China presses play

"Black Myth: Wukong" is a Chinese video-game hit — but mostly in China. It's reminiscent of the region's own film industry.

“Black Myth: Wukong” (Game Science)

The Gist

• “Black Myth: Wukong” — China’s first big-budget global game release — is a hit, selling 10 million copies in three days.

• But the vast majority of its success is happening in its home country; 88% of Steam activity after its release was coming from China, according to one agency.

• “Wukong” reflects China’s potential push to strengthen its own game industry, despite strict regulations in the country, as it did its film market.

It’s been a strange, and troubled, year for the video-game industry. Growth is slowing and layoffs have been rampant. Live-service games like “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” and now “Concord” have flopped. Xbox is facing continued criticism over its strategy and questions over its future. The most recent game-based movie, “Borderlands,” face-planted at the box office with $30 million worldwide (it’s now on VOD). And game actors in the US are on strike over AI concerns, a year after film and TV actors did the same.

But, it hasn’t been all bad. Amazon’s “Fallout” series, based on the game franchise, was a massive success. There have also been game hits themselves, including “Helldivers II,” “College Football 25,” and, most recently, “Black Myth: Wukong.”

That last part is what I want to spend most of this newsletter on. “Black Myth: Wukong” has broken multiple Steam records, becoming the most-played single-player game on the platform. It sold 10 million copies in its first three days; for comparison, the biggest game of 2023, “Hogwarts Legacy,” sold 12 million copies in its first two weeks.

It’s also China’s first big-budget global game release.

Developed and published by Chinese company Game Science, “Black Myth” is inspired by the classic Chinese novel “Journey to the West.” But while it has become a sensation, it has also sparked controversy. In November, IGN reported on social-media posts from Game Science developers that included graphic sexual remarks and misogynistic language. After the game’s release, a list of demands from Game Science to influencers who were granted early access was leaked online, including to avoid: “feminist propaganda” or other content that “instigates negative discourse;” trigger words such as “quarantine” or “isolation” or “Covid-19”; and “content related to China’s game industry policies, opinions, news, etc.”

The game has also suffered from reported technical problems, from crashes to performance issues to wonky audio translation.

But these controversies and issues aren’t likely to slow the game down. “Black Myth” might be China’s first global blockbuster but the vast majority of its success is thanks to its home region, and Chinese gamers seem unfazed, if the initial response is any indication. According to agency GameDiscoverCo, 88% of the game’s Steam activity after its release was coming from China, and 2 million of the game’s 3 million PS5 players are in China.

When I reported on the entertainment industry at Business Insider, I wrote a lot about the changing movie business in China. Pre-pandemic, the country’s box office could make or break American big-budget movies, and Chinese audiences flocked to theaters for the likes of Marvel and Fast and Furious. It’s been a different story over the last few years, though: Six of China’s top 10 highest-grossing movies of all time have been released post-pandemic, and China’s box office even surpassed the US’ for a time.

Chinese moviegoers’ interests are changing, but the government has also introduced mandates intended to bulk up its local film business; in 2021, film authorities released a five-year plan that included producing more local films and increasing the number of screens in the country. It’s been detrimental to most of the Hollywood films actually released there, and over 80% of China’s box office is now from locally produced movies, according to Bloomberg.

With that in mind, I find the success of “Black Myth” fascinating. Despite strict regulations on gaming in the country, including limiting young people’s playing time, could China be looking to strengthen its video-game power in a similar way it did for its movie industry? Game analytics firm Newzoo projects games sales in the US to reach $47 billion this year, and $45 billion in China.

After all, even given the regulations, the country’s game authorities have still been approving a steady amount of both foreign and domestic games. Remember: China was eager to let Hollywood movies in until it figured out its own movie industry and didn’t need them anymore (there’s a great book about it).

Amid a boom for game-based movies and shows (“Borderlands” notwithstanding), a game with as much buzz around it as “Black Myth” would normally have Hollywood studios frothing at the mouth. But in the event it ever does get an adaptation, as entertainment lawyer and LinkedIn celebrity Simon Pulman says, that would “be made by China for China.”

The “Chinese market is big enough to be self-sustaining, and over the past decade it has largely pivoted to stories made for the Chinese, by the Chinese,” Pullman wrote. “This would seem to be another.” He also thinks a movie adaptation could easily make a billion dollars.

That wouldn’t be out of the question. China’s highest-grossing movie ever, 2021’s “Battle at Lake Changjin,” earned over $902 million worldwide, with $899 million of that coming from its home country. A “Black Myth” movie would have the benefit of popular IP behind it. It seems fair to say that China’s film industry would want to capitalize on that.

But based on “Black Myth” and China’s biggest movies, its entertainment sector has yet to strike the kind of global cultural appeal that the likes of Japan and South Korea have — and has a long, long way to go if it wants to.

“Alien: Romulus” (20th Century Studios)

Speaking of China’s box office…

There have been exceptions to Hollywood’s poor post-pandemic turnout in the region, including most recently “Alien: Romulus.”

The movie has earned over $80 million in China, with estimates that it could hit about $115 million when all’s said and done. It’s unexpected given that the “Alien” franchise doesn’t have a large footprint in the country; only the recent prequels “Prometheus” and “Alien: Covenant” have played in China, and they earned a combined $80 million. But perhaps they walked so “Romulus” could run, not to mention a big part of the “Romulus” plot revolves around an aspect of the prequel films. And according to Variety, the movie is playing completely uncensored, a rare feat for a Hollywood release in China, which could be attracting audiences there.

One movie that isn’t so much running in the country as it is limping is “Deadpool and Wolverine.” While the Marvel movie has grossed over $1.2 billion worldwide, only around $60 million of that has been from China.

“Avengers: Endgame” is still China’s highest-grossing Hollywood release, but post-pandemic MCU movies were shut out until 2023, due to a number of reported political and cultural concerns Chinese film authorities had. And the releases since then haven’t exactly done gangbusters business. The days of the franchises’ dominance in China are gone.

Beyond the Traverse

🎬 This New York Times piece asks why movie trailers are so bad these days.

🔦 The “Alan Wake” video-game universe is being expanded into a movie and TV universe.

⚽️ Somehow, “Ted Lasso” returned. The Apple series is close to a season four renewal.

🎟️ While Apple falls back on its biggest TV success, it’s rethinking its movie strategy after a string of box-office flops.