China’s Hero Games shares what’s next for its hit Black Myth: Wukong

BEIJING – China’s first attempt at a top video game has broken world records, bolstering the industry’s global ambitions just years after Beijing’s crackdown on gaming.

Black Myth: Wukong, an action game set in mythological China, sold more than 10 million units three days after its release on August 20. Ten days later, the title was still #2 in the US and #1 globally. according to the video game platform Steam, where it sells for around $60 or more.

“I think the next triple-A game is probably very close because Black Myth: Wukong showed everyone that a AAA game made in China can achieve such high global sales,” said Dino Ying, president of Hero Games, who published in collaboration. the game and was an early investor in its developer Game Science. That’s according to a CNBC translation of his Mandarin remarks in an exclusive interview Thursday.

Ying said he knew of at least one such game in development, in which his business partner at Hero Games had invested. But he declined to share a time frame.

As for how well Black Myth: Wukong did, Ying only said that sales have since grown “much more” than the 10 million unit figure, although he indicated that it hasn’t doubled yet.

He said that in the future, the company’s game releases will have a global strategy from the start. Foreign AAA game developers are also expected to realize how big the Chinese market is and adapt more features for Chinese players.

AAA games generally refer to titles with high graphic quality and significant marketing. This means that such video games tend to come from companies such as Nintendo, Ubisoft and Electronic arts.

“China is a big country. We’re talking about 1 million competing players,” said Ivan Su, senior equity analyst at Morningstar. “China has 600 million gamers.”

He said the reason why China has not previously developed its own AAA game, which is usually played on PCs and consoles, is the years-long production time. “It’s much more cost-effective if you’re making mobile games,” Su said.

When Hero Games first invested in Game Science, Apple CEO Tim Cook visited in 2017 and was so impressed with the first game, Art of War: Red Tides, that he gave it the front page of the iOS app store in 178 countries, Ying said.

But this was not a commercial success.

Hero Games had already spent three years investing 60 million yuan (about $8.5 million today) in two failed projects from Game Science when the developer approached Ying and his team in August 2020 about Black Myth: Wukong, a he said.

“We’re very lucky, we didn’t give up on Game Science before we made it,” Ying said, noting that his business partner Daniel Wu, now CEO of Hero Games, first discovered the startup.

“We are not saying to blindly wait for all the people,” he said. “When you see that kind of talent, you have to be confident that that talent has been underappreciated. You may not have found the correct direction. (So ​​you just have to help him find it.”

Two days before Game Science planned to release a promotional video for Black Myth: Wukong, the company showed it to Ying and asked his team for at least 100 million yuan more, he said. If not, he said the startup plans to ask Bilibilia major gaming and video streaming platform in China.

After watching the video, Ying said he told his team that “I really don’t want to miss this opportunity because this is the best game I’ve seen in my life.”

Tencent then bought a 5 percent stake but said it would not interfere with Game Science’s plans, Ying said. “Because this was a AAA game, in the normal process of a big business, there was no way to get it approved.”

Hero Games’ initial investment in Game Science was for a 20% stake.

Beijing only began approving games in the past two years, after suspending new titles and limiting how many hours minors could play in 2021.

Black myth: Wukong received Chinese government approval in February. No part of the game had to be changed to make it work, Ying said.

“Personally, I think that in the past two years, the regulation is more and more respectful of the game industry and is beneficial to its development,” Ying said, noting that a year or two ago, “there was a misunderstanding.”

In the first half of this year, China’s domestic game sales reached 147.27 billion yuan, said Ashley Dudarenok, founder of Chinese digital consultancy ChoZan, citing industry figures.

But revenue from console games accounted for just 0.5 percent of that, she said.

Ying pointed out that many people in China bought PlayStations or upgraded their graphics cards after the release of Black Myth: Wukong, similar to how many people first bought the Nintendo Switch because of Zelda.

As for the global market, Dudarenok said overseas sales of games developed in China will rise to $16.4 billion in 2023, up from $11.6 billion in 2019.

“Chinese games often incorporate rich cultural elements that increasingly appeal to a global audience,” she said. “This unique cultural flavor sets them apart from games developed in other regions”

Ying said he expects China to have at least another five to 10 stories that have been passed down over the past millennia that can be turned into games.

“If I create a new thing, I don’t know if people will like it. But something that has lasted for 1,000 years, people will definitely like it,” Ying said. “We don’t know why it was kept for so many years. But we just have to respect the (original) artisans.”

He said Game Science sent teams and equipment to ancient temples in China to scan and reproduce the designs, adding to the game’s immersive feel.

In the niche market of indie games, Chinese companies are also growing.

Shanghai-based Cotton Game, which has a staff of 70, won the 2024 Best Indie Game Development Team Award from France-backed organization Game Connection and ChinaJoy, which organizes a major annual conference of games in China.

“It depends on how capable we are, but (we hope to) use games as a way to share art, philosophy and thoughtful content,” the company’s CEO, who goes by the English name Cotton Guo, said in Mandarin translated by CNBC.

Cotton Game’s Sunset Hills – which took five years to draw by hand – also won Game of the Year and Best Indie Game. The $20 game launched on August 21st on Steam after raising $13,000 on Kickstarter.

The game follows an anthropomorphic dog through a European-like village accompanied by nature sounds and music. Players solve puzzles along the way.

“Everyone is quite tired. In today’s society, the speed of life is very fast,” said Robin Luo, manager of Sunset Games. His main character is based on his own dog. “So my hope when I made Sunset Hills was that everyone who plays the game could (find it) refreshing.”