Interview: Chinese-made video game Black Myth: Wukong lives up to high expectations, says Spanish expert

BARCELONA, Spain, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese-made video game Black Myth: Wukong, which was released in August, is living up to the high expectations created by the first trailer for the action role-playing game that came out in 2020, a leading Spanish video games expert told Xinhua in an interview on Friday.

"The different video games media and the community of video games fans have been eager to see for themselves what the game would be like and, after that first trailer we saw around 2020, whether the game would live up to the expectations, which it has done," said Albert Garcia, who covers video games for a number of major media outlets.

"It's a very competent game and although the studio that developed it, Game Science, is a studio that did not have much experience with combat-style video games, both visually and how it plays show it's a very well-made game and that's why it's been so successful," added the video games journalist, who also teaches a degree course on the history of video games at the University of Barcelona's College of New Technologies.

Considered the first Chinese-developed "Triple-A" video game title, Black Myth: Wukong was an instant success, topping the "most-played games" list on the Steam gaming platform, just an hour after its debut.

The game's success is reflected in its sales, with over 10 million copies sold across all platforms in the first three days after its release, although Garcia pointed out on Friday that sales had climbed to 18 million "and will surely continue to rise" and that "25 percent of these sales are outside the country of origin, which is a very significant figure."

The expert suggests that one reason why the game is so popular outside China is that it is a departure from many action role-playing games that "often repeat themselves, with the same aesthetics, the same settings, the same scenarios."

For Garcia, "to suddenly come across a video game with these Chinese mythological characters that we don't know I think makes it attractive and this exotic aspect from our point of view makes it stand out."

Black Myth: Wukong draws inspiration from the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West, which follows the adventures of a monk and his three disciples, with a particular focus on Sun Wukong, the legendary Monkey King known for his supernatural powers and mischievous nature.

However, what also makes Black Myth: Wukong unusual, argues the games expert, is that it bucks the trend of Triple-A games generally being produced by the same few large studios.

"This video game from this company that wasn't on our radar is a surprise and it shows that it doesn't have to be the typical big companies that are always the same ones but that a new company can appear that really surprises you with a well-worked proposal," he said.

"The success this game has had, because the sales have been very strong, is leading many analysts in the video game industry to predict that very likely in the future there will be more companies from China producing video games with big budgets and a big technical outlay like this one," added Garcia.

The expert also believes that the success of Black Myth: Wukong "has opened up an interesting question," and he argues that it reveals how the Chinese video game industry is developing to include "not just free-to-play mobile games but also premium video games."

Meanwhile, China is the largest gaming market in the world and Garcia suggests that "thanks to this video game, studios from all over the world, not only in China, will no doubt be encouraged to make video games that can appeal to the huge audience in the Chinese market."