How China’s first AAA game Wukong Became One of the Fastest Selling Games in History
Just a moment...
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/20207166
850M$ revenue on 70M$ budget sounds a huge success.
What in the ChatGPT is this article? It's like someone from LinkedinLunatics paid an aspiring content writer to write a vapid hype piece but insisted that it be about 6x too long.
Here are some highlights (although it was hard to figure out which sections were the cringiest):
This new studio represented more than just a business venture; it was the manifestation of Feng's dream to create games that prioritized player experience over profit.
The team's dedication to authenticity was unparalleled. They immersed themselves in Chinese mythology, reading the classical novel "Journey to the West" over 100 times. They visited countless cultural sites, drawing inspiration from ancient architecture, art, and landscapes.
The impact of Black Myth: Wukong extended far beyond sales figures. It became a cultural phenomenon, bridging the gap between Chinese mythology and global audiences. The game's success inspired a new wave of developers to create games based on their own cultural mythologies and histories
Feng Ji: The Humble Visionary Despite the overwhelming success and adulation, Feng Ji remained characteristically humble. When asked about the game's achievements, he responded with a touch of philosophy: "When you are at the peak of confidence, you are also staring at the valley of foolishness. This statement encapsulated Feng's approach to game development and success. Rather than resting on his laurels, he immediately turned his attention to the future, focusing on expansion packs and maintaining the game's quality
Jesus christ tone it down.
Damn you aren't kidding! It's written weirdly past tense, too, for an article talking about a brand new game. "It became a cultural phenomenon".
Yeah, it's really strange. Talking about how it inspired a new generation of developers and stuff, like anyone had time to be inspired and start a game development career in the 3 weeks it's been out, lol.
It's really easy to pander to the Chinese audience when you're a Chinese developer telling the same one Chinese myth yet again.
I mean seriously, if you add up every game, show, or movie based on all the myths of Robin Hood, King Arthur, and every Grimm fairy tale combined You wouldn't have as many productions as there are Journey to the West adaptations, it's ridiculous. Hell even Disney went with something different when they made Mulan.
HoyoVerse games: "Am I a joke to you?"
love how commenters around here haven't wasted any time to downplay the success and zeitgeist surrounding this game.
Because the article completely ignores the source of the sales volume it keeps mentioning and is pretending the sale is some runaway success in the west instead of acknowledging the reality that it's doing moderate sales here.
Moderate sales is a good first effort, but ignoring the actual market altering affect it will have to pretend it's actually a giant outside of China completely undermines the article.
I'm not sure I'm understanding this correctly, the prerequisite for a video game to be a "runaway success" is to do well sales-wise in the west? Why is the source of sales that important when the article mainly praises and discusses the game's launch figures, behind-the-scenes, the studio's lore, etc.... like any other video game articles do? The author isn't suggesting the sales are doing well in the west, so what warrants discussion of the games' sales in the west in the first place?
The article's headline alone says it's "One of the Fastest Selling Games In History". If we take the revenue value in the article to be true ($852 million in revenue in 2 weeks), then it beats Elden Ring by around a $100 million, give or take, in the first 2-week period (I'm assuming each copy costed 59.99$, so 12 million copies roughly translates to $720 million in revenue, since actual figures were never revealed, I think).
The article also states that it sold 10 million units in the first week, oh wait actually, that's 10 million in 3 days, beating other games that took at least a month to reach a similar milestone.
By selling to China.
That doesn't take away from it or mean it isn't good, but that market is the difference between it and every other game.
I guess video game companies are learning now that you should make games that Chinese gamers will enjoy.
As the movie industry discovered, it's a dice roll in terms of pissing off the censors. Hard to invest millions when something as stupid as a map can get your game banned.
Pretty sure they figured that out more than a decade ago. Blizzard (RIP) certainly did.
That's what I'm scared of.
Catering to China's censorship has not been beneficial to other media.