New Chinese-developed AAA game 'Black Myth: Wukong' a global hit

(ECNS) -- "Black Myth: Wukong," the first AAA game developed by Chinese company Game Science, was officially released globally on Tuesday, according to Securities Times.

The game is available on multiple platforms, including PS5, Steam, Epic Games Store, and WeGame.

On Steam, over 1 million players came online simultaneously on Tuesday morning. According to the platform, at 10:20 a.m., "Black Myth: Wukong" had registered 312,604 online players, ranking third on its online hot play list; at 10:35 a.m., the game surpassed "CS2" with 935,745 players, leading the list.

“Black Myth: Wukong” is an action role-playing game set against the backdrop of Chinese mythology. Its core content is inspired by the Chinese classic novel Journey to the West, offering players a dreamlike mythical world through its stunningly realistic visuals.

Before its official release, “Black Myth: Wukong” had been a hot topic. The game received an average score of 82 from 54 media outlets as of Monday, according to Metacritic, a global game review aggregator.

Feng Ji, founder of Game Science and the game’s producer, revealed that the development cost of each hour of gameplay exceeded 20 million yuan (about $ 2.74 million), with the entire development process spanning seven years.

“We utilized the globally leading Unreal Engine 5, enabling us to achieve movie-quality visuals in both static lighting and dynamic effects,” Feng stated.

The game integrates elements from both the novel and 1986 TV adaptation, featuring skills like Wukong drawing his Golden Cudgel (a magical weapon that can stretch and contract at will) from his ear, as well as classic scenes from the 1986 Journey to the West TV series. In addition to cultural references, all the game’s ancient architecture was meticulously recreated by the Game Science team after extensive on-site research across several provinces in China.

“Black Myth: Wukong” topped global pre-order charts, according to the latest weekly sales data from Valve’s Steam platform. The game dominated sales rankings in 12 regions, including the United States, Singapore, Thailand, Canada, Brazil, and Italy.