Black Myth: Wukong Photo: VCG

Chinese videogame Black Myth: Wukong debuted on Tuesday and the number of online players peaked at 1.4 million. 

Shortly after its debut, stock prices of multiple game-related companies surged, as analysts attributed the success of Black Myth: Wukong to the growing competitiveness of China's game industry.

The stock price of Huayi Brothers Media Corporation rose 19.03 percent at close on Tuesday. The stock price of the company has, accumulatively, surged over 72.09 percent from August 14, 2024. 

Huayi Brothers recently disclosed that the company holds a 5.17-percent stake in Hero Games which is an early investor in Game Science, the developer of Black Myth: Wukong.

Zhejiang Publishing & Media Co, the publisher of the Black Myth: Wukong, reached its daily up limit of 10 precent on Tuesday with its stock price reaching 9.57 yuan per share. NASDAQ-style ChiNext bourse-listed CITIC Press Corporation rose 20.02 percent in share price, as it was reportedly to publish an art illustration of the online game. 

The success of Black Myth: Wukong, developed by a domestic studio and based on the 16-century Chinese novel Journey to the West, reflects that China's gaming industry is making marked progress and showing the capability to compete with global rivals, Liu Dingding, a veteran industry observer, told the Global Times on Tuesday.

As China's first AAA level game - characterized by high development cost, long production cycle and marked investment, Black Myth: Wukong represents a major breakthrough of the Chinese gaming industry, analysts say.

Feng Ji, founder of Game Science, said in an interview that the development cost per hour of player experience for Black Myth: Wukong is estimated to be between 15 to 20 million yuan, while the team predicts that the total game length will exceed 15 hours, while the actual development time is 1.5 times longer. 

According to the official sales data released by gaming platform Steam, Black Myth: Wukong topped the sales table in the Chinese market during the week starting from August 6, the day the presale kicked off, and has been among the top 100 for 10 consecutive weeks, ranking second in global sales, the Securities Times reported on Tuesday.

From June 8 to July 13, the sales volume of the game, reached 1.2 million units, and the revenue has reached nearly 400 million yuan with each standard version of the game at 268 yuan, demonstrating the game may already have broken even. 

Black Myth: Wukong has also partnered with brands in other sectors, including bike-sharing company DiDi Bike, home appliance brand Hisense, and coffee chain Luckin Coffee.

In an interview with the Global Times, Liu Mengfei, a game industry observer at Beijing Normal University, highlighted the signs of maturity in the gaming industry, adding that the Black Myth: Wukong exemplifies the growing maturity of China's gaming sector and integrated resource capabilities of Chinese producers.

"The development of any industry should take into account the completeness of its upstream and downstream chains, regulatory framework, and the support of talented producers," Liu Mengfei said on Tuesday.

Aside from game developers' technology advancement and the coordination of the industrial chain, governmental policy support may facilitate more high-quality games like Black Myth: Wukong, said Liu Dingding. 

In recent years, Chinese government has introduced a series of supportive policies to encourage innovation, protect intellectual property rights, and promote the internationalization of the gaming industry, Zhejiang Publishing & Media Co said. 

"The global success of Black Myth: Wukong could pave the way for Chinese gaming products to go to the global stage, and inspire more developers to undertake such creative endeavors," Liu Mengfei said.