said, “A game is a product that allows players from all over the world to exchange experiences and share happiness.” This open and tolerant attitude towards the market and players is an important reason for the success of this game, and is also the key to China’s game culture going global in the future.