The video game “Black Myth: Wukong” is a cultural “magic weapon,” a soft power export that’s raising China’s profile across the world. It sold 10 million copies within just three days of its launch last August — one of the fastest debuts in gaming history. It’s being called China’s K-Pop moment.
“Black Myth: Wukong” is part of an exploding trend as film, TV and gaming converge. Independent Chinese studio Game Science’s strategy is taking things to a whole new level.
“Gaming is a very large business that, in some ways, is larger than cinema and streaming,” Hanish Patel, managing director and U.S. gaming lead at Deloitte Consulting, told Variety.
“People only have so many hours of entertainment time per day. Streamers, games, social platforms, podcasts and more are all competing for a share of those hours. Franchises and fandoms increasingly operate across these media and can offer a connective tissue within a very fragmented media landscape,” he said.
The global gaming industry experienced a reset after the COVID-19 pandemic, as more people started leaving their homes in 2023. Estimates for 2024 are around $180 billion, which is projected to reach around $212 billion by 2027.
Between 2023 and 2024, the share of theatrical box office revenues from video game-based movies rose by about a quarter. There are games-based titles in the pipeline this year that could massively boost revenues.
Movie companies in China are keen on this burgeoning market. Shingle Huayi Brothers, which was an early investor in Game Science, saw its stock rise nearly 20% after “the game “Black Myth” was released. The stock of the game’s publisher, Zhejiang Publishing & Media, also rose sharply.
But Patel reckons movie and TV studios also need to be aware of potential pitfalls.
“Recent history is littered with failed efforts of studios trying to make their own video games. A streamer could spend $300 million to produce and market a game, which is inherently a risky endeavor. Thoughtful partnerships are key, especially given the fandoms and expectations around cherished franchises,” said Patel.
Streamers should think of these franchises as more than just a single film or series, and look to curate these stories and characters in ways that give them life beyond any single offering or medium. The stories are important, but they also must deliver strong return on investment given how much it costs to produce them, said Patel.
“Content and storytelling are also becoming more global, especially as translation and dubbing gets stronger and more seamless with generative AI. So there’s much more fluidity of content across global markets and this is likely only going to become a larger part of media and entertainment,” Patel said.
Big box office hits are also subject to other trends and appear to be increasingly driven by successful social campaigns and a degree of engineered hype. This means that marketing budgets have also gone up with production budgets.
Based on the classical Chinese text “Journey to the West,” “Black Myth: Wukong” is China’s first 3A game, and it is making headlines for its high cost, quality and scale. Its painstaking depiction of Chinese mythology, history and architecture, combined with groundbreaking 4K ray-traced visuals, has enthralled players worldwide. It has sold 25 millions copies globally as of January of this year.
Liu Mengfei, a game industry observer Beijing Normal University, said “Black Myth: Wukong” was a sign of growing maturity and better integration of resources in the industry.
“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 told the Global Times.
Patel believes that it’s arguably much harder for film and TV franchises to expand into gaming than for games to generate movies and TV.
“Either way, it’s important to develop strong partnerships and pay close attention to the fandoms around these franchises,” he said.
