Black Myth: Wukong and China’s Soft Power

On August 20, 2024, the highly anticipated game “Black Myth: Wukong” developed by China for four years was finally released, immediately causing a huge stir in the global game market.

The strong rise and rise to become a superpower has made China eager to develop soft power to enhance its national position, increase its influence globally, and compete with the influence of the United States. Possessing a rich cultural history and available resources, the country of a billion people has made great strides through cultural promotion activities in the entertainment industry and digital technology. Especially recently, the rise of the Game industry with quality products capable of conquering the world overnight.

“Black Myth: Wukong” conquered the world overnight – the elements that make up a blockbuster.

On August 20, 2024, the highly anticipated game “Black Myth: Wukong” developed by China for four years was finally released, immediately causing a huge stir in the global game market. The game not only won over the vast majority of players with its profound cultural background and exquisite visual design, but also caused widespread and heated discussions around the world. This phenomenon marked the rise of the Chinese game industry in the global game market and the international spread of traditional Chinese culture through digital entertainment.

Black Myth: is the perfect combination of culture and gaming. It is an independent action RPG developed by China Science Game Company based in Shenzhen (China’s Silicon Valley). The plot is based on Journey to the West, one of the “four great classics” of Chinese literature, and unfolds from the perspective of Wukong. The game not only stays true to the original story in terms of plot, but also incorporates classic elements from Journey to the West in its combat system and character setup. This combination of traditional culture with modern game design allows players to both have fun and experience the culture.

True to its name “Black Myth”, the important point for Black Myth: Wukong to become a gaming phenomenon is that it has attracted even non-gamers. Because it has an expanded storyline that brings everything to a more mystical perspective with many profound implications based on Zen and Buddhist teachings, but still sticks to the story of real disasters in the original.

What is more noteworthy is that in order to create a realistic and artistic game world, the art design team of “Black Myth: Wukong” visited scenic spots and historical sites across China and established the world’s first virtual library of ancient buildings of Chinese civilization. Many scenes in the game, such as the Jade Emperor Temple in Jincheng and the Ten Thousand Buddhas Temple in Xishan Province, have been restored.

With the professional, sincere and meticulous working style of the production team , “Black Myth: Wukong” is not only a game but also a vivid performance of Chinese culture.

Success came early even before the launch.

Even before the official launch of Black Myth: Wukong, the pre-sale revenue of the game had exceeded 400 million yuan, an extremely rare figure in the world. On the day of its launch, the game quickly occupied the hot search list on major social platforms. Especially in China, the hashtag “Black Myth Wukong” once topped the hot search list, which shows its popularity. In the international market, “Black Myth: Wukong” also performed well. It became the most wanted game on Steam since May 2024 [1]. In early August, the game topped the Steam best-selling chart [2]. On the day of its launch, the number of concurrent online players worldwide on the Steam platform exceeded 2.4 million . This figure not only attracted the wide attention of foreign players, but also surprised many people in the industry. In the past, it was rare for a single-player game to have more than 1 million people online at the same time, but “Black Myth: Wukong” easily broke this record, demonstrating its global appeal. Global recognition of the game quality before the launch of “Black Myth: Wukong”, 54 famous foreign media including IGN and GameSpot gave an average score of 82 points (100 points ). The game’s combat system, graphics and cutscenes have been highly praised by players and the media. After experiencing the game, many foreign players were not only attracted by the beautiful graphics and compact plot, but also developed a deep interest in traditional Chinese culture. This global recognition is not only an affirmation of the game science team’s efforts over the years, but also a sign that the internationalization of China’s game industry is accelerating. “Black Legend: Wukong” is China’s first AAA game, which has successfully broken the inherent prejudice of the international game market towards domestic games and demonstrated China’s strong strength in the field of game development.

The Rise of Soft Power Through China’s Gaming Industry.

From using, exploiting culture to exporting culture, the success of “Black Myth: Wukong” is not only a commercial victory, but also an important dissemination of Chinese culture on a global scale. Through this game, many foreign players have had their first in-depth contact with the Chinese classic literature “Journey to the West” and experienced the image of Sun Wukong, a legendary figure in Chinese culture in the game. Interestingly, in order to better understand the story and characters in the game, many foreign players have naturally begun to enthusiastically search for and read “Journey to the West”. Some players even switched to watching the 1986 TV series “Journey to the West”.

This phenomenon shows that “Black Myth: Wukong” is not only a game, but also a bridge connecting Chinese culture and the world. With the popularity of the game, more and more foreign players have begun to pay attention to Chinese culture. This is undoubtedly an important step for Chinese culture to go global. “Black Myth: Wukong” has successfully spread Chinese cultural elements to all corners of the world through a fun game experience, changing the understanding of many foreigners about traditional Chinese culture. This form of cultural export is not only unique and effective as a kind of soft power, but also demonstrates the appeal of Chinese culture in the new era.

The rise and challenge of Chinese games.

AAA blockbusters have long been considered a commercial risk in China’s video game market. The country only has a large presence in the mobile gaming sector.

Even the makers of Black Myth: Wukong have experienced failure in producing online role-playing games. The creators of Black Myth: Wukong are Feng Ji and Yang Qi, two former employees of the Chinese digital technology giant Tencent.

Especially around 2015, with the strong explosion of the smartphone gaming industry, the dream of creating a “ blockbuster ” game on PC and Console became even more unrealistic. Yang Qi himself later shared that he chose to leave Tencent because he felt that the field he had focused on was declining.

Not accepting that, in 2018 they returned to their original mission of creating a high-quality single-player game on PC. From here Black Myth: Wukong was conceived with a huge budget of 50 million USD with the backing of the company Game Science[ 3]

And the overwhelming success of Black Myth: Wukong has now brought China to the forefront of the online entertainment market.

In recent years, the Chinese government has spent billions of dollars to develop the film and video game industry with a strong Chinese cultural identity to reach out to the world to increase the soft power of this country. Especially with the young, who are early adopters, adapt quickly to the 4.0 era and are the main target of influence.

China has become the venue for the largest gaming tournaments in the world, with a large and elaborate scale , attracting the attention of tens of millions of gamers worldwide. China’s number one gaming channel, Betta TV, is also estimated to have a market value of up to 1 billion USD with a monthly audience of 450 million [4]

The success of “Black Myth: Wukong” has brought great confidence to the Chinese gaming industry.

However, this also means that the Chinese game industry will face more challenges. As the international market pays more attention to Chinese games, competition will become fiercer in the future. How to maintain high-quality game production, how to promote Chinese culture on a global scale, and how to meet the market needs of different countries and regions are all issues that the Chinese game industry needs to think about in the future. At the same time, the success of “Black Myth: Wukong” has also set a new benchmark for other domestic games. More and more Chinese game developers have taken this as their goal and strived to improve the quality and cultural significance of their games. The global popularity of “Black Myth: Wukong” marks the rise of the Chinese game industry and the successful production of cultural products through digital entertainment. This phenomenon is not only a victory for the Chinese gaming industry, but also an important step for Chinese culture to go global.

References:

[1] Game Rant, Shirey, J. Brodie (2024), Black Myth: Wukong Has Gone Gold, https://gamerant.com/black-myth-wukong-gone-gold/

[2] PlayStation Universe, Carcasole, David (2024), Black Myth: Wukong’s Final Trailer Stuns Ahead Of Release While It Shoots Up Towards The Top Of The Sales List On Steam And PS, https://www.psu.com/news/black-myth-wukongs-final-gameplay-ps5-trailer-release-shoots-towards-top-of-the-sales-charts/

[3] Bao Moi, Anh Tuan, (August 28, 2024) The first failure of the creator of Black Myth: Wukong https://baomoi.com/that-bai-dau-tay-cua-nguoi-lam-ra-black-myth-wukong-c50016026.epi

[4] Mai Anh (2017), Electronic games – China’s ‘soft’ power, Vnexpress, https://vnexpress.net/tro-choi-dien-tu-quyen-luc-mem-cua-trung-quoc-3591686.html

Lai Thi Thao
Lai Thi Thao
I am Bachelor of Law and a public policy and diplomacy research.