How Black Myth: Wukong put China’s games industry under the microscope

Keza MacDonald
<span>Black Myth: Wukong: the summer’s biggest – and most controversial – hit.</span><span>Photograph: Game Science</span>
Black Myth: Wukong: the summer’s biggest – and most controversial – hit.Photograph: Game Science

A Chinese game called Black Myth: Wukong has been the biggest hit of the summer, selling 10m copies in just three days, according to its developer Game Science, with over 1 million people playing it every day on games marketplace Steam. China’s homegrown games industry is absolutely massive, but concentrated almost entirely on mobile phones: this is the country’s first successful blockbuster console and PC game, which makes it very interesting in itself. It’s also a massively successful single-player game arriving on the back of a few high-profile multiplayer flops, which suggests there is still more of a market for this kind of adventure than video game execs like to believe.

But Wukong has been grabbing headlines for other reasons, too. Back in November, IGN put together a report compiling crude, vulgar public comments from a number of Game Science staff, some of whom are very well-known in China’s games industry. IGN also spoke to several women who expressed their disappointment and despair over omnipresent sexism in games and in China more broadly. It is a very interesting and well-researched article that doesn’t so much point the finger at Game Science specifically as set it within the context of a bigger Chinese feminist struggle. But of course, it attracted the ire of an increasingly vocal swathe of “anti-woke” gamers that has found a gathering-place on YouTube and social media, some of whom accused IGN of trying to sabotage Black Myth: Wukong by making things up.

As a result, willingly or not, Black Myth: Wukong became a kind of talisman for the video game culture wars. This was not helped when, a few weeks ago, advance copies of the game were sent out to streamers with guidelines prohibiting the discussion of Covid, the Chinese games industry and “feminist propaganda”, alongside more usual prohibitions against fetishisation and offensive language. It is normal for advance copies of games sent to influencers (though not to press) to come with conditions, but “feminist propaganda” was definitely a new one.

These guidelines may have had more to do with China’s anti-censorship rules than with Game Science. Speaking out online about any of these topics can get people into serious trouble in the walled garden of the Chinese internet, and under Xi Jinping the government has enforced stricter traditional views of gender and sexuality, and shown less tolerance for feminist activism – as illustrated by the arrest of the Feminist Five, viewed as part of a wider anti-feminist crackdown by many women writing from within China. Regardless, Game Science has steadfastly refused to address any of this controversy at all, or distance itself from any of it. When the Guardian’s Tom Regan asked about it at a summer preview event, he was stonewalled.

There are so many layers to the story of Black Myth: Wukong’s success, which is why it’s so interesting. For 15 years you couldn’t even buy a video games console in China, as the government banned them over concerns for the health of the youth. Its games industry has historically been concentrated almost entirely on mobile and in internet cafes, which makes Black Myth: Wukong a harbinger of significant change. The enormous success of huge Chinese game companies such as Tencent, where Wukong’s developers used to work, is financing developers around the world now through investment; Wukong, by contrast, is an independent game.

Another layer: Wukong is based on Journey to the West, a cornerstone of global literature and a story with which every Chinese person is intimately familiar. As a result it has also been embraced by Chinese nationalists, and Inverse’s Shannon Liao suggested this week that such support may be propping up its success, too. (Liao was unimpressed with the game itself, which she considers mediocre; our critic Patricia Hernandez, meanwhile, gave it five stars.)

Whether you think it’s a great game or not, it’s certainly one of the most interesting stories in a year full of unusual breakout successes, from Helldivers 2 to Palworld. Where Helldivers revitalised a dull-feeling multiplayer shooter market and Palworld raised questions about the line between homage and rip-off, Wukong has shown what comes with the global scrutiny that suddenly-successful games inevitably receive.

What to play

There hasn’t been all that much from Sony’s first-party studios this year, but Astro Bot is out on Friday and it is the best platformer I have played in years. If you bought a PS5 then you’ll know this adorable little robot from Astro’s Playroom, a joyful (if brief) showcase of the PS5’s abilities and PlayStation’s long history. Astro Bot expands this to a full-sized game, in which Astro and his hundreds of little bot friends crash-land their spaceship and end up flung all over a small galaxy of planets that you explore on a DualSense controller-shaped spaceship. It’s absolutely bursting with ideas, and pushes the PS5 even further. Look out for the full review on Thursday.

Available on: PlayStation 5
Estimated playtime: 20+ hours

What to read

  • Remember what I just wrote about high-profile multiplayer flops? Well, Sony suddenly announced on Tuesday that it is pulling its new online team shooter, Concord. Released just two weeks ago to presumably very poor sales, Sony has even gone so far as to refund everyone who bought the game.

  • This month marks the 20th anniversary of 00s rapper brawler Def Jam: Fight for NY, a lunchtime competitive fixture in one of the newsrooms I worked in. Thomas Hobbs went in search of the people who made it to find out how on earth they brought it together, and why we’ve not had a remaster or a sequel.

  • Remedy, the studio behind cult hits Control and Alan Wake, has partnered with arthouse game publisher/film-maker Annapurna to co-produce Control 2 and bring its game universes to TV and film.

  • The New York Times recently published an obituary of Mabel Addis (£), who wrote an IBM edutainment title that was the first ever to have a story and characters: the Sumerian Game. This makes her the first female game designer, the NYT claims.

What to click

Question Block

Reader Adam asks:

“I regularly play games online with a friend and we’ve been looking for a new, story-led online co-op adventure for a while. We’re struggling to find something that fits our short Friday night sessions. Any suggestions? As a kicker, something that lets him be methodical and deliberate, and me impulsively create chaos he has to clean up, would be ideal.”

I’m going to assume you’ve either played or rejected the obvious all-time greats of story-driven two-player co-op, A Way Out, It Takes Two, Portal 2 and Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons – and also the Borderlands series, if you like shooters and adolescent humour. And I don’t think Baldur’s Gate 3, which I’ve heard is tremendous in co-op (just like its stablemate Divinity: Original Sin 2), will fit into your short gaming sessions. (In fact, I know it won’t, because I’ve tried to play it with my partner and we simply have not had time.)

So I have two other suggestions: Stardew Valley, which allows for surprising creativity and amusing diversions as you build up your farm; and Monster Hunter World, which does have a good overarching story, but will also let you take down an actual dragon in 30 minutes. Your friend can be a gunner and you can just run on in there with a giant sword and see what happens.

If you’ve got a question for Question Block – or anything else to say about the newsletter – hit reply or email us on pushingbuttons@theguardian.com.

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